Love For the Holidays (Bookblast, excerpt, review, GIVEAWAY, Goddess Fish Tours)

                                            


Love For the Holidays
Noelle Adams, Samantha Chase, Rachel Curtis and Zoe York

 Blurb:

From fake relationships to secret affairs to best friends falling in love, everything changes at Christmas.

This holiday bundle includes five stories, from steamy to sweet, including two new, exclusive stories from New York Times bestselling authors.

HOLIDAY HEAT by Noelle Adams - After being hit with heartbreaking tragedy, Carrie has thrown herself into a hot, secret relationship with Matt. With Christmas approaching, she realizes she might want even more from her sexy, damaged artist, but the boundaries around their relationship make anything deeper than sex impossible. A new, steamy romance.

MISTLETOE BETWEEN FRIENDS by Samantha Chase - Lily and Cam have been friends all their lives, and their relationship has never been romantic. But when they pretend to be dating so they can spend the holiday with their families in peace, they realize their fake romance might actually be real. A new, sweet romance.

THE CHRISTMAS COTTAGE by Samantha Chase - Spending the night trapped by a blizzard in a romantic Christmas cottage with the man she's loved for years has Lacey wondering if fairy tales really do come true. A sweet romance.

EIGHT CHRISTMAS EVES by Rachel Curtis - One Christmas Eve, Cyrus Owen, the over-indulged teenage son of a wealthy businessman, finds ten-year-old Helen on the side of the road. Eleven years later, he is desperately in love with her. This is how it happens... A mostly sweet romance.

WHAT ONCE WAS PERFECT by Zoe York - For Laney, the worst part of returning to her hometown for Christmas is confronting Kyle, the man who broke her heart twelve years ago. When they rediscover their perfect chemistry, Kyle has to convince Laney to let him back into her heart. A steamy romance.


Excerpt from Mistletoe Between Friends by Samantha Chase

“Focus, Lily!” he snapped and then immediately apologized for his tone.  “The holidays are here, my friend.  That means that there will be a steady stream of parties and get-togethers that we are going to be forced to go to and will have potential spouses thrown at us from every angle.”

“Personally I’m waiting for them to just position us at the foot of the driveway with mistletoe over our heads and signs taped to our chests that say ‘Please marry us’.”  The thought sent a shiver down her spine because she was really only partially kidding.  Lately her mother had really seemed to kick up the campaign to marry Lily off.  Not a day went by where Lily wasn’t asked if she’d met anyone decent or what her plans were for the future.

Dealing with her mother was an exhaustive full-time job within itself.

“I think it’s safe to say,” Cam began, breaking into her train of thought, “that neither of us is looking forward to another holiday season spent ducking and weaving through get-togethers to avoid the match-making patrol.  Agreed?”

“Agreed.  But what choice do we have?  Other than packing our bags right now and both of us moving overseas to get away from the insanity?”

“I’m being serious here.”

“You’re always serious, Cam.  I’m trying to get you to break that habit.”  When she got no response from him she sighed with annoyance.  “Okay, what do you have in mind?”

“We take ourselves off of the market.  If we’re involved with other people, they can’t spend their time trying to marry us off.”

“But we’re not involved with other people; that’s the problem.  Isn’t that what we’ve been talking about for the last hour?  I’m so confused…”

“You’re not confused, Lily, and don’t play the ditzy card with me,” he said patiently.  “I’m saying that we pretend that we are involved.  We.  You and me.”

Buy links:
Love for the Holidays  (Amazon link)


B&N
All Romance eBooks

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My review:

4 out of 5 stars

Love for the Holidays is an enjoyable collection of five stories celebrating the holiday season.

Holiday Heat by Noelle Adams give a glimpse of a couple of people struggling past the loss of loved ones.  Carrie’s life was turned upside down when her fiance was killed in a plane crash while Matthew Lynch has turned his back on the art world after the auto accident that scarred him physically and emotionally.  Their no-strings connection starts as a way to help them both cope with the upcoming holidays but it may not be enough for either of them.

Mistletoe Between Friends by Samantha Chase follows scientist Cameron Greene and his best friend Lily Cavanaugh who hatch a plan to convince their respective families to quit setting them up with incompatible dates...but the plan backfires, or doesn’t, depending on one’s perspective, and all of the mistletoe they keep encountering helps make things even more complicated.

The Christmas Cottage features Lacey Quinn as she struggles to provide her best friend Ava with an appropriately decorated honeymoon location. Between the bride’s unreasonable demands and faith in a family myth and the fact that the best man who is supposed to help with the task is the man Lacey has been in love with most of her life, the assignment may never be properly completed to the bride’s specifications.

Eight Christmas Eves by Rachel Curtis is a poignant look at orphan Helen who comes into the life of Cyrus Owen one fateful Christmas Eve and manages to share the date every year as she grows up through the years but she has trouble convincing Cyrus that she has grown up enough to know her own mind...and heart.

What Once Was Perfect by Zoe York is the first book in the ‘Wardham’ series and centers around plastic surgeon Dr. Laney Calhoun, who goes back to her roots in Canada but isn’t sure how to deal with the machinations of everyone who thinks that she should rekindle her relationship with ex-lover Kyle Nixon, even though they both broke each other’s hearts when she left for medical school.


All of these heartwarming stories combine heat and love in a holiday setting.  The ‘friends to lovers’ as well as the ‘former lovers to friends to lovers’ themes are exquisitely presented by different authors who put their individual stamps on these common tropes.  Each story deftly weaves an engaging holiday aura with characters who experience their share of sorrow or angst yet find a way to accept love in their lives.   My favorite story in this collection is Rachel Curtis’ poignant rendition of a young orphan girl who gets welcomed into a rather stiff family which still allows her to grow up with love and affection and I thought that the author did a wonderful job of conveying the passage of time by describing the events surrounding one particular evening each year.   I found these all to be wonderful reads that provide many hours of enchantment, especially appropriate for the season.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Noelle Adams, Samantha Chase, Rachel Curtis, and Zoe York are four bestselling authors of fun, smart, and contemporary romance, from sweet to sexy, who are collaborating on this holiday anthology.

Beginning on December 11, Love for the Holidays will be on sale for just $.99!

Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/UNVyuN88VEQ or embed code:

Author websites:
Noelle Adams

Samantha Chase

Rachel Curtis

Zoe York




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GIVEAWAY
$25 GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour, please use the rafflecopter and leave a comment about your favorite Christmas movie.


a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
Visit other stops on the tour which can be found at this link:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/11/book-blast-love-for-holidays-by-noelle.html