Tag: Jamie Sobrato

Review: Heating Up the Holidays by Jill Shalvis, Jacquie D’Alessandro, Jamie Sobrato.

Posted April 7, 2009 by Rowena in Reviews | 5 Comments


Hero: Dustin Mauer, Brad Griffin, Ryan Quinn
Heroine: Christina Lewis, Toni Rizzo, Lorelei Gibson
Grade: 4.5 out of 5, 3.5 out of 5, 3.25 out of 5

All He Wants for Christmas… by Jill Shalvis EMT Dustin Mauer has one Christmas wish—to make tough firefighter Cristina Lewis realize she’s in love with him. And he’s using his considerable bedside charm to convince her!

My Grown-Up Christmas List by Jacquie D’Alessandro Toni Rizzo is done with obnoxious firefighters. But flirtatious fireman Brad Griffin is managing to put himself at the top of her holiday list—one steamy kiss at a time!

Up on the Housetop by Jamie Sobrato When Dr. Lorelei Gibson gets stuck on her roof half-naked, she’s mortified when she’s rescued by hunky firefighter Ryan Quinn—her high school heartbreak! Until she learns he’d like to get naked with her…

I read this book last month for my Category romance but never got around to posting my review for it (or writing it for that matter) so is it considered cheating if I put my review for this one up now? I hope not.

But anyway, on with the review.

All He Wants For Christmas by Jill Shalvis- This is Dustin and Christina’s story. If you’ve read the other stories in this series (Flashpoint and Flashback) then you’ve met these two before. Dustin has been hung up on Christina for a very long time and Christina likes him back but she won’t give into her desires because she’s a little scaredy cat. Christina is all tough and macho at work and she doesn’t do messy emotions. She doesn’t do silly things like fall in love because she’s much too tough for something like that. Dustin, on the other hand is all for those messy emotions because he’s not afraid of his feelings. He has some serious feelings for Dustin and what I loved most about him is that he didn’t shy away from them. He didn’t put up a front, he let it be known that he was in love with Christina and was there, waiting for her to realize that they were meant to be together.

I thought Jill Shalvis did a fantastic job telling their story. Dustin and Christina’s story start in the other books but it ends with this one and I think that Jill did a fantastic job of slamming a great story into such a short paged story. It didn’t feel rushed or anything and my only problem was that I wanted a little bit more but I wasn’t too disappointed. I enjoyed Dustin and Christina and even though there were times that I wanted to slap Christina upside her head a few times, I thought this was a great character driven book. I definitely recommend.

4.5 out of 5

I’m curious about Dustin’s brother Jason for sure though.

My Grown Up Christmas Wish by Jacquie D’Alessandro- This story follows Brad Griffin and Toni Rizzo as they journey toward their happy ending. I thought it was a cute addition but Tori got on my nerves a bit when she kept putting Brad. He did some really sweet things to try to get her attention and the way that she kept putting this enormously hot and ridiculously sweet man off because of things that he had absolutely nothing to do with made me want to karate chop Toni in the knee caps. This book ends up being really cute and it’s a great addition to this anthology.

3.5 out of 5

Up on the Housetop by Jamie Sobrato- I’ve never read anything by this author before but I’d like to see what her longer stories would be like. I think I would have enjoyed this story a little more had it been a little longer. This story was shorter than the other two stories in this anthology and I wish there had been more to Lorelei and Ryan’s story. Ryan was all things hunky but it would have been nice to get to know them a bit more and to feel as if their relationship wasn’t rushed because it felt that way. Lorelei wasn’t a bad heroine but I just didn’t feel as if I knew her very much after the story was done.

3.25 out of 5

As a whole, this anthology was quite an entertaining read and I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is in the mood for sexy firefighting love. It’s made me put two authors that I haven’t tried before on my list so that’s gotta count for something, right?

All in all, I’d give this anthology a 4.25 out of 5.

This book is available from Harlequin Blaze. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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Review: Anthology – Heating Up The Holidays

Posted December 29, 2008 by Holly in Reviews | 5 Comments

As I mentioned before, I picked this up because the Jill Shalvis entry is part of a series I’ve been reading by her. I hadn’t read anything by Jacquie D’Alessandro or Jamie Sobrato before, but I’ve been wanting to try them and this seemed like a good place to start.

As I’m sure you can tell from the cover (and what a cover it is!) the running theme throughout all three novellas is Firefighters.

All He Wants for Christmas… by Jill Shalvis

EMT Dustin Mauer has one Christmas wish—to make tough firefighter Cristina Lewis realize she’s in love with him. And he’s using his considerable bedside charm to convince her!

This is a continuation of Shalvis’ American Heroes: The Firefighters series from Blaze. It’s the story of Christina and Dustin, who are prominently featured in the two previous novels, Flashpoint and Flashback (reviews: here and here).

I loved both characters and really think Shalvis did a good job of making their HEA believable in such a short novella. Christina really had to work for it after pushing him away so long and I really liked that. The story wouldn’t have been as well done if Dustin just gave in.

I do think it’s important to read Flaspoint and Flashback before reading this story. A lot of their background is from those novels and I don’t think this entry would have been as satisfying if I hadn’t read the other two first.

4.5 out of 5

My Grown-Up Christmas List by Jacquie D’Alessandro

Toni Rizzo is done with obnoxious firefighters. But flirtatious fireman Brad Griffin is managing to put himself at the top of her holiday list—one steamy kiss at a time!

This entry was really cute. Brad has been trying to get Toni to go out with him for months, but she’s been rebuffing him at every turn. She told him she was involved so he hadn’t been pushing too far. But when he finds out she isn’t actually involved with a person (she meant she as involved in getting her new business up and running with no time for a relationship) he really steps up his game.

Some of the stuff Brad does to win Toni over was really adorable. He was great. Toni was also great, but I think she took her “I hate firemen” and “I’m only focused on my business with no time for a man” routines got really old, really fast. Especially since Brad was so great. Even so, I did understand her reasons for not wanting to get involved with Brad, so I can’t be too hard on her.

Overall a fun, cute story. I’ll definitely be looking for more novels by her in the future.

4.0 out of 5

Up on the Housetop by Jamie Sobrato

When Dr. Lorelei Gibson gets stuck on her roof half-naked, she’s mortified when she’s rescued by hunky firefighter Ryan Quinn—her high school heartbreak! Until she learns he’d like to get naked with her…

Of the three stories in this collection, I feel this was the weakest. It had the makings of a great story, but the length of the novel really hurt it (it was the shortest entry of the group).

Lorelei and Ryan went to HS together. She had a major crush on him, but he was Mr. Popular and she was queen of the nerds. One night she threw herself at him and he took her virginity. Then he ignored her for the rest of the year, breaking her heart. Now she’s a world-renowned doctor and back in her hometown to face her demons- namely Ryan.

I think Sobrato tried to make things more believable by showing the couple had a past, but I don’t think it worked. With the entry being so short we just didn’t get to know them well enough or see enough of their story unfold. Even another 50 pages would have added a lot more quality to the story.

I did enjoy her writing style, however, and I liked what I saw of both characters. Even though this fell somewhat flat for me, I’ll still be looking for more from the author. I really think if this entry had been just a bit longer it would have been stellar.

3.5 out of 5

Overall I really enjoyed this collection and highly recommend it if you’re in the mood for quick, hot reads.

Total Grade: 4.0 out of 5

This book is available from Harlequin Blaze. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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Bingeaduckia Book Spotlight: Anthology – Heating Up The Holidays

Posted December 14, 2008 by Holly in Discussions | 1 Comment

First things first….Check out this cover:

Book Cover

Totally hot, right? I really want to see one of those under my tree this year..and I’m not talking about the book. YUM!

Anyway, I’ve been looking forward to Jill Shalvis’ entry in this anthology for months, ever since I finished Flashback and Flashpoint. Her novella features Christina and Dustin, characters we met in the first two books in this series. Christina is a prickly, commitment shy woman that I just adore.

I haven’t read anything by D’Alessandro or Sobrato yet, but I’m looking forward to trying them. Of course, I’d have to actually open the book for that to happen…I seem to keep getting stuck on that cover….

It’s definitely heating up my holidays.

This book is available from Harlequin Blaze. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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