Christmas Wish Come True - Gina Rochelle, Misty Shaw and Jaime Admans

Synopsis from Amazon:

All I Want for Christmas by Gina Rochelle

Ditching her faithless fiancé, schoolteacher Isabella plans to spend the holidays alone. But when she unintentionally inspires a young pupil to make an impossible wish, she joins forces with his – totally gorgeous – uncle to put things right! Could two wishes come true this Christmas?

Dreaming of a White Wedding by Misty Shaw

When Scarlet discovered her husband-to-be in a passionate clinch with her bridesmaid, she called off her Valentine’s wedding and ran away to London. But when her sister asks for her help, she can’t refuse…even if it means coming face-to-face with her ex – the man she never stopped loving!

Christmas Every Day by Jaimie Admans

Emma loves bumping into Gorgeous Dog Walker, Nick, every evening. But when he ends up in a coma (partly her fault), she ends up taking care of ‘his job’…and his dog! Emma stopped believing in Santa years ago, but this Christmas her world is about to be turned upside down!

Christmas Wish Come True is a gift for you this December, snuggle up by the fire, leave the stresses of Christmas shopping behind you…and relax!

My review:

Nice and easy reading for Christmas time. I was looking forward to reading the three stories but overall I was a little disappointed. All three novellas have a pretty good story line and potential but only one really delivered the Christmas romance that I was looking for and that was the third story: Christmas Every Day by Jaimie Admans. Below are mini reviews for each of the stories.

All I Want for Christmas = The story of a ditched bride Isabella who comes to teach at a school in snowy mountains. Isabella rapidly involves herself in the life of a little boy called Tyler and his gorgeous (of course) Uncle Jordan. She moves in with them and looks after Tyler and gets herself knotted up in their lives.

I thought the story required a full book rather than a quick read story. The potential was there but it was rushed and a lot of twist and turns were cramped into a short space, which made the story unrealistic so the score for this one is 3/5.

Dreaming of a White Wedding = Scarlet works as a make-up artist in London but is dreaming of working in Brighton with her twin sister Cressida. When her sister calls on her help, which involved the trick of standing in for your identical twin and pretend you are them hoping nobody notices, she agrees but only because her ex-fiancé is supposedly abroad. Of course that doesn’t work out and they meet again and sparks fly.

This was my least favourite of the three. The romance of the story was actually quite sickening. The spirit of love is overdone here right from the start until the last words and I was relieved when I finished it. Score for this story is 1/5 which might seem harsh but it really was not for me.

Christmas Every Day = Emma sees Gorgeous Dog Walker (GDW) every day and is secretly fantasizing about him. Until one day their lives are thrown together in a car crash and GDW asks Emma to look after his job, which would be easier if she knew what that was, where he lived or what his actual name was.

Now this was a story I enjoyed. Thrown in with quite a lot of Christmas magic, the story was written with humour and just the right amount of romance. The ideas behind chimney sweeping, the grumpy elf Twinkle and all the responsibilities that come with being Santa were refreshing and entertaining. Score for this story is 4.5/5 – I would love to read a full book so the author could expand on the story.

Thank you very much to Netgalley for access to this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

My rating: 3/5

Green Smoothies by Fern Green

Synopsis from Amazon:

Discover the health-boosting benefits of smoothies, juices, tonics, and nut milks. Find the perfect juice to help detoxify your body, enhance your digestion, or invigorate your metabolism.  Energize your day with 66 easy-to-follow, quick, and tasty recipes.  Learn simple ways to incorporate more greens into your diet every day.

My review:

Smoothies and juices can become a little boring. I tend to discover one that I love and end up drinking the same stuff every day. So to get a good Smoothie cookbook to give the inspiration boost that I needed was great.

Love the cover of this book, the introduction was interesting and recipes are easy to follow. Choosing the healthier lifestyle is made just that little bit easier with this colourful book.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Ten Speed Press for access to this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

My rating: 4/5

Unleashed (Colours of Love #3) by Kathryn Taylor

Synopsis from Amazon:

Like a fairy-tale, it should have been so wonderful: after a year of marriage, Grace Huntington still experiences undreamt-of passionate bliss. But stubborn doubts keep eating away at her. Despite the many happy moments when she feels close to Jonathan, sometimes he seems just as inscrutable as he did at the start. And now she has something to confess, something she knows will put an enormous strain on their relationship.

My review:

I was really looking forward to reading the last chapter in Grace's and Jonathan's turbulent romance, was I was rather disappointed. I think for me there were too many twists and turns for such a quick read. It felt like Kathryn Taylor had all these great plot ideas and was not allowed to unleash them into a full blown romance novel.

The first two books were brilliant, believable and well written and I was expecting the same from this was. This book begins two years after the Jonathan proposed to Grace. He's become withdraw and Grace fears that he's regrets choosing her over his old life. She also has a discovery of her own that puts her in a difficult position. When she finds out that Jonathan is once again meeting with the creepy Yuuto, she eavesdrops on their conversation and runs before Jonathan has a chance to explain the things he says.

So once again Jonathan has to run after Grace and make everything ok - and I think this is where it just goes wrong for me. It is same plot, same story-line as before and it feels repetitive.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Bastei Entertainment for access to this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

My rating: 3/5