Title: One Snowy Night Before ChristmasRating: 4 stars
Source: Amazon
Since we're in the holiday season, I've started to work through some of my Christmas themed books. This was the first on my list. I have to say that overall I was very happy with this story.
A cute, lighthearted story that had me smiling often.
One Snowy Night Before Christmas revolves around Jessie and Tom. Jessie hates Christmas. All she wants to do is get through the holidays. All that changes when, a few days before Christmas, she helps stranded motorist, Tom, and his daughter.
I downloaded this story a while ago...last year, I think...so after I finished reading it I took a look at some of the reviews on Amazon. One of the reviewers commented that the story lacked believability. I scratched my head a little at this because anytime you talk about Christmas magic you are stretching the readers imagination into the world of make-believe. That's sort of the point, isn't it?
Overall, I thought this was a fun read. It told the story of a sweet romance between two people who were thrown together in the middle of a snow storm. Has the storyline been done before? Yeah, probably. Did it make it any less enjoyable to read? Not at all.
My only issue with the story, the reason I didn't give it five stars, was because of the editing. Although there weren't major editing issues, there were enough throughout the story to bring it down a notch for me. A second read through by a good beta reader or editor would have caught many of the issues.
Still, even with the editing, I would recommend this story to readers who are looking for something light and fun to read with a holiday theme. I really liked Jessie and Tom. I was sad to see their story end.
Amazon
Author Bio
It feels like forever ago that I began putting pen to paper, and in a sense it was, if you consider that I have been writing for more than half my life. Yes, I am one of those writers who can say I wrote (or tried to write) my first book at a very young age. I penned an action/adventure story about my experience at horse camp, and tried to get my mom to type it up on little book-sized pages.
I think every author has an incident or element in their lives which shaped them as a writer. For me there are two: one is a quote by Sidney Sheldon. Those words resonate with me because I fall into the “have to” category. When people learn I’m an author, often the response I get is “I was going to write a book once,” and I smile as I think of that quote.
The other defining moment happened one day while I was reading a romance novel during my lunch hour. In the foreword dedication, the author thanked the Romance Writers of America. At the time I had already been writing romance, though with no knowledge of the genre or market. After my lunch break I went back to my desk and looked up RWA on the web, and thought it looked really interesting. That night at dinner I told my husband I wanted to join. He said “All right, just make sure it’s not a fly-by-night organization that’s going to run off with your money.” I still laugh today when I think about that, because while I didn’t believe RWA was a fly-by-night organization that was going to run off with my money, I still had no idea just what kind of wild ride I was in for. I’ve never met such an outgoing, generous group of professionals so willing to share their secrets. In no other organization can one attend a conference where topics include writing query letters and synopses, finding an agent, market research, weapons and poisons, how to write a kickass heroine, and what makes a hot alpha male sexy.
Three months after joining, my local chapter president encouraged me to enter the Golden Heart contest for unpublished writers. I did, and my book was nominated as a category finalist. That year I traveled to Chicago for RWA’s national conference with three of my fellow finalists and attended the glamorous awards ceremony.Over the years I attended workshops, lectures and chapter meetings, honing my skills and developing my craft. I won several local writing contests, and made the finals three more times in RWA’s national contest. On my fourth nomination, I won the Golden Heart award for Best Series Contemporary Adventure/Suspense manuscript.
After that wonderful night my winning manuscript was picked up by Samhain Publishing. Since then I've published with Ellora's Cave and Blush Romance, Loose Id, Lyrical Press, Liquid Silver Books, and The Wild Rose Press. My books are available in print and ebook formats, which in my opinion, is the best of both worlds.
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