Thank you so much to Atria for the advance copy of this! Thank you so much to Simon Audio for the complimentary ALC!

This will be out September 29, 2026.

This book is a collection of 12 short stories from fan favorite romance authors. I know some of my favorite romances authors are included which had me so excited to read! I did not read this as an advent but it could totally work. Each story was roughly about an hour long (which of course can vary depending on your reading speed). I took notes on each of the stories and there were some that I felt was stronger than others. I have to imagine for the authors short stories could be tough as everything has to happen so quickly. I did like how each story varied in their romance level in the sense of spiciness. Here is a quick recap of all the stories:

A Merry Little Christmas This is a second chance romance that is 4 years after the couple dated. Eleanor is force to spend Christmas with Max, her ex. They had broken up due to being long distance and have not seen each other since they split. Eleanor learns that Max is fake dating the date he brought with to get his family off his back. We learn at the end that Max will be taking a job in San Francisco, the same city has Eleanor. 4/5

Decking His Hall Noelia's roommate decided not to renew their lease and she needed a place to stay and her brother offered up his room as he has been spending his time at his girlfriend's place. His brother does have a roommate who happens to be his best friend. She has always had a crush on him growing up. They are complete opposites and he is a grump. After some time, David starts to loosen up and the one moment where things shifted was when she was putting up holiday decorations, she took a little fall and he caught her. This is one that was spicy! I love the connection between the two and especially when it was a mutual pining over the years. They were nervous about what her brother would think but turns out he wanted this to happen. 4.5/5

I’ll Be Home for Ex Mas Frankie is trying to get home but a bad storm caused her flight to be cancelled and just so happens her ex Benji is also stuck at the airport. Benji is now a famous singer in a band. Frankie was the one who broke up with him as they were young and his fame was starting to rise. Benji hints that he doesn't appear to be happy. Since they are both stuck they decided to share a napcab (according to Google is a private sleeping cabin in airports). During that time, they caught up and Benji admits that he never got over her and her feelings never went away. Turns out they both are going to be in NYC (her for work and him recording an album) and want to try to make it work. 4.5

Someone To Hold On To Simone works remotely and had previously lived in a camper. She currently makes pastries for the nursing home that her mom is at and noticed that one particular cookie keeps going missing without being paid. She was determined to catch who the culprit is. During this quest, she meets Henry who decides to help her. She visits his nana there. Simone was not nice to Henry which was definitely unnecessary. We learn that she works in marketing and he is currently unemployed (which we learn why). Simone oversees an incident that occured while Henry was trying to get a prescription and immediately feels bad for how she has been treating him and apologies. 3/5

Ho Ho Oh No Philip offered to take over the role of Santa at a local bookstore. He has a small crush on Brad who works in the town's events and community programs coordinator and was so desperate for a Santa which prompted Philip to take on the role. Philip was about to leave after a Santa shift but turns out a storm rolled in causing the roads to be covered, Brad lives above the bookstore and offers him to stay the night at his place. The next morning Brad makes breakfast for them and admits to Philip that he thinks he is cute and wants to kiss him under the mistletoe. It wouldn't be a Wardell story if there wasn't spice and this is spicy! I love how Philip admits to Brad that he doesn't want this to be temporary and is scared. 4/5

12 Seconds to Forever Our first sport romance theme short story. Laney is asked to check on Alex, her best friend's older brother who was coming in late for the wedding and Jess (the bride) wanted to make sure he was there. This story takes place during New Year's Eve and is also a dual POV. They haven't seen each other in a long time since he has been in the NFL. Alex was injured on his last football game of the season causing him to barely walk which is why he has been laying low from the wedding party and activities. We learn that they kissed 3 years ago and he said it was a mistake. A snowstorm keeps them together in Alex's cabin. He admits he still has feelings for her and apologies for his past behavior. 4.5/5

A Solstice Kiss Olivia Dade always has my heart and she is finally giving us a story set in Sweden (where she lives!). Ellie is temporarily working in Sweden and trying to decide if that is where she wants to stay or go elsewhere. She had thought one of the tour guides at the museum was visiting was cute. Her friend had told her she needed to kiss a stranger and to snap a photo to post online to make her ex jealous. Ellie approaches the tour guide and learns that he is American and has lived in Sweden for 10 years. Felix wants to take her out for dinner and Ellie asks him if she could kiss him. Felix agrees but doesn't want to do it at the museum. They kiss and she posts a photo and he suggests they continue to hang and make it all feel more believable. She talks to him about her job opportunities to get his opinion and his opinion on living in Sweden. This was such a sweet story and I like how she asked him why he agreed to kiss her. 4/5

All Roads Lead Home Elle just arrived in NYC after living in Florida. She will be staying with her father as she just accepted a job in publishing but before she goes to his place, she stopped at a local cafe. She runs into her childhood friend/crush Ryan who owns the cafe. They have not seen each other in 10 years since graduating. He gives her a ride home and admits that he wished they had tried to be something when they were younger and she admits the same and that he was everything to her. They do share a kiss but stopped because of the uncertainty of it all. Elle and her dad have a heart to heart and she realizes that she wants to try to make something work with Ryan. 4/5

Skipping Christmas Ashley is a professional nail tech and is in the thick of the holiday season rush. She is originally from the East Coast but moved to the West Coast to get away from her mom. She does not have a good relationship with her. She has a crush on a guy Micah in the apartment who is also a delivery. man. Micah is currently single after he was dating a woman with a child who decided to go back to the baby daddy. He was sweet and left a note on her door asking to meet up. And was even sweeter by buying her a tree and she made him cookies. They decided to go shopping together and then do a dinner date. They had a cute date that included seeing Santa and ended with a fiery kiss. They decided to exchange gifts of no more than $10. There really wasn't much of an ending but I still really enjoyed this story. 4.5/5

Holiday Blackout After reading this story, I realized I need to read the adult romances that Susan Lee has written. I absolutely loved this one! We have another snow storm storyline but this time we have 2 co workers who are working late and are stuck inside the building - literally. Yoona and Ian are both workaholics. Ian decided if Yoona is staying, so is he. Because of the storm, the power went out and Ian is scared of the dark. They agreed to stick together. We learn that they both had sex with each other the prior year. Since they have time to kill, they start talking about their Christmas traditions. Ian offered to do a midnight toast to keep the tradition going and she suggests they gift each other something from their office. She gifts him her pocket knife and he gifted her the paper weight. There is significance to the paper weight. This is one that is spicy!! They leave together the next morning when power resumes. Ian didn't think he deserved happiness the last time they were together and Yoona also apologized. 5/5

Hope This Helps If you are a fan of email exchanges that tell a story, this one has plenty of it! The first part of the story starts off with email exchanges between Audrey a single mom defending her daughter Kaylee's schoolwork to her teacher Joel. Kaylee cannot go to the dance if she is failing a class and Audrey doesn't want to see that happen but her teacher is not budging on the rules. In a turn of events, Kaylee is allowed to go to the dance and Audrey is a chaperone and meets the teacher she was exchanging conversations with. They hit it off and the story ends with him asking her out for espresso (iykyk), 4/5

Is it New Year’s Yet? This one I struggled with following as it appeared to have gone back to the past timeline and then to the present. We end the story with an NYE Party at Win's family friend's house. Win (Wendy) has been avoiding this family as something happened the prior year with Bria's (her friend) brother. She ran into Ben in the family's gym while hiding to get away from the Party. When Bria went off to school, Ben and Win became close. When Ben asked Win what was wrong, she pulls him into a kiss. Ben pulls away because he was dating someone. Win hides into Bria's room and when Bria finds her she asks him if Ben was seeing anyone and she said no. This had Win mad because she thought he was lying and held onto that for a year. So when she sees him at the following year's NYE party, she asks him about it. Ben admits that he was seeing a guy, Teddy. They had broken up a month after the kiss as Ben felt guilty for the kiss and told him. Turns out Ben admitted he had feelings for Win and he always had. This did not make Win happy that he waited all this time to say something. This book does end with spice & Ben admits that he not only has feelings for her but has been in love with her. 4/5

I paired my reading with the audiobook and had multiple narrators. The narrators are: Avery Caris, Kirt Graves, Jordan Manx, Adenrele Ojo, Valentina Ortiz, Ann Richardson. The only narrator I had previously listened to was Kirt Graves, I would listen to other books narrated by the others!

Overall this was really enjoyable and I love being able to read quick holiday stories from my favorite people and discovered new authors!