Holiday For Two (a duet of Christmas novellas)
by: Maggie Robinson & Elyssa Patrick
Publication Date: Dec. 9, 2013
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Group: Adult
Source: e-ARC received from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Page Count: 143 pages
Order Links: Amazon | B&N
My Rating: All Through the Night: 3/5 stars
While it Was Snowing: 3/5 stars
Two light, sexy contemporary romance Christmas novellas where the couples are snowbound for the holiday. 46,000 words total and only 99 cents!
All Through the Night by Maggie Robinson
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays personal assistant Carrie Moore from the swift completion of her appointed rounds. She is used to delivering for the rich and famous. Can she mend a hunky English lord’s heart and not get him deported?
While It Was Snowing by Elyssa Patrick
Felicity Evans and Harry Walsh have been best friends forever, but lately, Felicity has noticed the looks Harry has been giving her. And she’s going to do something about it. Sex solves everything, or so she hopes. But she never knew Harry was a virgin—until now. Being snowbound in a Vermont cabin is the perfect opportunity to take things to the next level . . . and perhaps dare to lay her heart out on the line.
When I saw Elyssa Patrick had written a Christmas novella, I was ecstatic. I read and loved her novel Stay With Me a few months ago, so naturally when I saw this I immediately added it to my TBR pile!
All Through the Night by Maggie Robinson was first. It was a light-hearted, cute story about two strangers (kind of) that get stranded together for a night, since they missed the last ferry to their destination. I say kind of strangers because Carrie Moore knows of Lord Griffin Archer and he knows of her. He is her employer's nephew and is headed to see his Aunt for Christmas. Carrie knows he's off limits as he is engaged to someone else (oh and he's a Viscount for pete's sake!), but she can't help but notice how attractive he is.
Carrie was a humorous character. Her inner-monologue made me laugh and it cracked me up watching her try to use English expressions with him. He, on the other hand, really was a bit stuffy to start. Griffin clearly lives on the straight and narrow and is not happy with how he and Carrie had to procure their staying arrangements for the night. However, his stuffy demeanor starts to fade away as the night wears on and he finds himself surprised to be thinking of Carrie in more than a friendly way. She is not his usual type at all, but then again, nothing about their situation is usual.
It's easy to pretend to be people you're not and do things you wouldn't normally do. That is exactly what happens with Carrie and Griffin.
I did feel that Griffin acted a bit out of character at the end of the book and I had trouble determining whether or not he was serious or not. That was the only thing that threw me that I felt could have been left out.
Overall, Robinson provides us with the right amount of steam and humor to make this a fun, enjoyable read.
"I'm not sure what a prat is," Miss Moore said, "but it sounds about right. And you should call me Carrie. If you don't mind, I don't think I can Lord Archer you all night, either. Is it okay if I call you Griffin? I won't get beheaded for my lack of etiquette?"
"Alas, my sword is in my other suitcase."
While It Was Snowing by Elyssa Patrick concluded the duet and I found myself laughing out loud during it. I must admit, it went a completely different direction than I expected from reading the blurb. While, I enjoyed this one, I found myself quite frustrated with our main characters Felicity and Harry.
Felicity and Harry have been best friends forever. Both of them have harbored feelings for one another, but have never acted on them. Now, Felicity has decided she's tired of hiding from Harry. The two find themselves together at their parents cabin and Felicity wants to show Harry how she feels. However, much awkward hilarity ensues. Seriously, I was cracking up reading this. Let's just say the old whipped cream bikini did not exactly work out in Felicity's favor.
Felicity is a fun character. She is bold, brazen, and not afraid to put herself out there. Harry, on other hand, has an adorable geekiness to him. There were some points where I wanted to bop him over the head for being so dense and naïve. Even though he has been in love with Felicity for a long time and she is finally offering herself to him, he freaks out. He wants her, desperately, but he is terrified of ruining their friendship. He lets his self-consciousness and his doubts weave their way in and ends up making their time together really strained.
I felt Felicity and Harry were both a bit immature in their reactions to each other. In fact, I really want to knock their skulls together and yell at them for being so ridiculous. Harry is afraid of not only their friendship being damaged beyond repair, but he is also afraid of being hurt by her. Which in turn, hurts her because she is appalled he would even think that way about her. Both are incredibly stubborn individuals, but after some introspection, Harry realizes that losing Felicity completely would hurt even more.
If you are looking for a holiday read that will provide you a good laugh, this is definitely the novella to pick up.
Elyssa Patrick is a former high school English teacher who left the classroom to write contemporary romances and New Adult. She is currently har
