Book Review: A Texas Kind of Christmas by Jodi Thomas, Celia Bonaduce and Rachael Miles
A Texas Kind of Christmas is three separate stories by three different authors, published in the one book. They all have the same time and place setting, St Nicholas Hotel in Dallas 1859. Each story also uses the grand ball which is held on Christmas Eve at the hotel. Unfortunately, however, this is the limit of the Christmas theme.
I think I whinge about this every time I read what is marketed as a Christmas themed book – the fact that there is usually a tenuous connection to the season. And here I am saying it again. These stories could have been set any time during the year. There is no real Christmas feel to them at all.
Anyway… The first is One Night at the St Nicholas by Jodi Thomas which started with much promise. Thomas’s writing was really a cut above the average romantic writer’s I’ve read of late. There was an interesting mistaken identity mixed with a Cinderella vibe plotline and I was pretty much engrossed right up to about chapter six. From there, Thomas faded. The plot became a little ridiculous (too much love at first sight maybe?) and the charm disappeared. Average, despite the strong start. (I would probably try another of her books though because her style definitely held me captive there for a while.)
I then went on to Birdie’s Flight by Celia Bonaduce which actually had the same basic premise as the first story. That is, this installment, like the first, had two sets of potential pairings which led to a bit of mistaken identity/identity swap situation. One of the leading females was again in a servant position, meaning it also had that Cinderella feel to it. (I was assuming the writers did this deliberately but was then thrown when the third story was completely different.) I did think it was a little odd that neither story overlapped. I mean, there is two incidents involving police etc in the same motel at the same time but no character mentions the other? Seems unrealistic. I think the plot overall was a little stronger with this story. The ending was a little rushed but that might have been more to do with the short format. Overall, this was my favourite out of the three stories.
The third story was Spirit of Texas by Rachael Miles. This time most of the story took place as the leads travelled to Dallas. They talked about books and native Americans and slavery and storms. (I need an American to let me know if Texas could really have twisters and hail storms in winter. I mean, in Aus, such things would only occur during the summer and I baulked at this plot point.) A lot of the plot was glaringly obvious and cliched, including the obligatory sad back stories, but my biggest issue with this one was the weak conflict. The reason the leads can’t be together could have been sorted in two seconds. This one did mention some of the plotline from the earlier stories, but only briefly. Out of the three this was probably my least favourite.
All the stories are sweet enough I guess. Definitely not a lot to do with Christmas though. Maybe 3 out of 5 overall.
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