Rating: 3.5/5
Blurb: This was a super cute holiday collection of winter-time romances. Some were spicier than others, and some really made me feel
Read if: You like collections of short stories, paranormal romance, erotica
Avoid if: You don’t like reading series out of order. All of the stories are stand-alone, but some are also able to be read within a series.
Final thoughts: This was such a fun holiday read with loveable characters. I liked that in most stories, the paranormal was treated as a normal occurrence. There is a Volume 2 which I plan on reading! I gave 3.5/5 because while cute, none of the stories really jumped out at me or “wow’d” me.

#1 Femme Brulee by Lily Rylee

𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔: ★★★
𝐶𝘩𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠: Etienne x Daphne (Vampire x Duchess)
𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝐿𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙: Low
𝑄𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑇𝘩𝑜𝑢𝑔𝘩𝑡𝑠: Set in December of 1765, France, Femme Brulee is the story of the Duchess who was tasked to kill the Vampire and eventually falls in love with him. The storyline is fun and a Vampire and a Duchess teaming up to catch a jewel thief was interesting to read. Also, a shout out to Daphne's cousin, Charlotte, who brought in quite the sass and humour in this short story.


#2 Dared and Decorated by Heather McCorkle

𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔: ★★★★
𝐶𝘩𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠: Sonja x Tyler (Seeker x Werewolf)
𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝐿𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙: Mid
𝑄𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑇𝘩𝑜𝑢𝑔𝘩𝑡𝑠: Dared and Decorated is a Children of Fenrir Holiday Story with a found family trope. Overall, this was cute, warm and hot enough for a quick Christmas read.


#3 A Wicked Christmas by J.E. McDonald

𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔: ★★★½
𝐶𝘩𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠: Maren Granger x Dane Peters (Human x Human)
𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝐿𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙: Low
𝑄𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑇𝘩𝑜𝑢𝑔𝘩𝑡𝑠: Maren inherits a house from her Uncle Jules after his death. When she moves there, she finds out that the house is haunted by the ghost of her uncle's sister, Gladys. Dane is the only one who is willing to help Maren fix her house.
There was quite the potential in this short story, however, I found it to be very monologue-ish. While this doesn't take away from the story I would have liked more interaction between Maren and Dane instead of Maren's thoughts filling the pages.


#4 The Twelfth Bite of Christmas by Gabrielle Ash

𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔: ★★
𝐶𝘩𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠: Anthony Redding x Chloe Davis (Vampire x Human)
𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝐿𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙: N/A
𝑄𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑇𝘩𝑜𝑢𝑔𝘩𝑡𝑠: This one had SO much potential but turned out to be an okay-ish read. This one was my least favourite out of the collection.


#5 Perfectly Magical by Lisa Edmonds

𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔: ★★★
𝐶𝘩𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠: Sean Maclin x Alice Worth (Werewolf x Mage)
𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥: An Alice Worth short story set after Book 7 in the series, however, this can be standalone.
𝑄𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑇𝘩𝑜𝑢𝑔𝘩𝑡𝑠: I don't think I've come across a shifter and mage romance, and not only was it interesting but quite magical as well. A special mention to Malcolm, Alice's ghost sidekick and a dog that shifts into a Kobol. Mystical, isn't it?


#6 When a Tree Falls by Leslie O'Sullivan

𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔: ★
𝐶𝘩𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠: Liliana/Leeni Fedele x Snapper Bakke (Human x Human)
𝑄𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑇𝘩𝑜𝑢𝑔𝘩𝑡𝑠: Yeah, this one was a big no. Leeni, quite frankly, came across as an asshole. Some people thrive off of control, planning everything down to the single minute and hate relying on people but being an asshole to someone who is helping you after you have a broken ankle and can't move? Yeah, no.

Additionally, this had one of the most unbelievable plot progressions, especially because of the prior exchange between the leads. We went from Leeni being an asshole all the way to the hospital and back and then to having sex with Snapper in a hot second.


#7 Thaw by Lilla Glass

𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔: ★★★★½
𝐶𝘩𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠: Evryl x Ialynne (Winter x Human)
𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝐿𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙: mild
𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒: Yes, Winter here means the winter season.
𝑄𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑇𝘩𝑜𝑢𝑔𝘩𝑡𝑠: This one has to be my favourite in this collection. The way the author describes winter was so poetic. The writing was smooth and flowing and I absolutely adored the story of winter's sacrifice and how all the seasons came to be. The imagery is stunning and this could easily be read as a children's fairytale.


#8 Seduction and the Winter Solstice by Lauren Connolly

𝐶𝘩𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠: Terra x Slate (Magic x Dom)
𝑄𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑇𝘩𝑜𝑢𝑔𝘩𝑡𝑠: Unfortunately, I don't remember much of this, other than the fact that is mortals/mortality with a dash of plant magic and elemental magic.




3 Stars!

This book has a wonderful mix of just about everything you could want from a paranormal romance anthology. This and the associated volume#2 gave me such joy in nice, easy to gobble up packages that I wish there were more readily available.

As I said, there's nice mix of assorted short stories. There is sure to be something for everyone. All have a common element of romance, with varying levels of smutty goodness thrown in. The book starts with a historical paranormal tale, but that is the only one of that kind. Mostly they are contemporary paranormal romances. Sometimes they exist outside of an existing world (or so I assume), but even those that are part of a larger world are not out of place in this anthology. This can definitely be read as a standalone set of stories to warm you up on a cold winter day.

A fair collection of short stories dealing with supernaturals. A bit different take on the holidays, but for the most part works. Easy to pick up, and easy to put down. General idea of short stories. Would recommend.

All of these authors were new to me as a reader, and I feel this anthology was a good introduction to them.

As stated above I am a new reader to these authors so some of the stories I didn't fully get because they were parts of a already well developed universe. Now that didn't turn me away though and I just made note of the stories I wanted to learn more about and added them to my TBR list. A couple of the stories where just straight there and I fully enjoyed them. I would say this is a good introduction to many authors and worth the read if you are looking for new authors to discover.

This is really hit and miss.

Some of the stories were very similar and left me feeling I had read them previously.

Although some were quite good.

It was really a case of more misses than hits.

This was a fun collection of novellas that really whet my appetite to read more by these authors! While a few were continuations from previous books, and thus not as engaging for me as a new reader, the others drew me in immediately and had me looking up the author for more of their work. A great way to draw in new readers, introduce intriguing characters in quick romantic bites, and raise money all at the same time. Brava!