Member Reviews
I am a fan of Diana Palmer and Delores Fossen but have never read anything by Kate Pearce. The stories by Diana.and Delores did not disappoint. It didn't feel like a short story. I liked the characters, setting and story line. I didn't care that much for the third one it did not seem as well developed and I didn't care for the characters. I would recommend it overall as a good Christmas and cowboys read.
this book contains 3 stories, I loved all the stories as these are some of my favorite authors. The stories center around christmas.
Once There Was A Lawman - Diana Palmer
FBI agent Thomas Kincaid Jones has soured on love and Christmas, but Annalisa Davis could change all that. Except the lovely nurse isn’t looking to get involved with someone whose job requires a gun on his hip. A delightfully entertaining novella I loved both Thomas & Annalisa. There as humour, suspense & romance
Christmas Creek Cowboy - Delores Fossen
In Christmas Creek, Texas, folks go all out for the holidays, but Sheriff Calen Jameson is too busy commiserating about cheating exes with his best friend, Emmy Kendrick. Calen always thought their bond was too precious to risk but! Another fun, entertaining novella with great characters
Coming Home For Christmas - Kate Pearce
Lucy Smith thinks Santa has outdone himself when Caleb Erickson, her brother's best friend shows up at her B&B. In high school, Caleb was oblivious to her crush. But while they wait out a snowstorm, he’s discovering she may be the gift he never knew he wanted. My favourite of the three, I loved both Caleb & Lucy & loved how he realised where his heart was. Relationships were mended & the icing on the cake a cameo appearance from Chase Morgan
Three charming, delightful novellas all are ideal for whiling away a couple of hours
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read
An enjoyable anthology containing 3 novellas set during Christmas time. Two of the novellas feature cowboys while the story by Diana Palmer's main hero is a FBI agent. Sweet, fun stories about falling in love. These were all enjoyable reads. A little bit early for Christmas stories, but all were interesting with likable characters. stories.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.
A trio of fantastic writing and sexy (if not sometimes broody) cowboys. I thoroughly enjoyed each of these stories. I had been familiar with Diana Palmer and Kate Pearce but Delores Fossen was new to me. Her writing didn’t disappoint. I will be looking out for her books in the future. 5 stars!!!
I love Anthologies and Christmas Anthologies most of all. There is nothing like a great Christmas story to make me happy. Christmas Eve Cowboy did just that. It was a delightful read and put a smile on my face.
Once There Was A Lawman - Diana Palmer
Tom is an FBI agent who’s in town trying to solve a murder investigation and Annalisa lives next door to the hotel that he has been staying at. When they meet they have an instant attraction to each other, but he’s only there for a short time and neither one of them are sure they should start anything that they can’t finish.
I thought this was a cute story and there was even a little bit of a suspense thrown in there. I liked both Tom and Annalisa and I enjoyed the small little town. 4 Stars
Christmas Creek Cowboy - Delores Fossen
Calen & Emmy are best friends who both had a very crappy last Christmas. They’ve spent the last year sharing the pain together, but they’ve also been falling in love. I loved Calen & Emmy so much.
A little bit of drama, found family and love between best friends. What more could I ask for in a story. I absolutely adored it! My favorite of the three. 5 Stars
Coming Home for Christmas - Kate Pearce
Lucy has had a crush on Caleb for many years. She thinks she’s getting an early Christmas gift, when her crush ends up at her doorstep.
Caleb is coming home to his fathers ranch when his truck breaks down during a snowstorm. Lucky for him that he ends up at Lucy’s B&B. This was a good story. I’ll be honest and say that it wasn’t my favorite of the 3 stories, but a good story all the same. 3 Stars
Three short stories to get one into the Christmas spirit. Was a little disappointed with the 1st story….Once there was a Lawman…..wasn’t a cowboy and Christmas seemed a afterthought. The other two stories hit the mark….Cowboys and the Christmas spirit were interwoven it the story. Loved that a found a new author in Delores Fossen and Kate Pearce Novella is a spin off of her the Morgan Ranch.
Thank you NetGalley for this eARC. I am voluntarily posting an honest review after reading an Advance Reader Copy of this story. #NetGalley #ChristmasEveCowboy
A heartwarming trio of small town Christmas romances written by three masters of the genre. Three men, soured on love and drowning in "bah humbug". Three women, full of holiday cheer and anxious to share it. Sometimes Christmas IS a time of miracles.
Diana Palmer
Once There Was a Lawman
FBI agent Thomas Jones just wants to solve the case he's working and get out of the small town which seems to be engulfed in Christmas cheer. He wasn't ready for ER nurse Annalise Davis and her sarcastic attitude. What he doesn't expect is that she becomes his greatest source of information about the town and it's citizens. In the process, she crawls under his skin and into his heart.
Delores Fossen
Christmas Creek Cowboy
Christmas Creek sheriff Caleb Jameson doesn't have much use for Christmas, not since the last one when he discovered his fiance was cheating on him. This Christmas doesn't promise to be much better.Caleb's best friend, Emmy, discovered a lost load of undelivered mail from several years earlier in the attic of the house she recently purchased. Caleb doesn't need the head aches as the town's citizens try to get hold of mail that just might contain secrets and surprises they prefer remain hidden. But it's Christmas, and sometimes secrets are meant to be shared.
Kate Pearce
Coming Home for Christmas
Caleb Erickson is headed back, somewhat reluctantly, to the small town he once called home. Being CEO of his own company has left him exhausted, burnt out, and wondering just what all his hard work is for. When his truck breaks down just outside town, he finds himself knocking on the door of the B and B, now run by his best friend's little sister, Lucy. She's no longer the annoying pest she used to be. Spending time with her in the B & B, which is decked out for Christmas and smells of gingerbread and sugar cookies, Caleb begins to consider the possibility that the answers he's looking for may just be in the last place he expected to find them.
Charming collection of Christmas couplings
This holiday set was a lot of fun to read. Each of the three stories is a standalone romance with its own HEA. Each is novella length, packed with complexities and substantive characters. With such a varied selection of authors, everyone is sure to find a favorite.
The first story, "Once There Was a Lawman" by Diana Palmer, was a sweet story about an FBI agent in town investigating a murder who connects with a local nurse who knows everyone in the small, close-knit community. There were a few continuity inconsistencies and the murder mystery wasn't much of a mystery, but the romance was a joy to read. Annalisa is a delight, and more than a match for Tom. I loved reading these two together, a natural sunshine/grump pairing, and I thought their HEA was perfectly suited for them.
The second story is "Christmas Creek Cowboy" by Delores Fossen. This captivating story pairs up friends Calen and Emmy, who are still smarting from the betrayal of finding their respective fiancés hooking up the previous Christmas. Add to that a community-wide mystery of some missing mail and we get a splendid everyone's-in-everyone-else's-business non-stop holiday romp that clears all the secrets and doubts that Emmy and Calen didn't even realize were keeping them apart. Set in a small, Christmas-themed town in Texas, this story was truly unputdownable and I loved every bit of it.
My favorite was saved for last. In "Coming Home for Christmas" by Kate Pearce, Caleb and Lucy are forced together by a snowstorm and find that even though they've known each other for years, there's still a lot to learn about each other and themselves. Set in a small mountain town in Northern California, one I'm intimately familiar with after having lived there for the better part of two decades, this story shows a different side of California, far from the typical SoCal starlets and beaches. It's not the first book I've read that is set in that picturesque region, but it is by far the most accurate to the real-life setting.
Caleb and Lucy each have family issues that must be addressed before they can figure out what they mean to each other, and just what their future can hold. I always love reading this author's vibrant characters and enthralling emotional journeys, and this compact story stands out as one of her best.
All together, this is a wonderful set of holiday stories, one that I highly recommend. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.
There's nothing quite like a Christmas anthology to get me into the mood for a white Christmas, and these three short novels did just that. As listed, they rated 3, 4, and 5 stars, respectively, and that became a 4-star average.
The first story is by Diana Palmer, Once There Was a Lawman. The lawman in question is Thomas, an FBI agent, only in Raven Springs, Colorado, searching for the person who kidnapped a young girl, and although the ransom was paid, left her to freeze to death in an empty cabin. Staying at the only motel in town, he parks in an adjacent driveway, which is how he meets Annalisa--it's her driveway, it's almost 11:00 p.m., and she needs him to move his car so she can get to work. He teases the younger woman about being a pole dancer--rather inappropriate, I must say. He's the typical Diana Palmer, cookie-cutter hero--tall, black hair, dark eyes, and with the usual forest full of dark chest hair. He's also more than a decade older than her heroine. Thankfully, he's not verbally abusive to Annalisa (many of Ms. Palmer's previous heroes have been), and also, thankfully, this story is not set in Texas, and I'll admit to not missing the usual Texas history lesson or an update on the entire cast of every novel of hers set in Jacobsville, Texas. Instead we have an interesting whodunit, and Thomas has a change of heart about small towns, as well as the younger Annalisa, all of which leads to an HEA ending. Not a great read, but a rather pleasant one. 3 stars.
The second short novel is Christmas Creek Cowboy by Delores Fossen, a truly enjoyable, quirky, and sometimes funny read set in Christmas Creek, Texas, where Calen Jameson is sheriff. He now hates Christmas because one year earlier, he walked in on his half-naked fianceé having sex with the mayor, who was dressed as Santa Claus. He commiserates with his best friend's younger sister, Emmy, who was engaged to Owen, the cheating mayor in question, and who, after Calen's father died, bought the house belonging to Calen's father. While searching the attic for Christmas decorations, Emmy discovers years-old bags of undelivered Christmas cards, letters and packages, and that discovery leads to some really interesting developments, revelations, an HEA ending, and this short novel was an absolute joy to read. 4 stars.
The third, and longest of the three short novels is Coming Home for Christmas by Kate Pearce. Her heroine, Lucy, runs her late grandmother's B&B in the small town of Quincy, in northern California, where she was born and raised. This is her first year running the B&B, and she's missing her gran's presence. It's been less than a year since the older woman's death, and Lucy is struggling to keep the business afloat--the bizarre weather has kept tourists away, her B&B is devoid of guests this Christmas season, and she's soon surprised by an unexpected, late-night visitor in the current snowstorm--Caleb Erickson, the guy she'd crushed since she was a mere child. He was planning to make a rare Christmas visit to his father's ranch when his truck broke down, and, in this small town, the B&B was the only place with its lights on. Trapped by the snowstorm, these two old acquaintances begin to bond--Caleb helping Lucy as the electricity goes out and her backup generator fails, and Lucy helping Caleb with some advice on his difficult relationship with his rather surly dad. The dead generator means Lucy will also be spending time at Caleb's father's ranch, and also, spending time in Caleb's bed--her longtime dream. As she helps Caleb and his dad mend their relationship, is it possible that her one/two-night stand with Caleb will turn into more? He lives and works in Seattle, and Lucy has no plans to leave town. But it's Christmas, a time for miracles, and also a time for HEA endings. This was my favorite of the 3 books in this heartwarming anthology, and it was a 5-star read for me.
All in all, 3 enjoyable reads that are sweet, a bit steamy, and just perfect for the Christmas season.
I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this anthology. The opinions stated are my own.
Once There was a Lawman by Diana Palmer 4 stars
Tom Jones (Chicago FBI) meets Annalisa Davis (Raven Springs nurse). He’s 11 years her senior so fights the attraction because he’s “too old” for her. Annalisa fights it since she knows he’s temporarily in town.
Christmas Creek Cowboy by Delores Fossen 5 stars
Sheriff Calen Jameson and bookstore owner Emmy Kendrick join forces to badmouth their cheating exes on a weekly basis but only amongst themselves. The undelivered mail was hilarious and also the newest scandal in town. I had fun with his story!
Coming Home for Christmas by Kate Pearce 4 stars
Caleb Erickson is a tech CEO coming home to Northern California from Seattle. Lucy Smith inherited the B&B in town from her grandmother. The family dynamics are not the best for either of these two, but they hunker down together when the storm hits.
A nice trio of romantic tropes. Interesting people. Not particularly cowboy oriented. Not a fan of intimate details, so those were skipped making a short story even shorter. Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary.
Once There was a Lawman-
So this story starts the book off strong! So with this story even though they just met it seemed to just work. The author made it seemed liked they had known each other forever and it didn't feel like the author was forcing it. I loved Annalisa she was feisty and she could hold her own she had the biggest heart for others. I liked Tom he came off like a know it all at some times but his heart was int he right place! I would say this story out of all three was my favorite.
Christmas Creek Cowboy-
This story was so cute it had small town drama, it had best friends finding love and it had a cute baby with tons of surprises. I think in the end the only thing I was more of was Nessa and her story she felt like such a mystery that needed to be discovered. I really Liked Emmy she was a pistol. Calen he seem to have the towns problems on his shoulders but did not let that stop him from being a kind human to everyone.
Coming Home for Christmas-
This story was probably my least favorite out of all three stories. The story seemed more forced then organic. I did like Lucy she was full of sprit and a fighter but I just felt like she could have done better then Caleb. Caleb was ok but he came off very self centered. I also really liked Chip he was such a wise soul.
Overall the book was a fun read and very quick read even with three stories. Each story does contain adult content that may not be suitable for all readers. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
It had great short and easy to read stories that all take place around Christmas time. I thought his was a great book to read around the holidays.
I received an electronic ARC from Kensington Books through NetGalley.
Three authors present short Christmas stories that pull readers in to celebrate with three couples who aren't interested in love.
Once There Was a Lawman -Palmer's romances share the sweeter side of romance but offer the depth of more intense plotlines involving murder. Her main characters are opposites in many ways and discover how similar they are too. I appreciate her gentle touch with characters.
Christmas Creek Cowboy - Fossen offers a look at two who caught their respective fiances' with each other in an embarrassing public incident. It's obvious to readers that they have feelings that go beyond friendship but it will take courage for one of them to risk their friendship by asking for more. The plot wrapped around these two offers a look at tangled family relationships within a small community. The author does not shy away from how gossip runs small towns and can cause damage but also bring support.
Coming Home From Christmas - Pearce offers a look at how difficult life can be when people refuse to talk with each other. Her two main characters have complicated relationships with their families that stem from not communicating. As the story progresses, both learn to share feelings and thoughts with each other and their families.
Well balanced set of three stories that usher in the holiday season. A lighter read that can be read in one sitting or three different ones.
I would like to thank Netgalley, Kensington Books and the authors for the E ARC of this anthology.
Book 1 – Once there was a lawman by Diana Palmer.
We meet Thomas who is an FBI agent on the hunt for the people who left a young woman in a cabin to freeze to death. On his 1st night in town, he meets Annalisa, she is a woman who knows what she wants and that is for Thomas to not park his car in her driveway, especially when she is trying to get to work. To make amends he invites her for dinner, she agrees and from there they decide to spend time together whilst he is in town. Annalisa loves Christmas, Thomas not so much, as they spend time together his no liking of Christ as thaws. Can they stay together once the case is closed? Will this Christmas be special for them both?
I really enjoyed this story, the plot was well paced and thought out, I really enjoyed the banter between Thomas and Annalisa, also the caring that they both had for each other.
Book 2 – Christmas Creek Cowboy by Delores Fossen.
Calen Jameson is the Sherriff in Christmas Creek; he doesn’t really want much to do with Christmas this year but the town does Christmas big. He wants to spend time with his best friend Emmy as they commiserate together about their cheating exes. However, Emmy finds some bags of mail that were stored in Calen’s father’s attic (she has bought the house). This sets the towns folk a flutter, there are a lot of people who want their letters. There is also a letter that Emmy sent Calen one Christmas, could this letter bring them closer together?
I loved the small town in this book, it had a nice feel to it. There were the quirky characters, fun Christmas decorations and a few characters that maybe were going to get an unexpected Christmas. Good plot and pacing.
Book 3 – Coming Home for Christmas by Katie Pearce.
Lucy runs her Gran’s B7B that she inherited. She loves everything about it, except the lack of people staying at the moment. The town is being struck with some severe snow and no one wants to be travelling in that. One afternoon a knock at the door finds her school crush Calen needing a bed for the night. He is trying to get to his father’s ranch just outside of town but his car has broken down. Spending time together a friendship starts and he helps her with things around the B&B that need some repair. However, things workout that Lucy has to go to Calen’s father’s ranch with him. Can they have a Christmas that neither of them thought of? Will Calen stay in town?
This was my favourite of the 3 books. I am a sucker for B&B running books. I loved the characters and the plot line. I was turning the pages to fins out what happened next.
A great anthology that would be perfect for sitting snuggled in a cosy blanket with the Christmas Tree lights twinkling, a hot cup of chocolate and the snow falling outside.
Once there was a lawman: really didn't like this one... It was hard to follow as the reader. I felt like the characters had the same conversation many times and spoke in circles. The plot was basically nonexistent
Christmas creek cowboy & Coming home for Christmas: both were okay. Hazard of a short story, but by the time I got connected to the characters & plot the books ended.
Thank you so much to Net Galley, the publisher, and authors for providing this book for my review. I love Diana Palmer and any story about cowboys at Christmas. This book has three novellas from three different authors. Each story is full of Christmas spirit, cowboys, and swoon worthy reading. If you love Christmas, romance, and cowboys then you will love this book. Thank you again to Net Galley, the publisher, and authors for providing this book for my review.
A little too much steam for me - which I flipped past - and not enough plot. These are short stories which are fun to read but I like more information to build up the relationship. This is completely just my preference. If you like quick reads that get straight to the relationship piece, you will like this - however it lacks relational details for me.
Christmas Eve Cowboy (Kindle Edition) by Diana Palmer, Delores Fossen and Kate Pearce
ONCE THERE WAS A LAWMAN * Diana Palmer
CHRISTMAS CREEK COWBOY * Delores Fossen
COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS * Kate Pearce
Three great cowboy Christmas stories with angst, redemption, forgiveness, wonderful characters, laughter, tears and steam getting us to three HEA's.
Reasons I enjoyed this book:
Romantic Great world building Informative Easy-to-read Action-packed Page-turner Steamy Funny Tear-jerker Happily Ever After Wonderful characters.
I enjoyed reading and reviewing this book.