what I’m reading: baby, it’s cold outside.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside is a wonderful collection of five holiday/Christmas themed short stories.

Jennifer Probst, Emma Chase, Kristen Proby, Melody Anne, and Kate Meader offer up a compilation of five stories written by five different authors, all having a romance theme that takes place in their own winter wonderland.

Although I’ve never read anything by any of these authors, the one author I was a smidge aware of was Jennifer Probst. I mainly read this book because I thought it would be fun to be exposed to new authors by reading a sample of their works. It was obvious that most, if not all, of the stories were novellas that took place in each author’s established series (or upcoming series). Still, you don’t have to be familiar with the individual series and I was able to follow along quite nicely.

I like reading short stories because they are usually entertaining, the angst doesn’t go on for pages and pages, and you can finish a story in one sitting. However, the downside is that the action moves so quickly in short stories. There’s a lot of insta-love and sometimes it’s hard to connect with the characters because you don’t spend a lot of time with them.

That being said, I really enjoyed this collection of holiday romances, especially Rekindle the Flame by Kate Meader. This story about firefighters and a second chance at love was fun and steamy. It’s the perfect way to warm up on a cold day!