About this book:
“Spend Christmas in Texas this year with these charming holiday novellas from bestselling historical romance author Karen Witemeyer, whose writing is spiced with her signature blend of humor, thrilling frontier action, and sweet romance.”
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“A town's wealthy, Scrooge-like bachelor finds his world invaded by a woman set on earning his donation for helping the local poor, and by the penetrating questions of three mysterious visitors.”
Series: Does not seem to be connected to any of the author’s other books.
Spiritual Content- Nehemiah 8:10 at the beginning; Scriptures are mentioned, read, & quoted; Prayers & Thanking God; Set during Christmas time; Church going & a sermon; Talks about God, those and events in the Bible, His plans for us, joy from the Lord, & praying; 'H's are not capital when referring to God or Jesus; *Spoiler* Towards the end, Evan has a major realization about God & His love for him *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of God, Jesus, & Christmas; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of prayers, praying, & thanking God; Mentions of churches, church going, ministries, services, & hymns; Mentions of blessings & being Blessed; A few mentions of Heaven; A few mentions of Christian duties; A couple mentions of faiths; A mention of Bible reading; A mention of sin;
*Note: In-between the first and second novellas, there is a Christmas devotional on why Jesus came as a baby and references Scriptures; A mention of an item being like a talisman.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blasted’, a ‘why in blazes’, two ‘forms of ‘idiot’, two forms of ‘stupid’, and three ‘bah!’s; A bit of eye rolling (from a child); Mentions of someone almost being shot & killed (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of an illness & near death; Mentions of Evan’s knee injury & pain (he walks with a cane because of it); Mentions of a man being stuck in a mud hole; Mentions of possibly being thrown from a horse and/or harmed; Mentions of threats & blackmail (one done with teasing, not done with ill intent); A few mentions of injuries, pain, & blood/bleeding; A few mentions of the Panic of 1873; A few mentions of con-artists & being scammed; A few mentions of hunting; A few mentions of emptying chamber pots; A couple mentions of customers cursing at a young Evan or boxing his ears (he was a bellboy); A couple mentions of school bullies & them beating up others; A couple mentions of alcohol & drinking; A mention of prison; A mention of a lie; A mention of jealousy; A mention of someone cheating at a game.
Sexual Content- a hand kiss, an almost kiss (up to semi-detailed), and a semi-detailed kiss; Recalling a cheek kiss & embrace (including her being pulled into his lap out of danger, barely-above-not-detailed); Wanting to kiss someone (up to semi-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Warmth, & Nearness (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to touch & embrace (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes & Winks; Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); At one point, Felicity falls on top of Evan and while it’s an accident and embarrassing for them, Evan does think that that in other circumstances would be a pleasure; A couple mentions of flirting; A mention of jealousy; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: Evan thinks that he doesn’t have plans to “shackle” himself to a woman (because wives are expensive and an upsetting event form years prior); A mention of Felicity not being the type to use her feminine wiles to seduce a man; A mention of hot-blooded young men.
-Felicity Wiggins, age 25
-Evan Beazer, age 32
P.O.V. switches between them
Set in 1895
107 pages
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“An Archer Family Christmas” by Karen Witemeyer
About this book:
“It’s Christmas Eve, 1893, and the entire family has gathered to celebrate the holiday. This day is always bittersweet for Jim and Cassie, who lost a child on Christmas Eve three years earlier. Cassie has devoted herself to being the favorite aunt of the Archer children, whisking her nieces away to a nearby schoolhouse to create decorations for the Christmas tree that the men and oldest boys are venturing out to chop down.
When an unexpected knock at the schoolhouse door reveals a desperate pregnant woman on the run from a dangerous outlaw, it’ll take a Christmas miracle—and the entire Archer clan—to make sure no danger befalls the child born on this beloved holiday.”
Series: Considered to be Book #2.75 in the “Archer Brothers” series by this author. Book #1 (“Short Straw Bride”) has a mini-review Here (and I’ll link another review mentioning the content Here), Book #2 (“Stealing the Preacher”) is reviewed Here, and the bonus novella #2.50 has not yet been reviewed.
Spiritual Content- Scriptures are quoted & remembered; Prayers & Thanking God; Set during Christmas time; Talks about God; 'H's are not capital when referring to God or Jesus; Mentions of God, Jesus, His will, & Christmas; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of prayers, praying, & thanking God; Mentions of churches & a preacher; Mentions of blessings & being Blessed; A couple mentions of those who have passe being in God’s hands; A mention of someone thinking that God would have ignored her prayers due to her wrong choices, but that He didn’t;
*Note: In-between the second and third novellas, there is a section about Christmas traditions from the Victorian time period that has a few paragraphs about Santa Claus; A couple mentions of an outlaw being called a devil.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘I don’t give a flying flip’ and a ‘stupid’; A couple mentions of curses (said, not written); A bit of eye rolling; Shooting at outlaws/criminals, being shot at, fights, flighting, pain, injuries, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Thinking a loved one might be shot & dying (and their panic, up to semi-detailed); Mentions of outlaws, gangs, crimes, threats of killing or harming, gunfire, being shot at, shooting at others, fights, & fighting; Mentions of prejudice towards a woman with Comanche blood; A few mentions of lies & lying; A few mentions of an outlaw spitting on the body of someone, cursing her, and calling her a worthless piece of trash; A mention of prison;
*Note: Cassie & Jim are both grieving the loss of their infant son who died a couple years prior to the start of the story (Jim tries to hide his grief from her to not make it harder on Cassie; He also found himself coveting a brother’s large family, wishing that they’d been the barren ones instead of him and Cassie, which that sinful thought scared him so badly he dropped to his knees in asking for forgiveness from the Lord; A doctor told them that due to the difficult birthing and internal scarring, becoming pregnant again would be impossible); Mentions of their grief and others’ grief for the loss of loved ones/children.
Sexual Content- A forehead kiss, two semi-detailed kisses, and a border-line semi-detailed // detailed kiss; Touches, Embraces, Warmth, & Nearness (up to semi-detailed); Noticing (including Jim seeing Cassie’s chest area when she’s trying to keep a baby warm, barely-above-not-detailed); a ‘baby’; Mentions of married couples touching, embracing, & sharing a bed; A few mentions of a biological father possibly selling his baby girl possibly to the highest bidder and her ending up in a brothel or “worse”;
*Note: Jim playfully swats Cassie’s backside; Helping with a(n unmarried) teen girl’s labor (including mentions of pain, screams, & blood/bleeding, semi-detailed; *Spoiler* the mother ends up passing away *End of Spoiler*); A mention of the married main couple wanting to move their sensual kiss into the bedroom, but not having the time at the moment to do so; A mention of a man’s chest hairs.
-Cassandra “Cassie” Archer
-Bowie “Jim” Archer
P.O.V. switches between them
Set in 1893
80 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
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“Gift of the Heart” by Karen Witemeyer
About this book:
“A widow and her young daughter move to Hope Springs for a fresh start, but with no money to secure a home, Ruth must convince a wealthy resort owner to accept her heirloom brooch as collateral. Will the pin that brought love to three generations soften the heart of a wounded recluse and give Ruth a second chance at love as the holidays draw near?”
Series: Does not seem to be connected to any other book.
Spiritual Content- Proverbs 31:1-12 at the beginning; Scriptures are quoted, remembered, & thought over; Prayers, Thanking God, & Praising God; Set during Christmas time; A Christmas performance & hymns; Talks about God; 'H's are capital when referring to God; Mentions of God, Jesus, & Christmas; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of prayers, praying, & thanking God; Mentions of churches, church going, & services; A couple mentions of blessings & being Blessed;
*Note: A mention of a demon cat; A mention of a magic lamp that has a genie to grant wishes.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: two forms of ‘stupid’s; Saving a child from being stuck in a pond (semi-detailed); Mentions of a child being trapped in a bank/pond & trying to keep her from losing conscious; Mentions of Bo’s injury that “announced his crippled state to all” (which has caused him to be a recluse); Mentions of grieving (Ruth for her husband after his death and also Bo for his mother’s love after his injury); A few mentions of the Civil War; A couple mentions of an illness & death; A couple mentions of a house being foreclosed; A couple mentions of jealousy; A mention of bandits; A mention of lying; A mention of gossip.
Sexual Content- A hand kiss (semi-detailed), a jaw kiss, an almost kiss (barely-above-not-detailed), and a detailed kiss; Recalling a kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Warmth, Shivers, & Nearness (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to touch & embrace (plus imagining it, barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes; Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of kisses & kissing; A few mentions of flirting & women battling their lashes to get a man to do something; A couple mentions of reputations;
*Note: When her blouse gets wet, Ruth angles herself to not be seen by Bo; A mention of Bo wondering if Ruth slept in his bed and perhaps in one of his nightshirts (she stayed the night at his place because of an emergency while he stayed at a hotel).
-Ruth Fulbright
-Beauregard “Bo” Azlin
P.O.V. switches between them
Set in 1890
99 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
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Overall Ratings:
Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
A Texas Christmas Carol – Here’s the thing about retellings of classic stories: You know the result, you know the general understand of what will happen at the end. But it’s the journey of getting there with those characters and seeing an author make the story their own that keeps retellings popular and much loved. And with this novella, it was so much fun to see it play out. Especially with all the faith content in this short story. The faith content was just excellent and Felicity was fantastic. I love her heart and her character! The faith content is really what made this novella stand out, though, and was really well done. I loved how the author connected details from the classic tale into this novella. Elsewise, I was already giggly just at the opening few chapters because of the plot and Felicity and the faith discussions made it even better. I really enjoyed this one. 4.5 stars
An Archer Family Christmas – Well that little novella tugged at my heart strings and made me tear up much more than I was expecting! While I might not have been a fan of the first Archer Brothers book due to sexual suggestions/marital content, it was really nice to see the family again. I love how this family has each other’s backs and just the importance of family within this novella was really sweet and wonderful to read. Because of all the married couples there were some hints to intimacies and quite a bit of kissing, so I would say this novella would be better for older college-age/high school girls.
Gift of the Heart – Okay, that was a really sweet novella! It did feel a bit rushed, but I still really enjoyed it. This author knows how to write loveable children and I just love that! I actually laughed out loud at quite a few times during this little story. The best way I can describe this novella would be sweet because it really was!
Overall, this was a very fun and enjoyable novella collection! I thought the add-ins of a devotional, Victorian Christmas traditions, and the recipes between each story were neat bonus content as well.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
