Heidi Hart

If you're already a fan of Tessa Dare's Spindle Cove series, this is an entertaining and pleasant little holiday confection worth an hour or so of your time. You'll get to visit with old friends from previous books (Griff and Pauline, Any Duchess Will Do; Bram and Susanna, A Night to Surrender; Minerva and Colin, A Week to be Wicked), and you'll probably enjoy the short story about Lord Dashwood and whatsername, stuck in a hovel in a storm in the middle of nowhere. Oh, you think you read that book already, years ago, in Stephanie Laurens' Devil's Bride? Well, this is different. It's shorter, it's Christmas, and there's no murder.

If you're not yet a fan of Dare's, this isn't the place to start. This novella is fine for what it is, but it's too short and too formulaic to showcase the wit and emotion and humor that Dare does so well.