Christmas Stars

 A collection of Yule time Christmas stories - some Science Fiction, some Fantasy.

Christmas past, present and future.

As usual with short story collections, some I liked more than others. My favourites were;
Miracle by Connie Willis
The Greatest Gift
The Gifts of the Magistrate
and Stars Over Santa Claus


Sci Fi Christmas stories was a bit different.

Shakespeare's Christmas by Charlaine Harris

 Lily is less than thrilled about going home for the holidays, especially when her sister's wedding is involved. She loves her family, but things just haven't been the same since she was violently assaulted years ago. To add to her notoriety, Lily manages to nab a purse natcher within a few days of her arrival and then is the first to walk in on a brutal double homicide. Before the buzz even begins to die down, Lily's detective boyfriend Jack Leeds shows up at the wedding rehearsal. Much as Lily would like to think that Jack showed up to offer her his moral support in her time of need, she knows better. Jack is investigating an eight-year-old kidnapping and the trail leads right to Lily's hometown - and her sister's widowed fiance. With only three days before the wedding and corpses piling up all over town, Lily must work fast to clean up the messy case before her sister commits...marriage!

I thoroughly enjoyed this Lily Bard installment. Both the mystery and Lily's personal relationships were well done. 

Wizard's Daughter by Catherine Coulter

When Ryder Sherbrooke finds a child nearly beaten to death in an alley in Eastbourne, he takes her home to Brandon House. She doesn't speak for six months. Her first words, oddly enough, are a haunting song: I dream of beauty and sightless night I dream of strength and fevered might I dream I'm not alone again But I know of his death and her grievous sin. Ah, and just what does this strange song mean that was seemingly imprinted on the child's brain? She names herself Rosalind de La Fontaine since she cannot remember who she is. In her first season in London in 1835, under the aegis of the Sherbrookes, she meets Nicholas Vail, the seventh Earl of Mountjoy, newly arrived from Macau. It is instant fascination on both their parts, but for different reasons. With Grayson Sherbrooke, they are led to an ancient copy of a mysterious book written by a sixteenth-century wizard. The book is written in a baffling code that neither Grayson nor Nicholas can read. But Rosalind can, easily. Strange things start happening. Both Nicholas and Rosalind know it has to do with the old book and, perhaps, even her past, particularly the song she first sang as a child. The urgency builds as they realize Rosalind is the key to a centuries-old mystery.

A romance with some magic.  it could have done with more and better explained magic.

Ill Wind by Rachel Caine

Joanne Baldwin is a weather warden who can control the weather and keep it from being more destructive than it could be. There are fire and earth wardens as well, and they all work for a secret agency that organises all warden activity to protect humans from the worse that nature can throw out. The wardens work together to magically control natural events such as cyclones, raging fires, and earthquakes under the direction of the agency. The agency has very strict rules and regulations for the use of warden power. If a warden goes bad, the agency strips that person of their powers and erases their memories. The most powerful wardens have their own djin, magical beings that enhance warden powers. Joanne doesn’t realise it yet but she is one of the strongest and most powerful Wardens in the agency.

Like all organisations there are those who scheme for control and Joanne’s boss – Bad Bob – has taken on a demon in his bid for power. His goal achieved he needs to rid himself of the demon, and the only way he can do this is to find a more powerful Warden and force him or her to accept it. He selects Joanne as his victim and in the process of passing the demon on to her he is killed. The book opens with the demon possessed Joanne running for her life to the only person she believes can help her. She is pursued not only by Agency operatives who believe that she killed her own boss, but the forces of nature itself, there is a big storm following her and seems intent on killing her. Joanne has to figure out who is after her and why, who she can trust and above all how to get rid of the demon and survive.

I was a bit unsure at first, the idea of people who control the weather was a bit   blah, but once I got into loved the ride.  Lots of twists and turns, lots of action and a possibility of romance.

I will be keeping an eye out for more in this series. 

Hunting Julian by Jacqueline Frank

As a guardian for his colony, Julian Sawyer travels to Earth to bring back the Chosen - women who possess energy potent enough to help revitalize his people. The stunning, silver-clad beauty who strides into his club one night radiates a sensual magnetism unlike any he's encountered, and Julian realizes that Asia Callahan is not just Chosen, she is his kindra: his one true mate. For months, Asia has tracked the beautiful and mysterious Julian across the country, convinced that he's behind the disappearance of her sister and a dozen other women. She's prepared to believe he's a ruthless killer, but when she presents herself as bait, she discovers that the truth is far more shocking. Taken to a strange, hazardous realm she never knew existed, Asia will face the ultimate choice - between abandoning the life she's always known, and forsaking a passion as dangerous as it is power.


I really enjoyed this.   The usual mis- understandings on the path to true love and all that with a happy ending.  I'll be looking out for more in this series.

Crossbones by Nancy Pickard

When the Port Frederick, Massachusetts, Civic Foundation learned it was about to inherit a $4 million Kansas cattle ranch, it was up to Jenny Cain to check out this most unusual bequest. Unfortunately, when Jenny arrived at the hospital room of the Foundation's mysterious, gravely ill benefactor, Charles W. 'Cat' Benet IV, he was already dead. Murdered. Yet out on the Crossbones Ranch, Jenny was unexpectedly content. Maybe it was the wide open spaces. Or maybe it was the ranch hand Quentin Harlan, with his deep blue eyes and old-fashioned charm...

Suddenly Jenny had to concentrate hard on missing her husband Geof and her holiday. She was a happily married woman - and Cat Benet's will meant that Quentin Harlan just might be a murderer. But Benet's bizarre family tree yielded far more likely suspects: estranged daughters, unhappy ex-wives, their jealous second husbands... 

 Strange sort of mystery and , by the end, not a real surprise. 

Tanner's Scheme by Lora Leigh

After the Feline Breeds' main base is attacked, Tanner desires revenge. So he kidnaps Scheme Tallant-the daughter of a one-time high-ranking member of the Genetics Council. But when Tanner discovers that Scheme herself is a target of her father's ruthless mission, his vengeance takes a back seat to saving the life of the woman he hopes to claim as his mate.

 I didn't like her name - Scheme. It sounded contrived to make it fit the title pattern.

The book itself was a fun, light, sexy read with a touch of spanking and exhibitionism.

ThePuzzle Bark Tree by Stephanie Gertler

 Grace Hammond and her sister Melanie grew up in a home with very little emotion. Their mother would sit for days on end in her room, not talking to her children. Their father was a busy lawyer and spent most of his time at home consoling his wife. Grace and Melanie grew to love their housekeeper, Jemma, like a mother.
When Grace and Melanie are grown up, they make a tradition of seeing their parents during the Christmas holiday. Jemma decides to head to the Hammond household a couple days before Christmas to help them get ready but makes a shocking discovery. They are both sitting in their bed, dead. When the will is read, Grace discovers that her parents left her a house on an island that she never knew her parents had.
Grace tries to cope with finding out why her parents lived as they did, why she never knew about this island, reoccurring dreams of her and her sister drowning, and a very emotionally detached husband.

I really enjoyed this. There is romance, but to me the mystery, the family secrets and the relationship between the sisters was the main focus.

I enjoyed this very much. 

Harmony's Way by Lora Leigh

Harmony Lancaster has been an outcast from the Breeds since the day she broke out of the lab that was her home and killed every human in the facility. While Harmony will never claim she did it for noble reasons, what pushed her to that point was the safety of her brother, Jonas. While all Breeds do claim familial ties, Harmony and Jonas had the same mother. The mother Harmony killed during her escape. For years, she's been on the run from Jonas. Harmony is certain that the day Jonas finally captures her will be the day she dies. What she doesn't except is for Jonas to give her a way out and a chance at a normal life. All she has to do is go to Broken Butte, NM, and work for the Sheriff's Department, under the direct supervison of Sheriff Lance Jacobs. The last thing she expects to find is her mate.

Sheriff Lance Jacobs has experience dealing w/ the Breeds. Jonas Harrington has to be his least favorite Breed. After mating w/ Harmony before knowing who she was, Lance is convinced taht Jonas is playing the mind games that he seems to love so much. What Lance isn't prepared for is the protectiveness that seems to come so natural to him when it comes to Harmony. Over and over, he tries to show her that her past is exactly that...the past.

Soon Lance and Harmony realize there is more at stake than Harmony's freedom from her past. For Harmony has information that she stole on the night she escaped from the labs...information on the first ever Breed, who is still alive. Harmony soon finds that she'll do anything to stay at Lance's side, even if it means trusting him as she has trusted no other.

I didn't enjoy this one as much as Megan's Mark, mainly, I think, because it was a female breed and male human. There was one spanking scene and a bit of talk of D/s amongst the many sex scenes.

 I am sooo tired of Jonas and his manipulating everyone. I hope he soon gets his own book and gets the difficulties he deserves. 

Megan's Mark by Lora Leigh

In an intriguing new world, genetically altered Breeds and the humans who created them commingle-and sometimes cross the boundaries of desire. Now, an empathetic sheriff's deputy and an arrogant Feline Breed hunt elusive killers while falling prey to their insatiable hunger for one another.

Lots of sex.  All through the book there was talk and threats of a spanking.  Eventually the spanking happened.  Well written, mild but very erotic spanking followed by anal.  I liked this book and have already started the next in the series.