Christmas Wishes: A
Jewels of the Quill
Christmas Anthology
Reviewed
by Anne Marie Chalmers
Jewels of
the Quill
are a group of award-winning female authors who write stories from 40
different
genres. The 12 authors who make up the group have had over 300 books
published
and are proud to offer something for every reader. In this collection
of
Christmas stories, readers can enjoy the holiday season with a little
romance
or the paranormal.
First up in this
Christmas collection is 'All She Wore Was a Bow' by Christine DeSmet. Kincaid Hunter rocks the rodeo world with his
record breaking bull ride in Las Vegas. He is wild
and is willing to try anything once as long as it isn't marriage. When one of his Moonstone buddies decides to
get married Kincaid rushes off to save his friend from doing the wrong
thing. Pulled into the wedding plans by
Gloria the wedding planner from hell he has trouble trying to tell his
friend
anything.
This is the second
book in the Men of Moonstone series about three guys who have seen the
worst
the world has to show them. One by one
they end up in Moonstone where they also end up finding a woman.
You won't need to read the 1
book to enjoy this romance.Not very
heart racing this is a contemporary love story with some humor and a
lot of
Christmas.The characters are easy to
warm to and the story is a little over the top but it hits the spot.
Margaret L. Carter is
next up in the anthology with a Young Adult story called 'Little Cat
Feet'. Lauren's father died ten month's
ago and the first Christmas without him would have been hard whatever
happened. However her mother made it
unbearable by already having a man living with them.
She doe the only thing she can and runs away
to escape the pain she is living with.
Her grandmother would
take her in and look after till she reaches eighteen but she isn't
answering
the phone. Stuck in the cold, alone with
no money she saves a cat who then in return saves her.
This is a short but sweet story that any
reader will enjoy. Magical, inspiring
and full of moral this is the kind of tale that shows what the festive
season
is really about.
Christmas Faith by
Karen Woods is up next. Vet Faith thinks
her name is a joke. How can she have any faith in a god who has taken
everyone
she has ever loved away from her? Her
new neighbor has also had his faith tested but he manages to stay
strong for
his children. He also tries to be strong
for Faith but will she let him?
This story was
slightly depressing and would not really put anyone in the Christmas
mood. Actually the only festive thing
about this
story was the fact that it took place in the month of December and
ended on
Christmas Eve. This was nicely written
and had a nice ending but way too melancholy.
Karen Wiesner carries
on this collection with her story Perfect Cadence.
In this romance Keri Woods decides to get
over her break-up with her boyfriend by using her boss Angela's cabin
over
Christmas and do some skiing. What Keri
doesn't know is that Angela's cousin Joshua is also using the cabin at
the same
time.
Matchmaking can be
fun and it can work which this story proves.
A typical romance with nice characters this will leave any
reader of
this genre satisfied and wanting more.
And there will be more...the next story in this series will be
out for
the Valentines anthology.
The next story is
another Young Adult tale called Are you listening? By Jane Toombs. Rico
wants
his dad back for Christmas but it has been years since he was last
seen. Rico
starts hearing his dad’s voice and follows his instructions to make his
Christmas wish come true. This lovely
paranormal story was a nice breath of fresh air to the collection. Although short it makes an impression and
reads like a modern day Christmas fairy tale.
The last story in
this Christmas collection is Annie’s Outlaw by Nancy Pirri. Cane Smith arrives in Bozeman, Montana, after getting out of prison. He is there to meet and claim the son he
didn't know he had. Tom has adopted
Cane's son and is impressed with Cane's love for the son but Tom's
daughter
Annie who has helped raise the boy doesn't want to give him up. This historical romance is set in the 1880's.
With some nice characters and an interesting story this story added
something
different to the collection and gave it a nice ending.
This
anthology will
definitely get any reader into the Christmas spirit.
With so many different genres covered there
is something for everyone. Some of the
stories are better than others but that is always the case in
anthologies. With most of the stories
being part of a
series this collection gives the reader the chance to try out an array
of
authors and find some future reading material.
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