Sophia Soames

My rating is an average across eight very different stories. I'm glad to've read this because the good ones are exceptional. As with all anthologies, I'll never love every story. This one had four I bailed out of, mostly due to boredom. So:

One star each to the first three (someone likes them, I'm not mad they exist).

Four stars to Seong-Ja's story (by Cole McCade). It was a little slow, but I'm a huge Criminal Intentions fan, and Seong-Jae's sister is a great character. Also her boyfriend is AWESOME.

Four stars for 'Sugar Crush,' one of the better opposites attract stories I've read.

Five stars for the incredible When Frankie Meets Johnny. I went right out and found other work by Xio Axelrod. That good.

One star for the very very slow vampire historical.

And, five stars for the Mary Calmes story, though it could've used another edit pass. It's her brand of snarky and intense and fast and sweet.

Average, somewhere around 3.5 stars.… (plus d'informations)

This was an incredibly sweet romance set around Christmas and the New Year in Norway. It has an amazing sense of place which feels natural as though the author is simply writing about everyday things in her life.
It centres around two university students who live in the same block in different dorms. Erik is the party boy, a people person who wants to make everyone happy but who is hiding a part of himself because he is gay and is struggling with coming out. Except he's fascinated by the Disney prince downstairs, to the point where he has already told his family about him, and his dorm mates are not oblivious to his longing either. The Disney Prince is Oskar, who is a med student and a mess of anxiety and neuroses. When they meet for real things move quickly with Erik asking Oskar to go home with for Christmas, where he meets Erik's loving and slightly mad family.
Falling in love happens quickly in this book, but I was quite thankful for the sweet moments that it brought, as I was for the mapcap nature of Erik's family, because there is a darker side to this book as both MCs and a side character have almost crippling anxieties, anxieties that threaten to overwhelm both them and the story. I have to confess that the characters internal and external battles in this regard gave me low level anxiety of my own.
Overall a sweet story but one that might have triggers for some readers.… (plus d'informations)