With fall upon us and Canadian Thanksgiving done, but US Thanksgiving on the horizon, this was a perfect book to read in October. This anthology was full of family, friendship, romance and Thanksgiving. I am not going to reiterate the synopsis of each story as they are all short stories or novellas and I do not want to give anymore of the stories away. Each one I read had me smiling and remembering why I enjoy these author's works. There is struggle and angst, family centric fun and activities, support of friends and family in trying situations and some second chances and new beginnings. I think my favourite story was No Place Like Home. I enjoy romantic suspense and I think that might be why. Of course, being novellas, some of the storylines felt a bit rushed, but that is how I usually feel when reading shorter stories. I enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it to those looking for a Thanksgiving Holiday read.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.
Wow, that was AWESOME!!
The four stories were captivating, engrossing and so fluff-filled.
The first story was perfect, you got secrets that were hidden, real characters and a strong plot, i really really loved it.
The second one was a delicious read, the old friends get reunited, sparks fly and hope is refilled.
Third one was my least favorite, the talking dog wasn't an appealing factor for me, but the characters were lovable, nonetheless.
The fourth one was really sweet, it gives you hope that only love can restore, loved it so much.
Overall, a fantastic read.

I don't think I have read in Thanksgiving story before. If I did it was years ago. So I just had to read this collection. What a nice group of stories. I enjoyed every one. Each was so different so I don't have a favorite. I thought they were all interesting. The time of year was Thanksgiving but the stories were more about family and love. I liked this book.

What could be more cozy and heartwarming than a romance set against a holiday that screams home and family? I’ve been meaning to try a couple of these authors and am always game to give new to me authors a go so pair them with Thanksgiving and I took up this collection of stories with delight.
Review

I thought about doing mini reviews for each story since there are only four, but lazily decided to highlight them and briefly review the anthology as a whole, instead.

No Place Like Home by Anna J Stewart
Tripp Atsila is on leave from his FBI Cyber Crimes job to spend Thanksgiving with his gran and large family of siblings in a quaint, Northern California small town. He soon sniffs out trouble in his brothers’ business manager’s life and it becomes a suspenseful Thanksgiving for Tripp and Parker as they sort out her troubles and their feelings.

Second Chance by Kayla Perrin
Going home for Thanksgiving in Toronto after another relationship doesn’t work out has Miranda in just the right place to see a second chance with high school crush Taz. And, with an ailing mom and his own stars aligning to spend time with Miranda, Taz takes little persuading.

Dog-Gone Holiday by Melinda Curtis
Chef Drew is desperate to find a functioning kitchen when the electricity goes so he can show his mouth-watering Turkey Day stuff to a prospective client, but first he has to pay the toll for borrowing former food critic, Claire’s kitchen by letting the woman and her St. Bernard into his kitchen and maybe into his heart.

Love Guides the Way by Cari Lynn Webb
Photographer Kelsey knows that the darkness is closing in as her degenerative eye disease runs its course. Her caring family wants her settled before that, but, unfortunately, a break up right before she plans to bring the boyfriend home to meet the folks is a set back and only a chance encounter with Noah offers her a replacement date. Only is Noah a chance encounter? Noah isn’t so sure either when his wealthy backer who he is supposed to test his new technique places him in Kelsey’s path, but he sure hopes it’s fate.

Thankfully in Love presented four different romance situations set around the holidays. They were warm and sweet even with the suspenseful moments. They are shorter novellas so get to the point swiftly. I never felt that any were under-developed, but I did have moments when I saw how more page time would have given room for some quickly touched upon bits to get teased out better.

I had a few niggles in each of the stories like the first heroine’s insistence to traipsing alone into a dangerous situation and the last heroine’s family pulling an end around her wishes. But, for the most part, these were quickly to the conflict and quickly wrapped up because of their length.

They are perfect for a delicious dollop of Thanksgiving-style romance without the commitment of a longer read since they can be read as separate bite-size morsels. I found something in each story to want more from the authors and I will be perusing their backlists, but particularly I want more of that Atsila family in Anna J Stewart’s romantic suspense story. The anthology met anticipations and I can recommend it to other contemporary romance fans who enjoy holiday, sweetly-toned romances.

I rec’d this book from Net Galley to read in exchange for an honest review.

An entertaining and well written collection of romance novellas. I enjoyed each selection. Romance readers will enjoy this book. I received an arc from the publisher and Netgalley and this is my unbiased review.

A variety of stories in 1 book. Enjoyed each book. Some I wish had a full story on. Hopefully you will enjoy it also.

What a delight to find a book that features my favorite holiday: Thanksgiving! Not just one but FOUR short stories that center around Thanksgiving, families and love. Lest you think this is only for Americans, one of the stories takes place over the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday!

Written by four well known and well loved authors, each of the stories described below accentuate family, love and gratitude which we all need in abundance in this crazy Covid year!

No Place Like Home by Anna J Stewart is very family centric with a whole lot of romance thrown in for good measure
Second Chance by Kayla Perrin is about, yep, second chances at love. This one, with its wonderful repartee, was my favorite of the four
Dog Gone Holiday by Melinda Curtis tells the story of a couple who is struggling during the holiday but find hope in one another.
Love Guides the Way by Cari Lynn Webb is your typical romance about two people brought together but who doubt the sincerity of one another.

While the anthology started out strong, the last story was not a favorite of mine. However, that is likely due to the fact that I'm not a big romance fan. I like them light and sweet and only during the holidays. Never-the-less, as a whole, I absolutely recommend Thankfully in Love to start off your holiday season with a grategul, thankful heart.

Thanks to each of the authors mentioned above, @Netgalley for my copy of this warm and entertaining book.

Thankfully In Love is a holiday anthology of short stories for the one holiday that kicks-off the season yet often gets overlooked as far as Romance stories go. I can think of only about a dozen or so specifically Thanksgiving stories I can remember – but tons of Christmas ones… just saying it’s about time this holiday gets some love.

Told by four popular, well-loved authors that you might already know, this anthology is pretty much described in the Cover Description Blurb. To go into much more details would be giving away more of the stories than I’m comfortable with… but the story title and a line or two, that I can do. So, in Thankfully In Love you’ll find:

No Place Like Home by Anna J. Stewart – Do you love a tight-knit family that’s always in your business whether asked or not? Then you’ll have fun with this one as Tripp meets Parker who really doesn’t want anyone up in her business since she’s running from her past. Loved this one.

Second Chance by Kayla Perrin – I adored Miranda’s family and their lively banter make this story one to enjoy. A second chance to get love right? Yes, please.

Dog-Gone Holiday by Melinda Curtis – Holidays can be painful times for some people and we’re about to meet a couple that finds what they each need most is each other.

Love Guides the Way by Cari Lynn Webb – Sometimes something amazing comes with strings, and that’s exactly what Noah is afraid of when he realizes who the tantalizing woman he recently met really is. Too good to be true, or fate?

I enjoyed each story in different ways, but overall I had a festive, fun time with Thankfully In Love. In the mood for a turkey holiday tale? Then you should be checking this one out for yourself.

I own a Kindle edition of this anthology.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

Thankfully in Love is a Thanksgiving anthology by Anna J. Stewart, Kayla Perrin, Melinda Curtis, and Cari Lynn Webb. Highlighting this wonderful holiday is what these stories do. I especially liked thoughts of gratitude are part of the Canadian Thanksgiving meal in the story, In Second Chance by Kayla Perrin.

Some of the stories are contemporary romance but also elements of suspense are in In No Place Like Home by Anna J. Stewart. There are past break-ups for some of the character but the future looks bright as they find new relationships in which to give thanks. Family, friends, and an attitude of gratitude are at the center of each.

Each novella is complete without being connected. So they may be read between holiday events or preparations when you have a moment but time for a long novel is not available. Easy to read, easy to enjoy and easy to remind us that there is still much to be grateful for in this life.

An ARC of the book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley which I voluntarily chose to read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If you follow me then you know that I love reading anthologies. More so during the holiday where time is a factor. It's also a great way to find new authors. Authors you've wanting to try to but wasn't sure about.

For this book, I grabbed it for review because of Melinda Curtis. She's an author that I really enjoy and couldn't pass up. I've also read Perrin too so I really only had two newer to me authors.

As a whole, I really enjoyed this book. Each story is well-written and enjoyable. I can't that there isn't one that I didn't enjoy. I will say that Ann J Stewart had my favorite of all the stories. I would love more from this author. I will do a quick review of each of the stories.

No Place Like Home by Stewart is my favorite of all the stories. I loved the idea of it. Plus, I really enjoyed the Atsila family. I'd want more from this town. Second Chances by Perrin is also pretty good but my least favorite of the stories which means I still really enjoyed it but it wasn't a standout story. I didn't like what he did to her but it worked out for the best.

Up next, Dog Gone Holiday by Curtis. I so hated her ex. He is such a jerk. Love the family and how they came together for her. Even if she didn't think so at first. And finally, we have Love Guides the Way by Webb. Another author that I have read before. I really liked this one too. The whole idea about her going through what she was going through and the worry of her family really made for a charming, loving story.

I was so glad that I read this book. It's the perfect book to enjoy this Thanksgiving. I found two new authors and was able to enjoy two authors I have already read.

I love this idea of four novellas that center around Thanksgiving. The stories are written by different authors and are not related, but they definitely compliment each other. I have read books by two of the authors previously and am a fan of their work. Now, I have found two new authors that I will be looking into and reading their books also.

It is difficult to pick a favorite of the four stories (all were great!), but I definitely have to pick the huge lovable St. Bernard, Snowy (who maybe can talk?) as my favorite character. He brought so many smiles to my face.

I recommend this book that I enjoyed so much!

I want to thank Caezik Romance and NetGalley for giving me the pleasure of reading the Advance Reader Copy. My review is my own opinion not influenced by receiving the ARC.

While Christmas stories abound and are a staple in pretty much every genre in some form or another, Thanksgiving stories are much less common. However, that just makes the announcement of a collection like this a welcome one. And despite not being familiar with any of the authors, I was curious to see what new perspectives they could bring to the table, especially since I learned a couple of the authors were Canadian, so it wasn’t exclusively focused on the American observance.

“No Place Like Home” by Anna J. Stewart

3 stars

I’d have liked to see this one fleshed out more in a longer story. There are some good ideas here, from the sweet romance to the thread of suspense that I feel could have benefited from being explored more deeply.

“Second Chances” by Kayla Perrin

5 stars

This one was so wonderful. I love friends with a romantic spark, parted for years, and later given a second chance at it. It was sweet seeing Miranda open her heart to Taz again, especially when she was hurting after a heartbreak.

“Dog-gone Holiday” by Melinda Curtis

5 stars

This one was dog-gone cute! I loved this one, with a chef and a food critic finding themselves spending the holiday together in the sweetest way. And Snowflake the St. Bernard absolutely steals the show!

“Love Guides the Way” by Cari Lynn Webb

5 stars

As someone who also has a condition that impacted my vision (although not to the same extent), I appreciated this story for providing such a compassionate portrayal of potential blindness and the choice to live with one’s diagnosis vs. hoping in vain for a cure. I love how that was navigated as chance seemingly threw Kelsey and Noah together, with Noah having come up with potentially revolutionary techniques that could save her vision.

***

This is a charming collection, and I really liked that it varied thematically, in spite of the common thread of Thanksgiving as a celebration. I really enjoyed this collection, and would recommend if you’re looking for something fun to read leading up to (American) Thanksgiving.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read an early copy of this anthology!

This is an indie-published collection of four short holiday romances set at Thanksgiving (one is Canadian Thanksgiving, which is this weekend!). They're all contemporary and closed-door heat level. Overall this was not really my cup of tea, but I think readers of sweet romance should give this a try, especially for people who love holiday romances.

No Place Like Home by Anna J Stewart -- this is a romantic suspense set in a small town in northern California. I didn't particularly like the way the heroine was introduced -- the hero's brother is all like "hands off my assistant manager" in a very objectifying way, and then there's some "not like other girls" stuff about how she's wearing sneakers and not very much makeup. I also didn't like how abrupt the sex scenes were (the first is right after they're talking about horrible stuff that happened to him and his former partner!), or how the heroine goes off to see the bad guy alone because...the plot needed it? Finally, there was a weird side note about how the pregnant sheriff doesn't have a ring on her finger, "not that it mattered these days" which came off as very sniffy and moralistic even if I think the intent was the opposite? Anyway, there were plenty of things about this story that just didn't fit my taste, but I did like the mystery, the police dog, and the sweet epilogue.

Second Chance by Kayla Perrin -- this is the story with Canadian Thanksgiving, and it was my favorite of the collection. I immediately sympathized with Miranda and her very bad day, and I loooooved the rom-com hugely coincidental meeting between Miranda and her high school friend/crush, Taz. This one had a lot of family that I really loved--Taz's mom is sick and Miranda invites them over to her family's for Thanksgiving and Taz and Miranda fall head over heels for each other so quickly, it's all just really cute and lovely. There were just two side notes that rubbed me the wrong way, one aside about how Miranda's friends tease her that she must be gay because she's never interested in any guys, and another anecdote about how the evil ex-girlfriend was probably lying about a pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage. Besides those two little things, I really enjoyed this book, and this one definitely gave me "warm fuzzies."

Dog-Gone Holiday by Melinda Curtis -- I was just never able to identify with the heroine, who is a former food critic turned lifestyle blogger who makes money off of posting pictures of her 4-year-old on the internet and is sad that her ex-husband is critical of this fact. (You can probably tell from that sentence where I side on the subject, haha.) Some of the descriptions of clothes were also really head-scratching, like "a fancy pair of sweats and sneakers with rhinestones" or "pumpkin-colored slacks and cream-colored sweater" as two example of things that women wear? I think maybe these characters are all just a lot older than I am? There's also some stuff with the kid and the dog that were way too saccharine for my taste.

Love Guides the Way by Cari Lynn Webb -- I really don't know how to feel about this book, as the conflict is largely about the heroine losing her vision and is coming to terms with it, and her family and love interest trying to trick her into participating in a clinical trial to cure her blindness. I would be very interested to hear what reviewers with disabilities think of this.

So yes. Ultimately I'm going to say this collection was "just ok" for me, but I appreciate the work of the authors for this indie book and I think some other readers may really enjoy these.

This was a wonderful collection of cute, fluffy, romantic reads that centered around Thanksgiving, family, second chances, and love. It was a perfect pick me up when I had a bad day. I had so much fun with it.

Four well written and easy to read stories, each with their own specificities and the common theme of Thanksgiving.
I liked that the stories in “Thankfully in Love – A Thanksgiving Anthology”, by Anna J. Stewart, Kayla Perrin, Melinda Curtis and Cari Lynn Webb, are all very romantic, featuring relatable characters fighting to overcome different kinds of problems and hurdles but always with a positive outlook of hope. There’s also a variety of tropes, characters and settings.
No Place Like Home - Anna J. Stewart – A burnt-out hero and a heroine on the run in an instant-lust romance in a small-town setting.
Second Chances - Kayla Perrin – A very sweet story about second-chances between childhood friends. Taz is such an endearing and sexy hero.
Dog-Gone Holiday - Melinda Curtis – Melinda Curtis is one of my favorite authors, and this story didn’t disappoint, it was such a delight to read! A bit of magic, fantasy, humor and craziness involving Snowy, the dog, and a toddler so true to life with his cute obsession about pirates.
The weight of life’s disillusionments doesn’t hinder Drew, a marvelous hero who has been steadily and secretly pinning for the heroine for years. The intensity of the longing was moving.
Love Guides the Way - Cari Lynn Webb – A heroine facing a grim prognosis meets a workaholic hero hiding some emotional scars. Both find healing.

the stories are very good and set at Christmas, if you like second chances in love and in what ever you are dealing with in life. you will like the stories. someone is burned out and needs a break, one is on the run but has been found and needs help. one is born with a sight robbing disease and a doctor who needs funds to keep trying to find a way to help people keep their sight. i was given a copy of the book by netgalley but this is an honest review.