"Engaging and Sensual Christmas Anthology"

HOLIDAY SPIRIT by Kay Hooper -- Lady Antonia was entirely beside herself discovering that her grandmother, the Countess of Ware had invited to their Christmas celebration Richard, the Duke of Lyonshall, the man she had jilted two years before. Antonia might have been even more incensed to discover that her manipulative grandmother had not invited any other guests, but was counting on an impending blizzard to trap them together long enough to make Antonia admit to still loving Richard.

*** This was a lovely, passionate and sensual story that captured me right from the beginning. I always love the idea of a manipulative granny who is trying to rectify the mistakes of the young and foolish and to have a trio of ghosts thrown in to liven up and expose their raw sensuality to help matters along certainly helped as well. Kay Hooper wrote this with passion and sensitivity, fully engaging my imagination and emotions. Beautiful characterizations were rendered of characters that will make you care that the truth be revealed. This was a beautiful love story of restored trust and honor of love that will make you feel all warm and tingly inside.

SURRENDER by Lisa Kleypas -- When wealthy aristocratic fifteen year old Bostonian Laura Prescott first met her brother Hale's school chum Jason Moran she secretly fell in love. Five years later they wed, but her dreams of happily ever after and her marriage were not at all what she expected. With an Irish immigrant background Jason was determined to leave behind any trace of that heritage in his rise to the pinnacle of Boston society -- he never expected to find love and was surprised when it found him.

*** Kleypas has the ability to capture you from the first lines and this short story is no exception. She starts with a very troubled marriage and with compassion and feeling gives the two protagonists the best Christmas gift ever in an entrancing and beautifully sensual new beginning that is bound to captivate the reader.

The reader will be fully enraptured with both stories from two major talented authors who never fail to delight in making their audiences swoon.

Marilyn Rondeau, RIO Reviewers International Org.

Reviewed by Marilyn Rondeau
Posted February 21, 2007

Summary

In this glorious season of light and joy, the phenomenal Kay Hooper and the incomparable Lisa Kleypas offer readers a pair of precious jewels—timeless love stories that sparkle like diamonds. In Kay Hooper's Holiday Spirit, a matchmaking grandmother and three Christmas ghosts arrange a sensuous reunion for a headstrong noblewoman and her seductive former fiancé. And in Surrender, Lisa Kleypas has a beautiful, aristocratic Bostonian discover the true meaning of giving when she falls tenderly and passionately in love with a troubled stranger: her husband. Open these golden Gifts of Love and surrender your heart— for 'tis the season for romance!