If You Like….

It’s been a while since we’ve had an If You Like here! But, thanks to Betty, we’ve got a holiday themed If You Like this week.

Get the gingerbread out and the cider mulling! Here’s Betty’s list of holiday reads:

Christmas Mail-Order Brides is a four author collection of women seeking homes in the American west during the 1880’s. These heartwarming stories of both men and women who take a chance on finding happiness with people they have never met are written by Susan Page Davis, Vickie McDonough, Therese Stenzel, and Carrie Turansky.

A Darcy Christmas is composed of three novellas written by Amanda Grange, Sharon Latham, and Carolyn Eberhart. Two take us to Christmases after Darcy and Elizabeth are married. The third begins with Darcy’s obsession with Lizzy and quickly carries through to their Christmas honeymoon and other Christmases during their married life, giving a glimpse into the Darcy future.

A Christmas Promise by Mary Balogh is the story of Eleanor Transome who honors her father’s dying wish that she marry Randolph Pierce, the proud Earl of Falloden, even though she dreads it will mean a lifetime without love. Other Christmas books by Balogh include Christmas Beau, A Christmas Bride, and Under The Mistletoe. Christmas Beau tells the story of Judith Easton who jilted the Marquess of Denbigh to marry another man. Now a widow after an unhappy marriage, she meets Denbigh again who is determined to seduce her and break her heart. In A Christmas Bride, two people in their thirties, one a widow with a past and the other a man determined to at last find a bride, are thrown together while spending Christmas with friends. Under The Mistletoe is an anthology of five Christmas novellas. All of Mary’s books are regency romance at its best.

A Wallflower Christmas by Lisa Kleypas brings together her four friends from the Wallflower series who are attempting to match-make during the Christmas season by bringing together an American, Rafe Bowman, and society beauty Natalie Blandford. Wherever the Wallflowers are, confusion, humor, and drama are sure to follow. Another Christmas book by Kleypas, Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor, moves into modern time in Seattle and tells the story of Mark Nolan who suddenly finds himself a father when his sister is killed in an automobile crash, leaving Mark as the guardian of her daughter Holly. The only problem is that Holly won’t talk after her mother’s death. This book was made into a 2012 Hallmark movie entitled Christmas With Holly. It is also the beginning of an intriguing series that follows the other two Nolan brothers who all come from a dysfunctional family.

Last, but not least, is another modern story, Comfort & Joy, by Kristin Hannah. It brings together Joy Candellaro, newly divorced and facing Christmas alone, and six-year-old Bobby O’Shea who is about to experience his first Christmas without his mother. Bobby’s father Daniel is trying to help his son cope, but can’t understand his sudden bonding with Joy. This is a story with a twist that will keep you guessing in a world where only the magic of Christmas can heal.

Thank you, Betty! There are so many here that I need to check out.

If you’re looking for more books, you can find some of my suggestions for holiday reading here and here.

(Do you have an If You Like with suggestions you’d like to share? Send it along to me, and I’ll post it here!)

1 Comment

  1. Jeffrey on December 16, 2014 at 7:32 am

    Lauren, I’m sentimental sucker for a sweet Christmas romance! I’m currently reading a novella entitled The Christmas Basket by Debbie Macomber which involves a 20 year feud between two prominent women and the revived romance between their two children.

    I just finished A Christmas Wish, a novella by Mary Chase Comstock in which twin sisters in the regency era plot to get their estranged parents back together after five years apart. It is hysterically funny because the two siblings are such hoydens and think they are being so clever when in fact they are totally transparent.

    I also read The Holiday Brides Collection by Ginny Baird, a collection of four novellas which are all sweet contemporary holiday romances. The second story, entitled aptly The Holiday Bride, sticks out like an erupting volcano because, as a huge Hallmark movie fan, it is such an ideal made-for-Hallmark story with the usual formula of a poverty stricken lonely heroine, handsome widower with two charming children, amnesia, warm-hearted parents of the hero, and an “unsuitable” suitor who is bent on marrying the heroine. There are more but someone please stop me before I wear out my welcome! After all, it is not the Christmas season unless I read at least a dozen of these.

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