September 29, 2008
Seven well-known authors contribute to two holiday romance anthologies.
Silver Bells
Fern Michaels
, JoAnn Ross
, Mary Burton
and Judy Duarte
. Zebra
, $7.99 (448p) ISBN 978-1-4201-0363-2
Bestseller Michaels (Hokus Pokus
) headlines a quartet of heartwarming Christmas romances. In both Duarte's “A Mulberry Park Christmas” (which shares a setting with Mulberry Park
) and Michaels's title tale, childhood sweethearts are reunited despite the pressures of adult life. In “Dear Santa...,” Ross (Impulse
) strands mystery novelist Holly Berry in a blizzard-swept town, where she meets hunky hotelier Gabe O'Halloran and finds his five-year-old daughter is a determined matchmaker. Burton (I'm Watching You
) contributes “Christmas Past,” in which widowed homicide sergeant David Ayden helps talented photographer Nicole Piper cope with the legacy of her late, violently abusive husband. It's a close fit, but each short story contains a full-fledged romance from first kiss to happy ending, both satisfying readers and encouraging them to seek out the authors' longer works.