I haven't been posting on the blog for a few months, but I have been reading a lot of secular and faith based romances. This review is based on one of the former: Sweet Christmas Romances 2017. It is a collection of short novellas whose authors include Sharon Kleve, Jennifer Conner, Angela Ford, Tammy Tate, and Laura Strickland. These authors match up with the following titles in the following order: Evie's Christmas Chocolate Kisses (Kleve), Analeigh's Christmas Cookies (Conner), Chrissy's Christmas Sugar Cookies (Ford), Amy's Christmas Casserole (Tate), and Margie's Magic Christmas Bars (Strickland).
The book caught my attention because of the title, because I wanted to see what was meant by the definition of "sweet." After reading through the collection, I would say that it has more to do with the recipes that are included after each novella, about a dessert/recipe that has a starring role in each of the stories. That's not surprising considering the titles of the novellas, but I wasn't able to read what they were until after I had downloaded the book. I had actually been expecting to read stories that were clean (yes, with that kind of definition of "sweet"), but that wasn't quite the case for all of them. However, the love scenes for the ones that did have them were not very graphic or the intimate moments were mentioned briefly in passing. The exception was in Tammy Tate's story, Amy's Christmas Casserole, which had a descriptive sex scene. If you were expecting to read stories that were clean, then, please, know that not all the stories in this collection will pass muster in this expectation.
One of the stories, and I don't want to mention which one, could have used a bit more editing; there were a number of errors in diction and spelling. However, I also understand that I was reading a galley/proof that may undergo more work before being placed on the market. Most of the other stories didn't have errors that were as noticeable as the one that I just mentioned.
Of the recipes, I think that the one that captured my interest is Analeigh's Christmas Bourbon Bacon Cupcake recipe, but just so that you know, if you are not tremendously inclined to bake entirely from scratch, the cake portion appears to allow for the use of a Betty Crocker cake mix. I also find it amusing that the title of novella that this recipe is supposed to go with reads, "Analeigh's Christmas Cookies." (By the way, this was not the story that had the numerous spelling errors.)
Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of Sweet Christmas Romances 2017 from NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
