Christmas Cowboys
Authors: Ann Major - Stella Bagwell
Paperback: 388 pages
Publisher: Silhouette (October 1, 2002)
Received: Library


My Rating: 2 out of 5

Summary:
The first story in this Omnibus is A Cowboy Christmas by Ann Major. And honestly, it was this short story that pulled my thoughts on this book way down.

Heddy and Lelander were both born on Christmas Eve. That's pretty much were the similarities end. She's daddy's little princess, and he's an orphan from the wrong side of the tracks. And yet, they still manage to fall in love.

My big issue with A Cowboy Christmas was honestly a very small thing but it annoyed me to no end and really killed the story for me because it was all I could think about. So the small town that Heddy and Lelander live in, have an ice cream parlor called Dairy Princess. Yeah, it's a really small thing, but for some reason it drove me up the wall. To me it felt as if the author couldn't come up with a more original name, and instead figured well, Dairy Queen is pretty good, but this is a small town so lets only give them a Dairy Princess.

Other than that the story was solid. Lelander was shunned from the town him and Heddy lived in because everyone believed he had killed Heddy's father after a rather heated argument. So Lelander moves himself to Alaska, and becomes a famous writer with a horrible deep dark past. While Heddy lived in the small town and raised their daughter.

As characters I really like Lelander, but Heddy was such a door mat .She stayed in the town where she grew up and lived under the thumb of her grandmother. She didn't stand up for her husband and let him walk away, and ugh. The more I think about it the more I really didn't like the first story.

The second story in this book was A Christmas Cowboy by Stella Bagwell was much better in comparison. Lucinda picked up and left everything she knew in Chicago to get away from a stalker ex-boyfriend. Chance happened to notice her car on the side of the road after she had spun out during a winter storm. He rescued her and brought her back to his home the D Barr D. Where his sisters engagement party was going on.

For me this story really made up for the lackluster of the first one. Lucinda was a bit of a doormat but she had every reason to be. She was on the run, hoping to not draw any attention to herself least her abusive ex come and find her. Chance had been hurt and vowed to never fall in love again. But when he meets Lucinda, he comes to feel things for her he had thought he would never feel again.

There were parts of this story that really touched a cord inside of me. The one part that honestly sticks out is when Chance gives Lucinda a kitten. His reasoning is that she had never had a pet. It was such a simple and small gesture but it was what made me as a reader fall in love with Chance.

If there was a way I could recommend A Christmas Cowboy without having to recommend A Cowboy Christmas I would. But since I cannot do that, I honestly wouldn't recommend Christmas Cowboys.

Have you read Christmas Cowboys? Let me know what you thought of it, maybe I missed something in the first story that you think I should know! Leave me a comment!

Troy High
Author: Shana Norris
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Amulet Books (August 1, 2009)

My Rating: 2 out of 5

Summary:
First off let me say I know I promised spooky and scary books for October, but honestly, what's scarier than a bunch of football players and cheerleaders? (Hahah, I tease!) Now onto the review!

Troy High is supposed to be a modern retelling of Homer's Iliad. Cassie goes to Troy High, and her best friend and crush, Greg, goes to Lacede High. The rivalry between the two schools is fierce and Cassie really doesn't understand what the big deal is.

Both Cassie and Greg have older brothers who play on the Football teams, Cassie's for the Trojans of course, and Greg's for the Spartans. When a cheerleader from the Spartan's team is forced to switch schools and ends up going to Troy, all hell breaks loose. Elena, the former Spartan cheerleader, was one of Greg's brothers girlfriend. When she switches schools and teams, she also switches boyfriends and ends up dating one of Cassie's brothers. It is then and there that Cassie and Greg have to deal with the football rivalry, and put their friendship at stake.

The pranks the two schools pulled on one another were pretty funny, but a bit unbelievable for me. I liked reading this book, and the characters were like able, but for me it didn't click. Cassie and Greg's emotional teenage angst was real and believable, but that was about all that was. I also wasn't a big fan of the cover, I suppose it could be Elena depicted. But honestly the book was all Cassie, and Cassie wasn't a cheerleader.

I think that this book would be good in the classroom environment. It would take Homer's Iliad and bring it much closer to home for students.

Lily and the Major
Author: Linda Lael Miller
Softcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Pocket (December 1, 1990)

My Rating: 2 out of 5

Summary

Lily has strong dislike for anyone in the military. After all, it was the military, or rather someone in the military, that made her mother give her up Lily and her sisters.

When Major Caleb Halliday rescued Lily from some rather rowdy soldiers she thought that she would be rid of him. However Major Halliday had other plans. He began a seduction so strong, that Lily was helpless to resist him.

Okay, so this book was a pretty quick read. And some of the scenes between Lily and Caleb ... super hot. But there was something missing. Maybe it was the way Lily acted more like a modern woman than she should have, or maybe it was just that it seemed every 3 pages Lily and Caleb were falling into bed, or over a horse, or in a corner. It seemed like the sex was there strictly for the sex. To me it felt like oh Lily and Caleb are fighting again and then within seconds they had their clothes off and were tearing at each other.

I will finish reading the series, mainly because I don't like to start something and not finish it, but I will not be keeping this book in my collection. It simply wasn't for me.

I'd recommend it to others who like Western Historical Romances, but would do so with a warning.

If you've read this book, please leave me a comment and tell me what you think. I'm very interested in knowing what others thought of this book, especially because I didn't care for it much. Maybe I missed something.

Lions and Tigers and Bears
Author(s): Kate Steele, Jodi Lynn Copeland, Kit Tunstall
Paperback: 261 pages
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave (February 2006)

From the back of the book:

Hidden Heart by Kate Steele

Rafe Kutter is hiding a terrible secret, and with it his heart. he’s a werebear determined to never pass on his curse to a child of his own. Bold and bewitching Lindy Timberlane not only frees his heart, but ignites a blaze of passion that he fights to deny.

Amazed by Rafe’s abilities and appalled that he believes he’s cursed, Lindy risks her own heart to help him accept his gift and hopefully her love.

Lion Eyes by Jodi Lynn Copeland

Liddy’s out to vindicate the linos in her sanctuary from an accusation of murder and absolve her own buring hunger for the one man she knows better than to want.

Kevin has wanted Liddy since first meeting her. Two obstcles stand in the way of that desire: skin color and the fact taht Kevin is leader of the area shapeshifter pride.

Too many humans fear shapeshifters, and Kevin believes Liddy may be among them, especially when the truth is revealed - it isn’t a normal lion responsible for the killing but one of Kevin’s own kind.

Tiger Eye by Kit Tunstall

The attack of a tiger nearly killed Grant Hayden as a child, and only the strength of the big cat saved him. But the ritual performed by an African medicine man also left him with the side effect of taking on a tiger’s form. Guarding his secret has necessitated he not get too close to any woman. That proves difficult when Dr. Zinsa Senghor takes up temporary residence in his veterinary clicinc to esacpe the nearby fighting of the civil war ravaging Mekimba. Zinsa is more temptation than he can withstand, but Grant fears her reaction when she discovers the nature of the beast locked inside him.

Personal review:
While each of these three stories were hot, they didn't do it for me. I don't know if the were-creature thing is to blame or just because the characters seemed to be a little flat. However, the imagery from the writing was very good.

Rating: 2 out of 5