Small Town Christmas by Jill Shalvis, Hope Ramsay and Katie Lane

Small Town Christmas

by  Jill Shalvis, Hope Ramsay and Katie Lane

Publisher:   Grand Central Publishing

Imprint:  Forever

Publish Date:  11/01/2011

ISBN: 9781455513611

Review courtesy of netGalley

Kissing Santa Claus NASCAR driver Logan Perrish returns to Lucky Harbor, Washington, with love in his heart and a ring in his pocket. But can Sandy Jansen forget the past and give him a second chance? Or will Logan be spending another Christmas alone?

I'll Be Home for Christmas After ignoring the advice of Miz Miriam Randall, local matchmaker, Annie Roberts expects another hum drum holiday in Last Chance, South Carolina. But when a stray cat arrives in the arms of Army sergeant Matt Jasper, a calico named Holly just may be the best matchmaker of all.

O Little Town of Bramble All Ethan Miller wants for Christmas is to celebrate in Bramble, Texas, with family and friends. But when his childhood neighbor, Samantha Henderson, comes home for the holiday, Ethan realizes that the girl-next-door could be the girl of his dreams.

My thoughts:

Three short stories set around the Christmas theme.  

The first book is by Jill Shalvis, ‘Kissing Santa Claus’, it is a subplot from her Lucky Harbor series. Logan is the ex-husband of Tara, Sweetest Thing.  Logan is a race car driver, while in visiting Lucky Harbor  he had a ‘one week holy-shit hot affair’ with the town clerk, Sandy. 

He finds one week is just enough to ........

know that he wants forever with her.  Getting Sandy to believe in him, in them, was going to be the most important thing he’d ever done.

I was surprised to find inconsistencies in the story. In the beginning of the story, Sandy  tried to get a replacement for someone to wear the Santa outfit, one of her choices was Ford Walker but he was away with his new fiancée (Tara) for a holiday getaway.  However, a few chapters later, we find Logan sitting with her (Tara) in her family’s B&B. 

I love the whole NASCAR theme, and I hope that Jill explores these hot men of the racing world. Maybe even, hint, hint, make a series for them.  Ladies, you agree?  On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!!!!

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‘I'll Be Home for Christmas’ by Hope Ramsay was a very quick story. It is the story of a returning war soldier (Matt) whose last mission is to deliver a Christmas package from a fallen solider.While on tour together, Nick would often share stories about his hometown, Last Chance and the people who lived there. 

Matt travels to Nick’s hometown to deliver a Christmas package that never made it home. In truth, he went to experience a Christmas liked Nick described in his stories.  When he arrives he finds a stray cat. While looking for the cat's owner, he finds Annie instead, Nick's ex girlfriend.

The simply act of kindness in delivery a Christmas package turns out to be the greatest gifts of all – love and the warmth of coming home.

This story had a lot of potential, possibly exploring more on topic of PTSD or the author could have done more to build the romance between Matt and Annie.

I found an error in this book as well, during a dialogue between Matt and Annie, the author mistakenly uses Nick’s name instead of Matt's: “I guess he never told you about me, did he?” Nick asked.

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'O Little Town of Bramble All'  by Katie Lane, although I love the idea of the storyline, this just didn’t hit the mark for me.  I didn’t feel the book had any structure and there were too many undeveloped characters.  In Samantha (Sam) returns home from college determined to let her childhood friend (Ethan) know how much he means to her. But is Ethan ready to own up to his true feelings?  I just didn’t feel connected and felt the story was rushed along. Perhaps I would have enjoyed this more, if I had read her previous books about the town of Bramble, Texas. 

I think you will find BETTER books out there to capture the Christmas spirit. If it wasn't for my love of Jill Shalvis's work, I would not have finished reading this book.


I received this ARC copy free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

My Rating: