3 funny, steamy, romantic short stories by equally talented authors. Each story had it's own trope (fake girlfriends, meet cute, flirting before realizing that you are working together) that played perfectly within a Christmas setting. A delightful holiday read!

Some hot romance on a cold night. All 3 reads are great but I don't have to tell you with these authors you will never be let down.

I tend to really love short story collections. They are a quick read and are always interesting. I think this year I wasn’t in the most festive mood so this book of short stories really helped me become more excited for the holidays. The stories were well written. My favorite was Hustle and Bustle. It made me yearn for those wonderful New York City Christmases. I moved away from New York in 2018 and I have missed it immensely. I always love reading books that have a great description of New York. The cop and business owner story line was so cute. I just loved everything about it. Georgia Beers story was cute but very predictable. It wasn’t the best story to start the book with. It should have been at the end. Fiona Riley’s story was cute and so fun to read.

Overall this was a decent set of stories that helped pull me out of my Christmas funk.

Fun and entertaining with low angst which is exactly what a Christmas read should be. The three novellas progress in enjoyment and sexual heat. I thought the romance was sweet in all three stories. From fake dating to mall romance to Christmas magic, I was pulled in and embraced the ride.

What a fun series of Christmas stories to put a smile on your face. Georgia Beers, Maggie Cummings and Fiona Riley wrote excellent novellas that I will re read every Christmas. All three books are nicely paced with great MC’s and supporting cast. Very, very enjoyable reads.

3.5 stars. There were three short stories in this one. The first one is about Sasha Wolfe and how she has made up an imaginary girlfriend for months due to her mother's insistence she should not be alone. When her mother tells Sasha to bring her girlfriend home for the holidays, she decides to hire her neighbor and actress, Kennedy Davis. Kennedy needs money after her ex-gf used her credit cards and wracked up debt before leaving, and Sasha is willing to pay her to fake it. They both do not expect to start to have feelings for one another while they fake a romance.

I enjoyed this one. Sasha was a character in Georgia Beer's other book, 16 Steps to Forever, and I was hoping there would be more written about her. She is a good character and I enjoyed their romance. This was also the strongest of the three short stories in y opinion, but I enjoyed their chemistry and how they both felt attracted to one another.

The next story was about Hannah Monroe who is running a holiday market shop and starts to spend time with NYPD officer, Toby Beckett. Toby enjoys being a cop sometimes, but hates the politics of it all. Her and Hannah start to feel sparks for one another, but she knows Hannah's presence in NYC is temporary, as she is only there for the holiday season.

I enjoyed this one, it was a cute little story. Although, both characters seemed to fall for each other pretty quickly and it seemed to move quick, but it was a short story. To me, this story was the weakest of the three stories. I did enjoy it, it wasn't a bad story. I just did not particularly like Toby as a character and their chemistry was interesting.

The third story was about how Courtney Rivers needs the perfect venue for her company Christmas party. She decides to book Mira Donahue’s bar, Mirage, which is a hot bar for the holidays. They start to spend time together planning the party, and when they get stuck together over storm, sparks fly and they can't deny their attraction to each other.

This story was definitely more steamy than the other two, as the characters have an instant attraction, but I thought it was well written and easy to read. I enjoyed how their relationship progressed and how it ended. I thought the story worked well and they both were well enough developed for a short story,

Overall, I would recommend this short story collection. It was three short stories about Christmas time that were easy to read and they were all enjoyable stories written by good authors.

Overall four stars.
Triple Dog Dare:
Five stars. My favourite of the three, but I was hardly surprised because Georgia Beers is by far my favourite of the authors as well. I thought I would be more annoyed upon encountering a fake girlfriend storyline, but the characters are actually adorable. I enjoyed the character motivations and it all fit together nicely. It helps that I always like cameos of characters from other books, even more so that 16 Steps to Forever came out at the same time, and finally that I read it three weeks before this.
Hustle & Bustle:
Three stars. My second story from Maggie Cummings, and so I'm still getting used to her style, but this didn't draw me in as well as the other stories. I have basically the same criticism for this as I did for Bulletproof: the characters are a little forgettable, the chemistry isn't overly evident, and the pace a little slow. There was also a little too much going on in the background for a holiday romance. Still, it fulfilled its purpose, and I can't say I didn't like it.
A Christmas Miracle
Four and a half stars. This did surprise me, although I have enjoyed Fiona Riley's work before. It started off a bit slow, so I didn't think I would like it, but the characters won me over with their chemistry. I liked Courtney's personality, and Mira was okay too, if maybe a little less three dimensional. After the second story, I was planning on complaining that I don't think novellas need sex scenes, but it was done nicely here. The one thing I could have done without? Mira's full name. Gag. My tolerance has probably been lowered for that after I read Elle Spencer's The Holiday Treatment.

No duds here.

Anthology books are hit or miss for me. Usually, I'll only like one or two of the offerings. But these three short Christmas stories were worth the read and put me in the holiday spirit.

Triple Dog Dare by Georgia Beers has Sasha bringing a tenant home to meet her family because she has been lying about having a significant other for the past 6 months. Who doesn't love fake relationships? This was also satisfyingly lengthy and had forgotten that this was a complication of stories. This was sweet and I felt like it had more depth than expected. FYI, I was surprised to find that Sasha is in Beer's newest release, '16 Steps to Forever.'

Hustle & Bustle by Maggie Cummings has us swooning over a butch cop that is not at all what Hannah expects. She has ideas about cops and she doesn't want anything to do with them. Especially when she is only in NYC for a little while for her pop-up shop. This one also felt like it had quite a bit of depth for a short story. Have to give these authors some well deserved praise for that. One thing I love about reading Cumming's books, is that she really immerses the reader in and around New York. It's like you are really there having experiences with the characters.

A Christmas Miracle by Fiona Riley gives us a trillion tons of chemistry for the finale. A scrooge bar owner has to host a holiday party that Courtney is throwing for her workplace so that they will recognized her efforts to get that overdue promotion. The flirting in this story was top notch. Really enjoyed it.

Overall, this is the perfect collection of quality holiday romances to get you in the Christmas spirit.

I recommend this to those who like to read about romance, Christmas, overbearing families, whiskey, sincere butches, magical NYC, bars, Christmas themed cocktails, snow storms, and old couches.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an eARC of this title.

This was the last Christmas book I read this year and it was pretty good. I have never read anything from these authors so I thought it was a really great way to try out some new authors by having a bind up of three novellas.

All three novellas are very Christmasy, so there is defintely no lack of Christmas in these. They were all very sweet in their own way. With a bind up like this it’s harder to rate overall because each novella is very different, but there were some overarching themes and things I liked about all of them. To start, I liked that there was diversity and variety within the characters. Each novella was filled with a nice cast of characters that were all different, whether that be sexual and gender identity or just personality. I also liked that they didn’t feel too rushed. Though these were novellas it didn’t feel like the story was being rushed along because of the short length.

One thing I would have liked more of was development. I think this is a general disadvantage, I personally have, with novellas is that they are just too short for the kind of character growth and development I tend to love in stories. Aside from that I thought all these stories were really sweet. They were heartwarming and had all the Christmas vibes you could hope for.

If you are looking for some short and sweet sapphic Christmas stories, this is a great book for you!

Rating: 3/5 stars

This was such a cute collection of holiday stories. I absolutely love that the stories were happy and queer. I'll definitely reread this collection next holiday season.

This collection of fun holiday romance novellas was just what I needed this Christmas season. In the first offering, workaholic Sasha needs help convincing her family that her fictional girlfriend is real and her neighbor Kennedy is in need of some quick cash. The next story (a narrow favorite) has Hannah operating a pop-up shop in NYC over the holidays and avoiding short term romance, but her plan gets thrown off when she bumps into police officer Toby. Finally, Courtney meets Mira while planning a party at the bar that Mira owns - and sparks fly.

These stories were enjoyable, both sweet and sexy. All three novellas were well done and packed complete stories into a short format. I will definitely revisit these stories next year!

This was a really cute collection to end the holiday season with! It contains three short stories, but unfortunately, only one of them I really fell head over heels for.

Triple Dog Dare - 5-ish stars:
This was the one I enjoyed the most. To begin, it has my favorite trope of all time: fake-dating. Therefore, I was destined to love it. Not only that, but the writing was the most mature of the three stories and I felt like I actually knew the characters. They were deep, well-characterized, and they didn't feel like Hallmark knock-offs. This is the only of the stories that I could see myself enjoying as a full novel, even if a tad cheesy at parts.

Hustle & Bustle - 3-ish stars:
This one was honestly a bit forgettable. I appreciated how the characters' relationship developed over time. However, I found both of them a bit boring. Much of their relationship was one of the girls (I can't remember her name) making assumptions about the other (Toby) and then finding that she had stereotyped her all along. I didn't really love that and didn't find it all that compelling of characterization. It was cute, definitely sexier than the first story, but I think I much preferred the first story's plot.

A Christmas Miracle - 2 stars:
This one felt very Hallmark. I was a bit bored, not going to lie, and neither of the characters had distinct voices. For the only story that was dual-narrated (I believe), you really couldn't tell. More so, I didn't like how both of the characters seemed entirely different when they were around their family. Their interactions together were sexy, but honestly only that, and their interactions with family were calm, reserved, and caring. I had trouble reconciling the two personalities of Courtney and Mira that were displayed.

Anyway, this collection is definitely really cute and I don't regret reading it! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc.

I would also like to say that the one thing I really appreciated about this collection was that, yes, all characters were gay, but it was never a point of conflict. They were just girls in love and happy. There were no parental issues, no coming out stories, nothing that would make this anything less of a feel-good collection, and that made me really happy to see.

ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a collection of short Xmas stories, and while I enjoyed all of them, the first was my favourite.

Triple Dog Dare by Georgia Beers features Sasha, who owns a real estate company and Kennedy, a drama teacher. They are also neighbours, so when Sacha needs someone to play her fake girlfriend to prove her sisters wrong, Kennedy fills the role. Sacha’s family are still adjusting to the loss of her father, so the holidays are difficult for them. This also features a cute little Yorkie, and plenty of family fun, it’s a very sweet story that features one of my favourite tropes. 4 stars

Hustle & Bustle by Maggie Cummings features Troy, a NY cop and Hannah, who owns her own cosmetic type company and has a market in NY for the holidays. Since Tory is assigned to the market the spend a lot of time tighter and their relationship unfolds realistically (though the way they talked seems a bit young at times). There are also POC, trans and fluid characters. It’s a nice sweet romance with the requisite HEA. 3.5 stars

A Christmas Miracle by Fiona Riley was probably the weakest of the three, but still enjoyable. This features Mira, a bar owner who was born on Xmas and is therefore not fond of it, and Courtney, and event planner who is holding a Xmas party at Mira’s bar. The two meet and are instantly attracted and then get together pretty quickly. They had good chemistry and the flirting was cute, but for some reason it just didn’t gel as well as the other two stories. 3 stars.

Overall, this is a lovely set of Xmas stories and if you’re a fan of any/all three authors then you’ll enjoy it. 4 stars

This review will be only about the first story, Georgia Beers' "Triple Dog Dare", because... well, I only got this book for the sapphics, LGBT's, the Alphabet Mafia, whatever you may call it. No hate to the other stories by the way, just not my thing. Anyways, here we go!
I like how Beers worked with grief on this story: Sasha, the main character, clearly missed her father as well as her mother and sisters, but it's mentioned many times that it's getting better and that they can be happy again, which is a powerful message.
The plot itself is very fun (I'm crazy about the fake dating trope, sue me -- for legal reasons this is a joke) and the characters fit right in. The secondary characters are also fun, Melody being competitive and an enthusiast of teasing people, especially her younger sister; Kennedy being sweet, but still confident and reliable, as well as Cat being observant which sometimes put Sasha in uncomfortable situations, but sweet regardless (the kind of sweetness you just can't get mad at).
Obviously, I can't forget about Sasha's mom: she's adorable and the reader manages to feel proud of her progress through Sasha's point of view, which is how we have access about how badly she'd gotten after the death of her husband.
Though very good, the plot is simple, and not in a bad way. It's romcom worthy, something like... a comfort story, that's it! Sometimes you have a bad day, or a bad week, or a bad month (even a bad year *fakes a cough while looking at 2020*) and you just need something sweet, heartwarming without complications to make your heart a bit lighter: that's exactly what this story is. The fact that the book didn't touch on the topic of homophobia also contributed to that. Sasha's mom is incredibly accepting- no, I prefer wording it like... she loves her children, all of them. Because it's more than being accepting, it doesn't feel there's something she needs to accept. Sasha is her daughter and she wants her happy. Sasha and Kennedy being both women just isn't an issue, that simple, just like everything else in this story.
So, this story is pretty much recommended! I can't talk about the others, though, because. Um. Haven't read them. Not sure if I'm allowed to do that, if it isn't I'll read and review them later! Bye bye!

Let me first start by saying that short stories usually turn me off. I want the whole meal and am often left needing more to feel satisfied. I picked this up because I was familiar with 2 of the 3 writers (and now have a nice intro to a new writer to check out). I was not disappointed. All three stories were well done and easily stood on their own. Great book to curl up with for the holidays. Well done.

All three of these novellas were written by incredible authors and their talent shined through in each story. Each novella was extremely different but all had one major thing in common..... Christmas spirit. This is a perfect read on a cold December day sitting in front of the fire! Enjoy!!

This was a lovely festive read. All three novellas were well-written, but I enjoyed Fiona Riley's the most - the main characters had sizzling chemistry and their scenes together just came alive. The first two novellas were a little too tame for me but still enjoyable, with likeable leads and well-paced storylines. Given the depressing state of the world at the moment, this collection of novellas brings much needed Christmas cheer.

3.5/5

I really loved the first novella.
It had Fake Dating, my favourite trope, the characters were really well fleshed out and likeable and the writing was great! 5/5

The second novella seemed pretty dull and predictable. I loved the social anxiety rep but that's about it. Maybe the problem was that the love interest was a cop or that the characters seemed shallow, or maybe it was the writing style that felt like it wanted to seem "cool" by adding weird phrases that made me cringe.
It was not bad but also not good... 2.5/5

The third novella started with insta-flirting (like insta love but well... Flirting) which I found to be weird. After that, some rather steamy scenes in a nice writing style followed and made up for that first impression. This story, which I first thought pretty predictable, still took some small turns and surprised me positively. 4/5

If you need some festive quick reads for your busy holiday week, try this new anthology of three contemporary queer Christmas novellas. We've got fake dating and then two stories of work-related meet cutes. I personally liked Cummings' writing style the best of the three, but all three stories are adorable and do a good job establishing vibrant main and supporting characters in a short format.

Georgia Beers is my go-to feel good author, and the reason I picked up this book in the first place. And I was certainly not disappointed in either of these three stories. I was showered with the feeliest feel good of christmas spirit, and just wanted to curl up in front of the christmas tree, sipping hot cocoa under my favorite blanket.

To be recommended!