Still More Monsters for Your Holidays
Some books to extend your Christmas cheer a little more into the New Year
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Reviews From This Past Week
Grinch & Guile: The Duet By A. M. Kore
Release Date: December 24, 2022
Content Notes
Candy play
Piercings
Mob boss MMC
Violent Threats
Christmas time
Journalist FMC
Tenebra City clearly knows how to have an interesting Christmas in the Grinch and Guile Duet by A. M. Kore. The Duet together is one part romance and two parts investigative crime drama. Romance readers who especially enjoy side plots to their romance will enjoy this as much as the FMC loves candy.
Occasionally the frequent Christmas puns and a small squirrel friend seemingly straight out of a Disney princess film felt too sugary. I think the author was having a ton of fun though because that’s wants coming through the writing. It was hard to be sincerely put out by it. You’d have to be a real grinch to not have fun with this book overall.
Chimera for Christmas by Ursa Dax
Release Date: December 16, 2021
Content Notes
Christmas time
Grumpy/sunshine
Former soldier MMC
Workplace romance
Slow burn
Softie Grump
Chimera for Christmas taught me that Ursa Dax needs be in my fantasy writers room alongside SJ Sanders for my fantasy monster romance Hallmark channel. Lovers of killer aliens with a lover’s heart should throw this on their TBR.
Despite its short length, Dax has created a creative world with texture and depth that is still easy to follow in this a stand-alone novella. Because it is a novella, the plot is straightforward. However, it packs the emotional progress for every moment Dax can fit it in. By the end, the steam is up so high the spicy Christmas morning at the end feels well-earned for us all.
Alien Orc for Christmas by Ursa Dax
Release Date: October 10, 2022
Content Notes
MMC has a snowman
Christmas time
Entrepreneur couple
Space orcs
Instalove
Ursa Dax simultaneously creates an extended Chimera for Christmas epilogue and a tender holiday story for her growing space station community with Alien Orc for Christmas. The plot is low stakes and just as sweet as goods in the bakery the FMC opens.
I read this right after Chimera for Christmas. It is a nice chaser as it revisits old characters and expands Dax’s little space station community. It was a cozy continuation. It also felt like Dax went into more creative territory for the spicy physics in the story. The snowman comparison stuck with me and I loved it.
I admit the usual romance genre beats felt muted in this plot. The love is instant, but the conflict of the MMCs feels almost nonexistent. This may be exactly what some readers need though. It was also well written enough that I didn’t dislike it! I simply noted it.
Currently Reading
To Be Read
Housekeeping
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