Star rating based on the highest rating given to one of the stories.
I picked up this book out of my TBR pile because I needed a break from all the depressing MTW stories. I am one of those awful people who enjoy Christmas year round, yet we were in the processing of moving from the base lodging into our house, so I needed something that was a quick read. This is an anthology of three Christmas stories set in the town of Virginia City, Nevada.
Just Like the Ones We Used to Know (Brenda Novak)
This is the story that gave the 3.5 star rating. Solid storytelling done in an entertaining way. Matt meets his 12 year old daughter Kayla for the first time via Angela. Angela didn't believe it was right for Kayla's mother and grandmother to keep her from Matt all those years ago, but there wasn't anything she could do about it until now. While I did enjoy reading Matt and Angela's relationship grow, the relationship between Angela and Kayla was really well done as well. Angela and Matt get together and with Kayla become a family. Not as cloyingly sweet as it sounds.
*Pet peeve - hate it when holiday stories have song lyrics as titles - seems really uncreative.*
The Night Before Christmas (Melinda Curtis)
The worst in the book - 1 star. Cloyingly sweet to the point of overkill. Schmaltzy as hell - Hallmark Channel holiday movies have more grit than this story. This story is a bad retelling of the Christmas Carol/Scrooge character. Simon (male MC) was okay, but Emma (female MC) and her family were obnoxious in their do-gooding and Christmas cheer! And Emma is described as having red hair and green eyes - really? Romantic whiplash - for two people who didn't know each other at 5pm on Christmas Eve, they sure did fall in True Love PDQ, as they were kissing under the mistletoe and talking marriage by 12am Christmas morning.
All the Christmases to Come (Anna Adams)
I debated between 1 and 1.5 stars. Not as bad as the second story, not as good as the first. Andrew (male MC) just found out his ex-girlfriend (Rachel) is pregnant with his child and she is moving away for good without telling him anything about the baby or where she is going. Well, that is a promising start for a lifetime together, don't you think? *Sigh* Andrew and his five year old daughter take the same Santa Train that Rachel is on, and he tries to make Rachel understand that he loves her and baby and that they all can be a family. Rachel is shallow and jealous of Andrew's daughter but then dotes on the kid a minute later; Andrew's daughter loves Rachel. Andrew is an obsessive worrywart and passive-aggressive, which doesn't make him hero material in my book. Needless to say, Rachel gives birth to a girl on the train and at their train station they are all one happy family.
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