Friday, April 10, 2009

Jill Shalvis, Jacquie D'Alessandro & Jamie Sobrato: HEATING UP THE HOLIDAYS



Jill Shalvis, Jacquie D'Alessandro & Jamie Sobrato
HEATING UP THE HOLIDAYS: ALL HE WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS / HIS GROWN-UP CHRISTMAS LIST / UP ON THE HOUSETOP
Harlequin Blaze
212 pages
ISBN: 978-0-3373-79439-


This is a wonderful holiday short story compilation. Jill Shalvis, Jacquie D'Alessandro & Jamie Sobrato all wrote short stories revolving around those men and women who make a living out of helping others and saving theirs lives: firefighters. While I didn't rate the stories separately, I will try to give a short review for all three short stories.

All He Wants For Christmas is that firefighter Christina Lewis realizes she's in love with him. He, that is EMT Dustin Mauer. He has been hung up on her for a long time already. The two are complete opposites. Christina is all the tough girl at work and doesn't have time for emotions, while Dustin is not afraid of his emotions.
The wonderful thing about this short story was that Jill Shalvis managed to pack all the action into a few pages and yet I didn't feel rushed. I was annoyed at times by Christina's pig-headedness, but that was easy to deal with, as Ms Shalvis made sure to more that outweigh it with positive character traits.

In My Grown-Up Christmas List florist Toni Rizzo is done with firefighters, but Brad Griffin doesn't give up. He uses all his imagination to make her realize that not every firefighter is the same and puts her on top of his wish list.
While the story was pretty nice to read, I've read better story lines by Jacquie D'Alessandro and I am pretty sure part of what I missed was due to the shortness.

Up On The Housetop firefighter Ryan Quinn finds Dr. Lorelei Gibson. Just back from a stint as a doctor in Africa, she came back to the old house of a relative. In a stormy night she climbs on the roof and in an attempt to fix the major holes, she nails her pajama pants to the roof. When she is finally saved she is shocked that it is Ryan Quinn who broke her heart back in high school.
This story could have been longer! Then, there would have been more character development. That said, it was a wonderful story and I'll definitely read more by all three authors.

Now, reading this wonderful anthology was fun and it was a quick read, but it also stayed with me for a bit after I finished it.

Rating: 4/5

2 comments:

  1. I'll have to keep this in mind for next December. I love reading anthologies around the holidays.

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  2. Carol, I would have done the same, but I just had to read this one right at that time :-) It was great to read. I hope you enjoy it once you read it!

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