Short Story Review: The Christmas Phoenix, by Patricia Kiyono

The Christmas Phoenix
Patricia Kiyono
Kindle Edition, 70 pages
Clean Reads
November 24, 2011
Christmas Romance, Contemporary Romance,
Short Stories
Source: Amazon

Synopsis: Jess Tate is trying to make a life for herself and her teenage son after her husband's sudden death. Running the family’s struggling landscape business in Northern Michigan has been hard work, and her son hasn’t been much help. She’s managed to get by, learning to run the big equipment herself, but between snowplowing early in the mornings and working her daytime job in town, she often wonders if there will ever be more to life than endless work.

Talented ice sculptor Jake Thompson had fame and fortune in St. Louis, but he’s been forced to start over after a disastrous relationship left him embittered and deeply in debt. His sister’s remote vacation home in Northern Michigan is the ideal retreat to lick his wounds and rebuild his career in peace and quiet—-except a certain feisty redhead and her teenage son have a penchant for disturbing his solitude.

In the snowy winter, Jake and Jess unexpectedly find their lives and attitudes begin to change. Will family involvements and ghosts from the past keep them apart, or are they strong enough to risk rising from the ashes of their lives like the mythical phoenix?

This is the very first time I review a short story on this blog. I much prefer to read longer works, even if I don't review as many of them afterward. However, this particular short story grabbed me because of that cover! I have never seen such an unusual, STUNNING cover on a Christmas romance before!

This is also the first time I encounter the symbolism of the phoenix used in a romance short story (or novel, for that matter), whether it's Christmas-themed or not. In this delightful work, it applies perfectly to the two protagonists; both of them are indeed "rising from the ashes" of their painful pasts in order to start anew.

Another first for me is coming across an ice sculptor in a work of fiction, whatever the genre. From what the author describes, this is a beautiful, although delicate and painstaking artistic endeavor. Actually, I had never heard of this art form, either. It seems incredible that an artist could actually sculpt something beautiful out of a material as ephemeral (although deceptively solid) as ice. (The same thing can be said for those artists who build elaborate sand castles.) Obviously, this is another aspect of the story that caught my attention right away!

Although this is a very short work, the author hooked me from the very beginning. That's because her characterizations are excellent, and she has an eye for realistic detail. While I read, I actually felt that I was up there in northern Michigan, surrounded by all that lovely snow! (I've never seen snow up close and personal, so to me, it's an aesthetic treat. Lol.)

This short story almost feels like a full-length novel, and I would have loved it if Kiyono had written it as such. However, I was able to get into the plot and enjoy it, even as I began to wish that she had, indeed, given me more of these characters I had begun to like as if they lived right next door. 

Jake was a wonderful guy! Even with his war wound, which gave him chronic pain, he was not the type of person to complain. All he wanted was the solitude necessary for him to create his ice masterpieces. However, he was not immune to the attraction he immediately felt for Jess, whom he soon came to admire, because of her gutsy attitude and concern for her teen son.

Jess worked hard -- TOO hard, in Jake's opinion. After some initial mistrust, he soon began to feel comfortable enough to tell her so. Then he began to help her, and also got her son, Rory, to take some responsibility for household chores.

Jess and Rory were great characters, as well. They had a good mother-son bond, with Jess not being a harsh disciplinarian, but more of a good friend. I really liked this about her, even though I must admit that Rory should have been doing more to help her out. But he was a typical 14-year-old boy, more interested in video games than making his bed. And he tended toward absentmindedness, too -- especially in regard to schoolwork.

Jess and Jake comically meet when she mistakes his house for that of a new customer, and starts to plow his drive. Yes, she drives a snowplow. This is hard work, indeed, so my hat goes off to this woman! 

This was the type of work her husband used to do, when he was alive. Aside from waitressing, Jess decided to keep the landscape business, which he had started, going, in order to meet the bills, and support herself and her son. So she had actually taught herself to drive a snowplow.

As the story progresses, these three characters start to become good friends. Jake becomes a role model for Rory, and the attraction between him and Jess builds into something more than friendship.

Some readers might think that this all sounds much too predictable, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! This is the type of warm holiday fare I love to read! Romance is just SO right for the Christmas season! And I especially appreciate it when there's family involved. 

Kiyono has created a beautiful, very special story here, and again I must mention that I wish it had been a novel. However, she did a GREAT job with the short-story length, and brought everything to that "happily ever after" ending every romance novel fan loves! Still, I'm crossing my fingers that she will decide to write more about these very likeable characters!

Of course, I'm going to check out more of this author's work on Goodreads! Kudos to her for a WONDERFUL Christmas read!  

MY RATING:

During her first career, Patricia Kiyono taught elementary music, computer classes, elementary classrooms, and junior high social studies. She now teaches music education at the university level.

She lives in southwest Michigan with her husband, not far from her children and grandchildren. Current interests, aside from writing, include sewing, crocheting, scrapbooking, and music. A love of travel and an interest in faraway people inspires her to create stories about different cultures.

Website/Goodreads/Twitter

Facebook

Amazon Author Page

Book Review: Christmas in a Small Town, by Kristina Knight

Christmas in a Small Town
(Slippery Rock, Book 4)
Kristina Knight
Mass Market Paperback, 380 pages
Harlequin Super Romance
December 5, 2017
Christmas Romance, Contemporary Fiction, Diverse Reads, Holiday Romance, Interracial Romance
Source: Ebay

Synopsis:  Running out on her wedding was the best decision ever!

A cheating fiancé sends Camden Harris fleeing to her grandparents’ home in Missouri. When her ex follows, determined to win her back, Camden makes a deal with neighbor Levi Walters: they’ll pretend to be in love and she’ll support his plan to buy her grandparents’ land.

The boy from her childhood has grown up into an impressive man. His charm, good looks and sweet gestures make it difficult for Camden to remember this is fake. And Levi’s kisses only confuse her more.

This book first caught my eye last December, when I decided to sign up for a blog tour promoting it. The cover gave me such a "feel-good" vibe, with the featured couple smiling so broadly. They certainly have the happy glow of people in love! Of course, I was also pulled in by the title. I would love to be able to experience Christmas in a small town (preferably with snow on the ground, too)!

Even more importantly, the fact that this is an interracial romance also pulled me in. I think this was, in fact, my very first interracial romance, as far as I can remember. From now on, I will strive to read more such romances!

I didn't have the time to read this novel last Christmas season, but I did keep it in mind for the future. So this year, I was finally able to get to it!

The plot is an often-used one in romance novels -- the fake romance that then turns into a real one. However, I thought it was skillfully handled in this novel. That's because it was tied in to the female protagonist's search for her true self. 

The theme of the quest for one's true self was one of the most appealing things about this book, and it also made Camden Harris a very likeable protagonist. 

Ever since her father's passing, Camden had been following her mother's life pattern for her -- competing in beauty pageants, and helping her mother run her own pageant contestant training business. When her mother had later remarried a wealthy lawyer with the "right" political and society connections, Camden was thrust into a world that was really foreign to her. And somehow, she became engaged in the process -- to Grant, who had her mother and stepfather's seal of approval, but whom Camden didn't love.

So here she was in Slippery Rock -- in a wedding dress. She had run away from her own impending wedding, in Kansas City, after finding Grant "doing the deed" with her best friend....

Levi Walters, the man Camden hadn't seen since their childhood in Slippery Rock, was a very appealing character, as well. He and Camden were such a great couple! Levi had been a star football player, until a serious knee injury kept him from continuing to pursue a career as a professional player. He then turned to dairy farming.

I LOVED Levi!! He was such a sweet, gentle guy.... Although he was very much attracted to Camden, he respected her enough to give her some space, as she was just coming out of a bad relationship. He never pushed her too far, until, of course, the attraction between the two of them became too strong for them to control.

When Camden first stepped into the "Slippery Slope", the town bar and community meeting place, wearing a wedding dress, Levi was smitten. It was only after a few minutes that he recognized Camden as the grown-up version of the girl who used to tag along with him and his friends on their mischievous childhood adventures. 

I really enjoyed the relatively fast development of their romance, as they warily adjusted to each other's personalities. Levi had not been planning on getting serious with anyone. His previous relationships had never gotten to that point, because he made sure to always remain detached. He had plans. Levi was by no means a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants person. He was cautious in the extreme. And he was not the type to bare his soul to anyone, least of all women. Camden was almost the exact opposite -- bubbly and spontaneous, although she, too, was somewhat reticent about revealing the details of her past. She and Levi shared two qualities that paradoxically pulled them toward each other: a passionate commitment to their chosen path in life, and a caution about entering any long-term romantic entanglements.

Camden found her own life path in returning to her paternal grandparents' farm. She convinced her grandfather, Calvin, to reopen his stock dog training school. She immediately threw herself into the task of setting things up for the reopening, starting with the training of an adorable border collie pup named "Six". Nothing and no one would deter her from staying in Slippery Rock and working with the school, as well as participating, along with her grandfather, in stock dog competitions. Not even Grant, who pursued her to Slippery Rock, would rattle her to the point that she would willingly abandon her dream. And I loved how Levi supported her in this!

The secondary characters were also very likeable -- except for Grant, the obnoxious, snotty CHEATER who only cared about Camden as a sort of "business investment". UGH. I couldn't believe how low he was willing to stoop to get Camden back! And love had nothing to do with it.

Another aspect of the book I greatly enjoyed was how no one in the town of Slippery Rock criticized Levi and Camden's relationship because of the race factor. Levi was well liked by the town inhabitants, and had lots of friends. Although I found this a bit unrealistic, given the close-minded nature of people in small towns, I also found it very refreshing. Camden's family were just as accepting of Levi. It would be GREAT to see more of this in the real world!

I would have loved to have gotten to know Levi's family better. After all, the author did provide plenty of details about Camden's family, especially her grandparents. The reader does get to know Savannah, Levi's sister, but not nearly enough. It would have been especially nice to have known more about Levi's parents, especially Mama Hazel, his mother.

Levi's friends and their significant others -- wives and girlfriends -- were great, and they all welcomed Camden, making her a part of their lives right away. Camden became friends with Savannah, and reconnected with Julia, someone she had been friends with during her beauty pageant days.

The setting for the novel is lovely -- the wilderness area around the town of Slippery Rock is nicely described. The town itself is not that vivid in my memory, though. I wish Knight had described more of its businesses and other buildings, especially how they were decorated for the Christmas season.

In spite of the great things I've mentioned about this book, there were a couple of things I didn't like, which is the reason I'm giving this novel four stars, instead of the five I was hoping to give it, when I first began reading. 

One was that the story doesn't have a very "Christmasy" feeling to it. Yes, some Christmas events were mentioned, but they were really glossed over. I just didn't get the vivid feeling of being in a small town at Christmastime. So, this novel could really be read at any time of year. I wouldn't have minded this so much, if the title itself hadn't proclaimed that the story was taking place precisely at Christmastime.

The second thing was the emphasis on sex. While I don't mind the inclusion of sex scenes in romance novels, I don't want them to be TOO graphic, and especially not if the setting includes the Christmas season. There were just too many pretty explicit scenes between Levi and Camden. One tastefully described bedroom scene would have been enough. I got that they were strongly attracted to each other. That was very obvious from their first meeting. Instead of using up so many pages on describing passionate encounters between these two characters, I feel that the author could have provided more detailed descriptions of the Christmas events and decorations in the town. 

In spite of these objections, I felt this book deserved at least four stars, because the romance between Camden and Levi was a delight to read, the conflict in the novel was very well handled, and heck, the author did make me wish I had grown up in a small town!

MY RATING:

Once upon a time, Kristina Knight spent her days running from car crash to fire to meetings with local police--no, she wasn't a troublemaker, she was a journalist. Her career took her all over the United States, writing about everything from a serial killer's capture to the National Finals Rodeo. Along the way, she found her very own Knight in Shining Cowboy Boots and an abiding love for romance novels. And just like the characters from her favorite books, she's living her own happily ever after. 

Kristina writes sassy contemporary romance novels; her books have appeared on Kindle Best Seller Lists. She loves hearing from readers, so drop her a line!

Website/Goodreads/Facebook

Twitter/Pinterest/BookBub

Google+/Amazon 

Shelf Candy Saturday No. 270: Let It Snow, by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle

Welcome to Shelf Candy Saturday!

***Late Edition***

This is my weekly feature

showcasing beautiful covers!

It also provides information, 
if available, on their 
very talented creators!

Here's my choice for this week!

Let It Snow
 John Green, Maureen Johnson,
Lauren Myracle
Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Speak
October 2, 2008
Anthologies, Christmas Romance,
Contemporary Romance
Young Adult Fiction

My Thoughts About This Cover

This is a beautiful cover precisely because of the simplicity of its design. It's also bold and bright! Additionally, it has a touch of whimsy to it, due to those snowflake-shaped paper cutouts. The cover artist also very cleverly included each author's name inside each paper cutout. 

The look of this cover is very clean and uncluttered, as well. The main visual impact is delivered by the paper cutouts, but the font used for the title is great, and very much in keeping with the overall playful feeling of the design. I just have a little quibble about the title; I wish it had been a bit bigger. The red font color would have popped much more, placed against that lovely, gradually shaded, mint-green background.  However, I'm very happy about the fact that those paper snowflakes take up most of the cover! It just makes it SO memorable, I think! 

One more thing about the paper snowflakes: each one is totally unique, which gives the cover some visual variety. Interestingly, the snowflakes are somewhat similar at the same time. The result is, paradoxically, a unified, cohesive design.

Well..... I have been unable to find any information on this cover artist, whose design, in my honest opinion, is not only fun and upbeat, but also brilliant! I do own this book, but alas, have looked for it all through my shelves, and have not found it.... (I need to look through the books that sit BEHIND other books, too, but that is SO time-consuming....lol.) Heck, I have SO many books already crammed into this apartment that I am not sure exactly where many of them are, when I need them at a moment's notice! Lol. On several occasions, I've even bought the same book TWICE, having forgotten that I already owned it.....only to come across the first copy a few days after buying the second one!! LOL, LOL, LOL. Oh, the woes of a die-hard bookworm!  :)

  
 

What do you think of 
this week's cover?
Please leave a comment
and let me know!

Teaser Tuesday No. 11: Moonlight Over Manhattan, by Sarah Morgan

Welcome to "Teaser Tuesday"!!


This meme is hosted by  Ambrosia @ The Purple Booker every week, and the rules are very simple.

RULES

* Grab you current read.

*Open to a random page.

*Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere

on that page.

*BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!

(Make sure that what you share doesn't

give too much away! You don't want

to ruin the book for others!)

*Share the title and author, too, so that other

TT participants can add the book to their

TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


Note
Since I'm a slow reader, I don't have a new book
started every week. I am therefore going
 to bend the rules a little.....
I'll be featuring books I want to read,
that are currently sitting on my shelves. 
I've also made the teasers a bit longer
than stated in the rules above.

Here are my teasers! 

"You're too hard on yourself. Shrek would seem like a dream date compared to the last three guys I met."

"I've never been compared to Shrek before. I may need therapy to get over that one."

At least he had a sense of humor.

                                          -- Chapter 7, page 101

She was now the proud owner of a Christmas tree.

She was going to have to drag it, which probably wasn't going to do much for its appearance.

"I hope you're hardy. You're going to need to be, living with me."

The man went from grumpy to alarmed. "I'm not living with you."

"I was talking to the tree."

                                        -- Chapter 18, page 252

Moonlight Over Manhattan

(From Manhattan with Love, Book 6)
Sarah Morgan

Mass Market Paperback,  376 pages
HQN

November 28, 2017
Christmas Romance, Contemporary Fiction,
Humor

   
She'll risk everything for her own Christmas miracle...

Determined to conquer a lifetime of shyness, Harriet Knight challenges herself to do one thing a day in December that scares her, including celebrating Christmas without her family. But when dog walker Harriet meets her newest client, exuberant spaniel Madi, she adds an extra challenge to her list--dealing with Madi's temporary dog sitter, gruff doctor Ethan Black, and their very unexpected chemistry.

Ethan thought he was used to chaos, until he met Madi--how can one tiny dog cause such mayhem? To Ethan, the solution is simple--he will pay Harriet to share his New York apartment and provide twenty-four-hour care. But there's nothing simple about how Harriet makes him feel.

Ethan's kisses make Harriet shine brighter than the stars over moonlit Manhattan. But when his dog-sitting duties are over and Harriet returns to her own home, will she dare to take the biggest challenge of all--letting Ethan know he has her heart for life, not just for Christmas?

I've read two Sarah Morgan Christmas romances so far, and I certainly want to read more! The two I've read were totally delightful, and kept me turning pages, laughing right along with the characters! This is the PERFECT time of year to have fun reading light, carefree stuff such as this! And Ms. Morgan is a master of the humorous dialogue, as well as the comedy of errors that is often part of romance!

What do you think of my teasers?

Are you interested in this book?

Please leave a comment, 

along with the link

to your own "Teaser Tuesday" post, 

and let me know!

Teaser Tuesday No. 10: First Snow, by Nora Roberts

Welcome to "Teaser Tuesday"!!


This meme is hosted by  Ambrosia @ The Purple Booker every week, and the rules are very simple.

RULES

* Grab you current read.

*Open to a random page.

*Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere

on that page.

*BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!

(Make sure that what you share doesn't

give too much away! You don't want

to ruin the book for others!)

*Share the title and author, too, so that other

TT participants can add the book to their

TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


Note
Since I'm a slow reader, I don't have a new book
started every week. I am therefore going
 to bend the rules a little.....
I'll be featuring books I want to read,
that are currently sitting on my shelves. 
I've also made the teasers a bit longer
than stated in the rules above.

Here are my teasers! 

Pandora waited until he was out of sight, then, smiling smugly, knelt down to ball snow. By the the time he got back, she calculated, she could have an arsenal at hand. He wouldn't have a chance. She took her time, forming and smoothing each ball into a sophisticated weapon. Secure in her advantage, she nearly fell on her face when she heard a sound behind her.    -- First Snow (A Will and a Way), Chapter 6, page118

"I love you, Hester." He murmured the words agaisnt her mouth, knowing she might not want to hear them but that it was something he had to say. If he said it enough, she might begin to believe the words, and more, the meaning behind them. -- First Snow (Local Hero), Chapter 10, page 398

First Snow: A Will and a Way,
Local Hero

Nora Roberts

Trade Paperback,  445 pages
Silhouette Books

October 24, 2017
Christmas Romance, Contemporary Fiction

  
A Will and A Way

Pandora McVie's life is tied up in knots. In order to respect her uncle Jolley's last wishes, she's stuck spending Christmas isolated in the Catskills with Michael Donahue, the co-beneficiary of her uncle's will. Jolley was a matchmaker to the end--and apparently for some time beyond. The infuriating Michael is hard to live with...but what's harder still is not falling in love with her nemesis.

Local Hero

After moving into a new Manhattan apartment and struggling to raise her son on her own, Hester Wallace doesn't have time for the holidays, let alone a romance. So when her neighbor Mitch Dempsey offers to watch her son, Radley, in the afternoons, she cautiously accepts. Yet the more time she spends with Mitch, the more difficult it becomes to deny the attraction. She's starting to rely on Mitch...and worse, she's letting him into her heart.

First Snow is actually an omnibus edition, a reissue of two previously-published short novels by Roberts. The cover captivated me right away! And then, of course, there's the UNBEATABLE combination of Christmas and romance! I hope to be able to get to this one this season!

What do you think of my teasers?

Are you interested in this book?

Please leave a comment, 

along with the link

to your own "Teaser Tuesday" post, 

and let me know!