Gingerbread Kisses is an anthology of six love stories by six authors that happened on Christmas.
Do I recommend the book? I have to. It has three delightful, sweet, and romantic stories that also make you think. The fact that I disliked the other three stories shouldn't stop you from enjoying the good trio. Plus, you may have a different opinion and like all six.
***
Christmas Cookie Crumbles by Samantha Calcott is the first story in Gingerbread Kisses.
The story revolves around Molly Basile and Susie Seaver. Every year, Susie travels to her parents for Christmas, but she always makes a stop along the way to also celebrate on her own. This time, she stopped at Molly's town. It immediately conquers her heart by being an embodiment of Christmas. And maybe the fact that beautiful Molly was one of the first people she saw there helped.
Samantha does a very good job describing people, buildings, and the environment. Her characters have distinct personalities. The dialogue is mostly good. Most of the time, we follow Molly's point of view, but Susie takes the wheel a few times. It gives variety and perspective.
Molly loses her words when she sees Susie for the first time or when Susie gives her a present or asks her on a date. Susie, on the other hand, always seems confident and playful. Both don’t shy away from their feelings but handle them differently, which is very sweet. The difference in their personalities makes the story more interesting. From her side, Susie proves to be a gentle woman. She gives Molly time to get used to the sudden relationship.
But the romance is not the only thing that's going on. Even though Susui is on vacation, Molly has to manage her bakery. It was nice to read about different types of pastry. It was nice to see that Molly worked long and hard to become an excellent baker. The story is not only about love, and I appreciate it.
Unfortunately, the story has a few issues.
The smaller ones are all those pauses Samantha uses to make yet another point about the Sicilians and their culture or the town's history. While the characters just talk, the dialogue is good. But when Molly or someone else tells Susie the town's history or about their lives, their words suddenly feel wooden, fake, and rehearsed.
The bigger issue is that the ending is rushed. I feel I needed at least one more chapter dedicated to Susie. I needed to see how she realized what was going to happen. I needed to see her agonize over the decision. I needed to see her weighing her options. This would've sold me the idea that Susie indeed loved Molly instead of being very attracted to her. This would've made the solution that Susie found feel earned.
In the end, it's still a charming, well-written story. The fact that the ending bugs me can't ruin it, so I do recommend it.
***
Snow, Sips and a Smattering of Stars by H.M. Shander is the second story in Gingerbread Kisses.
At first, the story didn't click with me. Colleen, the main character, was too focused on a future prediction made by a Ouija game years ago.
I saw that Shander had a way with words. I enjoyed the cute and quite open relationship between Colleen and niece Kai. But I was also annoyed by sometimes wooden dialogue using very long and specific words.
Then, things got better. Colleen met Lumpy, and something resembling a romance started. The farther it went, the better it got. But then, Shander resumed overusing the Ouija game and its prophecy, distracting me from the emerging love between two people.
I loved Lumpy. It seems I can listen to him talk for hours. Colleen was okay at first, but then she started to “accidentally” and “uncontrollably” speak too many stupid things. So, by the end, I disliked Colleen quite a bit.
So, in the end, it would've been a charming and wholesome love story if the Ouija board were mentioned only twice and if Colleen controlled her tongue. But as it is now, I don't recommend this story. It's too short to read only good parts and have them make sense.
***
The third story of Gingerbread Kisses is "A Holiday For One?" by Katherine Moore.
This is a short romance story between Hailey and Brian Farris.
Well... The story should've started with the modified Chapter 3 because Chapters 1 and 2 were absolutely boring. I wasn't invested in Hailey yet. My interest in her started only in Chapter 2 when she saved injured Brian from freezing to death.
Chapter 4 was okayish, but the story kept being distracted by Hailey's interest in the investigation. Some people were committing financial crimes, and they happened to be the parents of a woman who used to be mean to Hailey at school. Since my interest in Hailey began only in late Chapter 2, those distractions were annoying. In Chapter 5, I learned that this investigation wasn't just Brian's job but that he was genuinely interested in it. So, by this time, I also got invested in this investigation, but by this point, the story was over. Thus, the investigation was just an annoying distraction for me, not something that brought value to the story.
Chapter 5 was the best. I was finally invested in Hailey. She finally had a real conversation with Brian, and I found that talk fascinating. It saddens me to imagine what the story would've looked like if it was Chapter 2, not 5. Then, I would've had three more chapters of a romance where I cared about both main characters. Alas, Katherine made different choices.
So, I do not recommend this story as it is now.
***
Darcy's Christmas Diversion by Alys Fraser is the 4th story in Gingerbread Kisses.
It tells a tale about Darcy, a famous TV baker. She used to love the show she created, but now the TV network wants to make changes she doesn't like. Like it wasn't enough, her fiance turns out to be a piece of shit. She has to escape, and so Darcy ends up in Mistletoe Falls.
She immediately falls in love with this town (village?) And she meets Carter. This was a very welcome change because the first chapter was a bit slow. Starting from the second chapter, the story is on point. Carter, unlike Darcy's former fiance, cares about what she wants. He offers help without asking for a reward. He speaks his mind and feels awkward only occasionally. He doesn't want to burden her with his project but is mindful enough to at least ask if she is willing to help. He, the people, and this whole town are so different from what Darcy is used to, and the difference is to her liking.
I think, the whole story is Alys' way of saying that a great change is sometimes very close by. I liked that Darcy wasn't sure about her next moves. I liked she didn't make important decisions in a rush. I liked the variety, sweetness, and hospitality of the characters. I liked that Darcy was strong enough to live her life the way she wanted.
Unfortunately, the story is not perfect. I liked some descriptions, but not the others. Alys had a bad habit of overexplaining and telling instead of showing a bit too frequently. Thankfully, none of these issues managed to ruin my enjoyment of the book. So, I do absolutely recommend it.
***
The 5th story of Gingerbread Kisses is Spruce Path by Anya Rouselle.
The story talks about Hollie Cole, a young woman who wants to become a vet. Her school and future university are far away, but she's returning home for the first time in three years to celebrate Christmas with her mom. That's not the only reason, though. Hollie's last relationship ended badly, so she hopes that some change of scenery will help her. Plus, Hollie loves horses, rides them exceptionally well, and misses the horse waiting for her back home.
Obviously for the genre, back home, Hollie meets someone. A young and beautiful man called Nick. He makes her feel safe. He seems to believe in her and understand her. He also seems to be cocky when it comes to horses, and Hollie, who considers herself knowledgeable and experienced, doesn't appreciate that. Nick seems to do things the other way. The whole story revolves around this concept. There are several ways to ride horses, take care of them, and use them in business. There are several ways to live, learn, and achieve one's goals.
As the story unravels, we learn more about Hollie's past and plans for the future, about the mental wounds made by her ex, and we learn more about Nick and his burdens. We see the start of Hollie's healing, the complications and doubts along the way, the painful return of the ex, and her acceptance of painful truths. In the end… Well, you should read the story and find out what happens in the end.
The story reveals necessary information gradually, so I never felt overwhelmed, and there was a bit of mystery about Hollie's past. The relationship between Hollie and Nick also evolves progressively and is double-sided. Nick wants to help and understand Hollie, and she wants the same for him. The love story is gentle. Both of them have many good qualities, and neither of them is free of cons.
Anya masterfully shows how beautiful Nick is and how Hollie feels about him. The chemistry between Hollie and her mom is wholesome. Anya's descriptions are colorful and detailed. The dialogue generally feels natural. The humor is on point. The story has cool phrases and imaginative ways of connecting certain parts. The characters are varied. The explanations about horses scattered across the story don't distract too much. The topics raised by the book made me think even in between the reading sessions, which I particularly appreciate.
I wanted Hollie and Nick to hook up. I wanted her to succeed. And as I learned more about Nick, I started caring about him, too. I've read some good books where I failed to care about the main character, so Anya did a good job here as well.
Now, let me mention the bad things as well.
The horse-centricity of the story sometimes made it hard to feel what was going on. People reacted a certain way, and I didn't understand them because I didn't understand their relationship with horses. This made Nick and his sister appear pointlessly cruel during a critical moment in the story. It didn't ruin the book, but I needed time to understand why they acted like this.
At times, the variety was lacking. Anya can start several sentences with the word “she,” for example, without considering my sense of aesthetics.
Anya is not a fan of always showing how her characters feel, and this made believing the story harder for me. There were places where I had no doubts about how Hollie felt because she cried or was glued to a window. But at other times, I was uncertain. I theorized that Hollie was rationalizing some of her actions instead of actually feeling how she claimed to feel. If you don't tell me “Hollie felt guilty,” or if you don't show it to me, then sometimes I will believe that Hollie convinced herself she had to feel this way for “reasons” without actually feeling any guilt.
Plus, Nick used a specific phrase so often that I was confused about how Hollie didn't get annoyed.
But in the end, none of those small cons could ruin my enjoyment of the story. I absolutely recommend it to every enjoyer of the genre!
***
A Gingerbread Kind of Love by Rayne Matthews is the 6th and final story in Gingerbread Kisses.
The story is not all bad. Usually, when we have love triangles, people in it are at odds with each other. But in Rayne's story, all three persons tried to make this work and be a trio of lovers. That's unusual for me, and so I wished the implementation was better so I could read such a story. Alas, Rayne's current work annoyed me so much that I stopped reading. I tried to return to it the next day but soon realized that sleeping over it didn't help, and the story was as annoying as the previous day.
First, multiple dialogues (not all) are given as a wall of text without any dialogue tags or actions. There were no changes in facial expressions or the pitch of voices. No one tried to avoid eye contact or looked at the speaker wide-eyed. No one had any thoughts behind their speech. I saw just words, didn't feel anything alive behind them, and disliked it a lot. Plus, the dialogue felt wooden in several places, and some characters explained what they already knew.
Secondly, I didn't feel this story belonged in this anthology. I felt no Christmas. There was nothing romantic in the part of the story I managed to read. Sure, the characters were attracted to each other physically and tried to be nice and accommodating. Still, it was not romantic enough for me and certainly not Christmasy.
Thirdly, there were hardly any feelings. The characters literally recounted the events but rarely felt anything. Instead of feeling pulsating pain in their heads, they told us they had a hangover. Instead of not noticing what was happening around them, they told us they kept staring at a gorgeous someone. It was very hard to believe a single word they said.
And finally, Rayne didn't respect me as a reader. When I read "…like I said before,"" her story was truly over for me. She didn't bother to create an organic way to remind me about past events, and she didn't trust me to remember them on my own.
In short, I don't recommend this story.
Available on
