Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, I suggested a book to give the British mystery lover in your life: Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper.

Book: A Yuletide Kiss by Madeline Hunter, Sabrina Jeffries, and Mary Jo Putney
Genre: Romance novellas
Publisher: Kensington
Publication date: 2021
Pages: 328

Source: Trade paperback from the library

Summary: The three novellas in A Yuletide Kiss were written by three different authors, but they share the same setting — a country inn where several travelers take refuge during a snowstorm that disrupts their Christmas journeys.

The first story, “When We Finally Kiss Good Night,” by Sabrina Jeffries, sets the stage where lovers whose hopes had been dashed years ago meet again, trapped by snow and ice.

Madeline Hunter wrote “The Unexpected Gift,” about the woman who keeps the inn and the first guest who arrived, sick and injured.

“When Strangers Meet” by Mary Jo Putney (one of my favorite romance novelists) gives us the shock of a married couple where the husband thought the wedding was fake and the wife thought the husband was dead — that’s going to have an impact on their lives!

Thoughts: Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, collections of Christmas romance novellas were a big part of my holiday season. At that time, there would be a half-dozen, or more, collections published each year. I think there are fewer now.

But the other change is that I don’t find myself in bookstores several times in the run-up to the Christmas season. By mid-November, these romances, with their pretty holiday covers, would be given prominent display, so it was easy to find new ones to read each year.

It’s been years since I’ve read a collection like this, but it brought me right back — especially since being stranded by snow in a country inn is not a unique setting in this sub-genre. That’s such a great setting for cozy fireplaces, large kitchens producing all the holiday dishes, and festive gatherings with readings and carol-singing. Strangers can meet or meet again in conditions that promote long conversations and quiet kisses under the mistletoe.

Appeal: If you want to spend some time this season in a quaint inn watching romance blossom, A Yuletide Kiss will take you there.

Have you read this book? What did you think?

I’m sharing this book on the Comfy Cozy Christmas link party. Erin at Cracker Crumb Life and Lisa at Boondock Ramblings host this event.