Adult Review: All I Want - 3 Holiday Novella's

All I Want by Jolene Perry, Kaylee Baldwin and Rachael Anderson

ebook, 225 pages

Published: November 2012

Source: Purchased

THREE STORIES. THREE COUPLES. ONE HOLIDAY.

Pretty Near Perfect
by Jolene Perry

The last thing Norah needs is to be attracted to anyone – especially in her deceased fiancé's parents' home. Collin’s starting a new career, and has no business getting involved – especially while staying with his roommate’s family, who very kindly offered to take him in for the holidays. Unfortunately, you just don’t always pick the most convenient time and place to fall for someone.

Six Days of Christmas
by Kaylee Baldwin

When Natalie goes home with her best friend for Christmas, she expects plenty of quiet time to work on a winning ad so she can turn her dream internship into her dream job. Instead, she gets time-consuming Christmas festivities, a house full of children, and Jimmy, her best friend’s brother - someone who makes her question everything she’s always thought she wanted.

Twist of Fate
by Rachael Anderson

When a postcard meant for Kenzie winds up in Ty's mailbox, Ty's faced with a decision. Should he tell her that her fiancé is breaking up with her and let it ruin her favorite holiday, or should he do what he’s wanted to do since he met her - make a move and hope that he can win her over before she discovers there won’t be a wedding after all.

I bought this last year to read after seeing a lot of great reviews, but I never found time to read it.  I don't read many holiday reads or novella's and I guess I just didn't have a strong enough urge to pick it up.  Then this year I participated in the Ho-Ho-Ho Holiday Read-a-thon and one requirement was to read a holiday (or winter) themed book.  It was the push I needed to pick this up and I'm really glad I did!

I don't read many novella's because I don't have enough time to get to know the characters.  That wasn't the case in any of these stories.  And I think the short stories worked perfect for me in this case.  First of all, I'm not big on 'romances' (books that are all about the romance) because it's always a lot of back and forth and round and round in the relationships.  With these short stories they had to be pretty light on the drama due to the length and it was perfect for me.  I also liked that we got some family in each one.  Not always their own family, but people they loved and cared about.  It is the holiday's, so that only makes sense, but it made all the better for me.

While in the first story the romance went fast, I believed it, I felt that connection between them.  Norah's fiance died 8 months previously, so she's single, but she's in her fiance's family home when she meets the new guy.  Can we say awkward?  But these two are both like fish out of water and keep finding themselves talking and being drawn together.  The romance moved fast, but I didn't care.  Plus they even said, they may not be in love, but they could imagine being in love with each other.  This was my favorite story. 

In the next story, Six Day's of Christmas, the two are old friends.  And Jimmy was a different character, he's quirky and kind of a goof.  I found myself really liking him and liking that he was a different sort of love interest.  And even though Natalie has a boyfriend already, she starts to see what's missing her own relationship.  Over the six days of Christmas traditions and lots of fun together, Natalie starts to fall for Jimmy.  It was adorable and I absolutely loved it!  This was my second favorite story, but it was really close to just as good as the first.

The last was my least favorite, but I still really enjoyed it.  I liked that Ty had a relationship to repair with his mother, and I loved that Kenzie was a school teacher. These little side things added a lot to this short story.  I also liked that these two were good friends and Kenzie is only just realizing that she wants to be more than just friends even though Ty realized it awhile ago.

All three stories were quick reads and I enjoyed being able to sit down and read each in it's entirety.  It's got me in the Christmas spirit and I can imagine it'll be tough holding off until after Thanksgiving to start preparing for the Holiday's.   Perfect read for those cold winter nights!