Stacy Reid

I never want to read about a wedding on Christmas ever again.

I am so so so glad I am FINALLY done with this. The relief! While I actually enjoyed more of the stories than I expected, this went downhill when I read the whole second half over the last week.


THINGS I LEARNED FROM THIS ANTHOLOGY (in categories cause I'm just that sick of everything)
Plot & character things
- All men speak in a rich baritone
- A woman's hair is always long and usually curly
- Every blonde woman is an angel (twice the show more angel if her hair is also blonde & curly)
- Scotsmen are always rugged and we'd forget they're Scottish if they didn't call the heroine "lassie" in at least every second sentence
- Epilogues only exist to show us that the heroine is pregnant
- Isn't it funny to call this heroine in Christmas romance anthology Holly? So original!

Sex things
- "It's called a cock."
- There's always oral sex before the virgin is deflowered (or "claimed", as most stories put it. By his rod.)
- "What was that?!" - "It's called an orgasm."

Actual serious criticism
- People of color didn't exist in 19th century England, not even as servants (except for that one story)
- Neither did queer people
- Beta readers for spelling and grammar? We don't need them cause we're just THAT good. 99% of these mistakes were things spellcheck should've picked up on, what are you even doing?!
- Apparently spanking is so sexy that there's no need to distinguish it from abuse. Hard disagree.


INDIVIDUAL RATINGS (to be taken with a grain of salt, especially those at the beginning - when I wasn't sick of the premise yet - and those at the end, when I was too sick of the premise. I've also got an update with a mini review after every single story for you to enjoy...)
Hell's Wedding Bells - 4 stars
Two Lady Scoundrels and a Duke - 1 star
A Wicked Wedding - 5 stars
The Lady's Guide to Mistletoe and Mayhem - 1 star
The Russian Betrothal - 4 stars
Beautifully Reckless - 2 stars
The Mistletoe Mistress - 3 stars
Deeds Not Words - 2 stars
Holly and the Beast - 3 stars
The Winter Bride - 3 stars
Mistletoe Kisses - 3 stars
The Christmas Countess - 2 stars
Mischief and Mistletoe - 2 stars
Kidnapped With the Knight - 1 star
The Russian Prince's Bride - 4 stars
Christmas Charity - 3 stars
The Angel of an Astronomer - 4 stars
Wassail, Wagers and Weddings - 3 stars
Highland Yule - 1 star
Marrying Miss Bright - 3 stars
Kiss Me, Macrae - 3 stars
Holly and Old Lace - 1 star
Home for Christmas - 2 stars
A Spinster at the Highland Court - 2 stars
The Holiday Hussy - 1 star
December Debauchery - 3 stars
Wedded in Winter - 2 stars show less

The first maybe third of this was sweet and very engaging. I really liked their unorthodox friendship and it felt like a good foundation. During the next third-ish though, the hero's interactions with the heroine felt a bit more like 'grooming' which is not at all sexy. He also became more unfair. He has a dim view of women in general because one burned him, (which is also very not sexy!), and he's quick to put the heroine in that category whenever she displeases him. Sometimes he would show more spring an idea on her, and even just her hesitation to consider it would be enough for him to be like 'gotcha!' and sneer(!) at her or something! It was very off putting. And then in the last third he does some other stuff that really made me question if he could have ever genuinely cared about her at all and still do those things. He finally sees some sense by the end of course, but it was too little, too late to rescue my opinion of him. They're both foolish at times, but he ended up being a real let-down for me. I rolled my eyes everytime he decided anew that she wouldn't be able to hack life with him. 'Will she invite a social outcast to tea? No? Then she couldn't possibly live with scandal as his wife!' Even though, *of course* she would be in much more jeopardy as an unmarried woman than she would as a married one with a title! It's her parents' house, scandal could ruin her chance to ever marry, her parents could legally send her away to a nunnery or something. It's not AT ALL the same. Sometimes she would just ask a question trying to understand and he would act disgusted that she didn't already know or something. Honestly, all sorts of loser attributes. It's always disappointing when a hero doesn't live up to his potential. He gets like 1.5 stars, maybe, but the book as a whole still manages 3. This series is really just not my cup of tea I guess. Every hero so far has had some huge faulty assumption about life that they cling to past all reason and are apparently willing to sacrifice any chance at happiness over. And every heroine is a bit naive and immature. The writing saves the books from falling below 3s. I've enjoyed all the other books I've read by this author much more though! show less

It took me a while to get into this book, but once I did I stayed up all night to complete it. The main reasons for that belong to our two leads - Phoebe and Hugh. Firstly, one of the leads had a disability that I am seeing for the first time in a HisRom that isn't temporary or magically fixed. Secondly, both of them were just so soft. LOL. I loved Phoebe's character so much. She was bold and not just content to do nothing given the hard lessons she had to learn. It also did not make her show more cynical. Hugh tried to come off as all cold and standoffish but I totally loved (thanks Stacy) that he never crossed the line into being a jerk. They were both just really good people and their chemistry was so sweet.

On the cons side there were some issues with continuity that sometimes took me out of the scene. I hope they get fixed before the book gets published.

Overall, this was a very sweet book. It's 4th in a series and although I have read all the others (How to Marry a Marquess is a huge fav), this is a total stand-alone.

*Thanks NetGalley and Entangled for the ARC* show less

I f**king loved this.
I am not into polyamory at all but I wouldn't hesitate to be in a throuple with Maryann and Nicholas - two stellar characters.
The sex scenes were great but it was all the flirtation and foreplay that was amazing (that hand on the mouth scene...)
This is definitely going to be one of those books I pull out when I want a shot of seratonin.

book channel: https://www.youtube.com/@starkissedstories