Winter Collection: Six Historical Short Stories (A Timeless Romance Anthology, Book 1)

Sarah Eden is a favored author, so I knew the book was in trouble when I had to restart her story twice. Generally, Timeless Romance Anthologies only publish new novellas (that haven't been in print before). Overall score = G+.THE ROAD TO CAVAN TOWN by Sarah M. Eden -- 3 starsIsaac Dancy. is enamored with the local beauty, Sophia Kilchrest. However, Issac's walking companion, Alice Wheatley, is in love with him. How can she get his interest? Who cares? Just plain boring.IT HAPPENED ON TWELFTH NIGHT by Heidi Ashworth -- 3 starsLuisa Darlington has been in love with Percy forever. However, she's just a gatekeeper's daughter, and he's of the aristocracy. Percy promises that they will be together after he returns from a world tour. When he comes back, he hardly gives Luisa the time of day. However, his mysterious friend, Joshua Flynn, is interested in her immediately. So, Luisa promises to marry Joshua Flynn after he returns from Ireland. Give me a break; didn't she learn last time? This attachment comes after 12 hours. Really?AN UNEXPECTED PROPOSAL by Annette Lyon -- 3.5 starsThis story takes place in a camp in Logan, Utah, in 1880. Butch Larson attacks Caroline Simpson, a camp worker. After he's fired, Caroline talks with her long-time friend James. She finds out James loves her and, upset that his declaration has upset the even timber of their friendship, she returns home from the camp. But James follows her home (he lives on a neighboring farm). Hearing the news of a dangerous snow slide, the town's young men gather to help. It is difficult work and Caroline worries about James' safety.CAROLS ON THE GREEN by Joyce DiPastena -- 3.5 starsWith a degree in Medieval History, this author knows her time frame; the things she writes about fit the era of the story. In her tale, Lady Isabel broke off her understanding with Sir Lucian de Warrene six months ago. Isabel's father insists that she find a husband in the next few days. To that end, she's having a huge party. When she finds a ring hidden in her apple tart, she decides to marry whomever it is; after all, "men are essentially the same." I thought this story was much ado about not very much.A WINTER'S KNIGHT by Donna Hatch -- 5 starsFive generations of Wyckburgs have been living under a curse caused by a Fairchild. Clarissa Fairchild and her great aunt are caught in a snowstorm at Christmas near Wyckburg Castle. Clarissa has heard the earls have murdered their wives at the Castle. When she meets the Earl of Wyckburg, widower Christopher de Champs, she decides that he needs help escaping from the curse. But how to go about that? Fascinating story.A FORTUNATE EXILE by Heather B. Moore -- 4 starsA notorious womanizer has duped Lila Townsend; Lila's father banishes her to Aunt Eugenia's remote farm to protect her name. The goal is for Lila to wait for her father's wrath to cool and the gossip columns to find other misalliances to report. When she gets to Aunt Eugenia's farm, Lila meets Peter Weathers, a Yale student. Although the attraction seemed quick, it was an entertaining story.

I did appreciate that these stories did not all feature Regency London debutantes facing the season's "diamond of the first water." Many of the heroines were more like serviceable rubies. Also, they lived in diverse places and a variety of time periods.Half of the stories, however, featured irritating heroines. Annette Lyons' tale had an h who needed lots of stereotypical melodrama to finally appreciate the H. Donna Hatch's h was incredibly naive. How she could not have heard of a curse involving her family or thought her handsome neighbor was a wizened old madman was beyond me.And Joyce Dipastena's "Caroleing on the Green" not only misspelled "caroling," but had a heroine who acts like a 2-year-old, making demands, throwing tantrums, and endangering herself and others.Two of the stories were a bit better. Heidi Ashworth's entry involves a jilted young woman who must spend time at the jilter's family house party. She is a nice young woman, but I'd warn her to take her time with a man who is in love with her before he meets her. Heather Moore's tale, " Fortunate Exile," has a debutante banished to the farm of a stingy, mean-hearted relative, where she meets a young Yale student. Her main objective is to follow her father's rules and get back in his good graces. Then she does just the opposite, as if the beginning of the story disappeared by the end.The one novella I enjoyed was Sarah Eden's "The Road to Cavan Town. The story was a basic friends-to-lovers tale. The H and h become good friends as they walk from the country into Cavan Town every weekend: she to care for elderly parents and he to court the local beauty. The characters are charming and I liked Eden's method of dealing with the problem of writing about the Irish--should she write in dialect, which is often hard to write and difficult to read, or should she ignore dialect entirely? Eden chose a middle path by using "ya" and "yer" to remind readers the characters have Irish accents.

Individually, I would probably only rate each novella 4 stars; but it was such a pleasure none disappointed. All authors were new to me. The stories varied in time and place, but all were clean. I would definitely recommend if you enjoy Christmas romance novellas.

These anthologies are meant as a sampler of the author's writing. I have read books by most of these authors, and I only wanted short, entertaining stories, so I was satisfied. I was a little disappointed in the proofreading of some of the stories, especially An Unexpected Proposal.Shorter works don't allow for a lot of development, but I thought these all had something to offer. I enjoyed the variety of settings and time periods.

Audience: AdultGenre: Short story collections, Historical RomanceLength: 251 pagesRating: **** (Really liked it)The Pros: I love historical romances and I loved that I could sit down and spend thirty minutes to an hour and complete one. I loved that I got a mix of different styles and different eras all in one book. I'm familiar and really like the work of some of the authors (Sarah and Heidi Ashworth), so it was great to read more from them! I *know* some of the other authors via Twitter and Facebook (everyone else), but had never read anything by them, so it was great to get introduced to their work. I'm definitely going to play some favorites. Of course Sarah's "The Road to Cavan Town" was one, as well as Annette's "An Unexpected Proposal" and Donna's "A Winter's Knight." I have to mention that what really grabbed me about "A Winter's Knight" was the mix of regency and otherworldly stuff. (Which of course reminded me of Sarah's latest novel, AN UNLIKELY MATCH.)The Cons: Well, that they were all too short? Ha! Some of the endings were a little too neat and simple, but I suppose more complexity would have meant longer and not in this collection. :DDisclaimer: Nothing.Read this review and others at [...]

All the stories were a nice combination of romance, all in their own unique ways. All stories were written well and all were brought alive from the page and were easily imaginable.

In dieser Sammlung sind nicht alle Geschichten gut. Unlogik ist eine häufige Zutat, auf die ich gut verzichten könnte.Die erste Geschichte bezaubert vor allem durch das irische Umfeld 🤩