The Magical Christmas Cat (4-in-1)

Whoever would've guessed I'd enjoy a book entitled The Magical Christmas Cat? But it did prove enjoyable---especially for an anthology I picked up only in order to read the Lora Leigh selection. I didn't get much out of Erin McCarthy's "Christmas Bree," as weird witch types with prejudices against and abnormal chemistry with normal lawyer types don't do much for me, but Linda Winstead Jones' "Sweet Dreams" was surprisingly spooky for a Christmas story, and Nalini Singh's sweet, heartwarming "Stroke of Enticement" sketched a world interesting enough that I just might pick up another one of her books. Overall, definitely worth the read.

Four stories with a paranormal or magickal feline theme, all scorchingly hot, AND tied into Christmas? This is being naughty in a VERY nice way.

Stroke of Enticement - Nalini Singh. In this world, there are human, Changelings (shifters), and Psy (psychics). Angelica/Annie is a human teacher, who was endured a terrible accident as a child, which left her with a slight limp on the outside, and forever changed on the inside. Zach is a sexy leopard Changeling who KNOWS, when meeting his nephew's teacher, that Annie is destined to be his mate. But their pairing will only work if she can willingly accept it.


Christmas Bree - Erin McCarthy. Bree is a goth witch, who's been having ridiculously erotic dreams about Ian Carrington, an uptight lawyer show more she met a year ago, who doesn't even live in the same town. Now he's back, ringing her doorbell, and HE's been having the same kinds of dreams, about her. Is it the bespelled mistletoe that Bree's cat, Akasha, can't stop carrying around as his favorite toy?


Sweet Dreams - Linda Winstead Jones. A demon cat, bound to the form of a jade statuette, needs to claim one final life/soul, to become permanently embodied and wreak havoc on the world. Parapsychology professor Zane is a secret demon warrior Loved the way the nine lives legend and the "cats suck the breath" myth were entwined in the story. Loved the way Ruby learned to listen to the previous demon victims, and to figure out a way to use ice cream and cake to defend herself.


Christmas Heat by Lora Leigh. She almost lost me at "Nearing fifty, but spry as a woman fifteen years younger" in describing a secondary character. Spry? SPRY? Spry is what you use to describe Santa Claus, or a woman nearing eighty, not fifty.

But she won me back with the heat in the relationship between Noble, a "breed" (laboratory hybrid containing the DNA of large predators, in his case, a jaguar, and humans), and Haley, a spunky librarian. The scorching, well-written scenes between Noble and Haley are amazing, AND it turns out breeds love chocolate chip cookies.


All four are great stories with their own unique take on the theme. If you don't have a Christmas fire to curl up next to, these stories bring enough heat you'll feel as though you have one. show less

Haley McQuire is a librarian in the small town near Sanctuary, the Feline Breed compound. When she unintentionally overhears a conversation in Sanctuary’s library that is not meant for her ears, this puts her life in danger.
Noble Chavin is a Breed Enforcer who has known deep down for over a year now that Haley is his mate but he chooses not to act on it because he can't bear to take her right to free choice from her. After an attack on Haley's life things change though and he takes on the responsibility of protecting her. Secluded in Haley's mountain home they wait for an assassin who is sure to come after Haley but while waiting the Breed mating heat can't be ignored despite both their efforts to do just that.

I enjoy anthologies because ithey give me an opportunity to try new authors who have a simiar style to an author that I already enjoy; however, I find the format challenging because these shorter stories often lack the character development that I enjoy. The Magical Christmas Cat definitely had a mix of quality but the great stories were very well done.
I primarily bought this book for Lora Leigh's new breed story "Christmas Heat". Although some of the storyline was similar to past breed books (human in danger falls for breed, shocked by mating heat, HEA), these are so well written that they keep my interest. Haley and Noble were interesting characters, the story furthered the whole breed plot and it was very steamy! The only complaint show more I have is that if you have not read Mercury's War (which came out two weeks prior to this), there is a small spoiler that wraps up the intrigue in that book. I haven't read Mercury's War and although I now have some knowledge about "who did it", I don't think it will hurt my enjoyment of the book.
Although I love Lora Leigh, my favorite story was Nalini Singh's "Stroke of Enchantment". I have heard of the author but have never read any of her books; this story was part of her Psy-Changeling series. Even though I wasn't at all familiar with the background of the creatures in the book, Singh's storytelling quickly brings you up to speed on the attributes of her creations and the challenges they face. I was intrigued by the techology and the time in which these characters live. Zach was a sexy and intriguing hero and Anna was a unique heroine who I wanted ot learn more about. I will definitel ybe reading more of Singh's books.
Unfortunately, the other two stories were not as strong. The character's in Erin McCarthy's "Christmas Bree" were flat and there was little character development. This story also seemed like it was reworked to fit into the "Christmas cat" and paranormal formula for the book. Linda Winstead Jones' "Sweet Dreams" epitomizes why I am often disappointed with short stories. Her characters descriptions and backgrounds were very intriguing but their actions were often outside the character development and the action and plot in the story was unbelievable and somewhat silly.
However, despite these shortcomings, Leigh and Singh's stories are strong enough to make this a buy for those who enjoy their respective series. show less

The Magical Christmas Cat is another short fiction anthology by authors Lora Leigh, Erin McCarthy, Nalini Singh, and Linda Winstead Jones. All of them feature some kind of more or less magical cat and Christmas and all are (paranormal) romances.

Again, I’ll go through them one by one.

Stroke of Enticement by Nalini Singh

Annie is a (human) teacher, Zach is the uncle of one of her students and a changeling. When they meet, passion flares. But Annie is determined to only have a fling, while Zach knows that she’s his mate.

It’s a sweet story, featuring characters that were not really in the other Psy-Changeling books. It almost feels like we get “Behind the Scenes” glimpses of the leopard world, as Zach is just a “normal” pack show more member and not someone higher up in the pack hierarchy. An addictive read, as usual.

Christmas Bree by Erin McCarthy

In Enchanted Season, there was another story featuring the Murphy sisters. This time, we get the story of Bree, the second sister and the one most firmly rooted in her witch-hood, and Ian, a rational lawyer. Although they’re complete opposites, they are almost instantly drawn to each other. Will things work out for them?

I liked that – although there’s no actual Murphy Sisters series, Erin McCarthy revisits them for this anthology. [And next year, I wanna read about Abby, okay? :)] The story is nice and I liked the characters. The cat was really cool.

Sweet Dreams by Linda Winstead Jones

Ruby receives a mysterious little cat figurine on Christmas – from a secret admirer. Her neighbour, sexy Professor Zane, seems to know more about it than he would like her to know. Then the nightmare start for Ruby, of women being offered to some strange cat demon.

I have to say that this story was more horror than romance. I didn’t mind, I like horror stories, but it seemed a little out of place in this anthology. Also, it was surprisingly tame, having no full sex scene. I liked the ending, that [SPOILER] Ruby took care of things herself and didn’t wait to be saved. [/SPOILER]

Christmas Heat by Lora Leigh

It’s a short story from the Breed Series by Lora Leigh.
Haley is at a party, when she overhears a conversation with some important information for the Breeds. The Breeds are supersoldiers, genetically enhanced by adding animal DNA to theirs [a bit like Dark Angel], who just recently got their freedom and are now trying to build a society.
Anyway, Haley tells Noble – one of the Breeds she knows a little bit – about what she heard and he takes her protection in his own hands, because he knows that she’s his mate.

I haven’t read anything by Lora Leigh and I was a little confused. Not too much that it would have stopped me reading the story, but I’m not entirely sure that I actually got the backstory, meaning what exactly Haley uncovered and what was the doctor’s role?
I thought the biological factors of the Mating thing were a bit icky – there’s this kind of small tentacle that comes out of the guy’s dick when he’s fucking his mate. Errrm… yeah… doesn’t get me going.
It didn’t really convince me. A reason for me to start reading this series would be, if their was much emphasis on the backstory – the society building and so on. But other than that, it didn’t really float my boat. show less

I've only read the Breeds portion of this anthology yet. This story overlapped a bit of the last book. I like how it told the climatic scene from the previous book from these characters perspectives. The story was a bit rushed due to it being such a short novella, however I did like the characters and their story line. I was shocked to see Alaiya come back so soon and so violently, but it's nice to have some resolution there. I like how the Christmas season was woven into the story as well.

"The Magical Christmas Cat" is a collection of four hot stories by four well-known paranormal romance authors. I enjoyed that each author used a different 'take' on the whole cat theme. In this anthology we have a leopard shifter, a witch's familiar, a demon that resides in a jade cat, and a Jaguar 'breed' enforcer.

Stroke of Enticement by Nalini Singh. A Psy-Changeling story about Zach, a sexy leopard shifter who meets his mate, a human...and will use both his instincts, cat and man, to lure her to him.

Christmas Bree by Erin McCarthy. She's a goth witch. He's an uptight GQ lawyer. But since their only meeting one year ago, both of them have been having seriously hot, wet dreams...about each other. What happens when they meet again and show more realize they've been sharing those dreams?

Sweet Dreams by Linda Winstead Jones. Ruby is a single, shy woman who just lost the last of her family. At the neighborhood Christmas party she's surprised to receive an 'extra' gift from a secret admirer, a very old small jade statuette of a cat. She's even more surprised when her neighbor, absent minded parapsychology Professor Benedict suddenly doesn't want to leave her alone.

Christmas Heat by Lora Leigh. Noble has known Haley is his mate for a year now, but he's used the violence and distance his job as a Breed Enforcer requires to delay deepening their platonic relationship. But when she becomes entangled in a plot against the breeds and becomes a target to keep her from testifying, Noble knows the time has come to claim his mate.

I'm still fanning myself. In order of enjoyment: Lora Leigh and Nalini Singh were a tie for first, followed by Erin McCarthy and then Linda Winstead Jones. "The Magical Christmas Cat" will definitely heat up your holidays!! show less