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Comfort And Joy (2014)

by Joanna Chambers(Favorite Author)

4.06 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

JustJoshin Publishing, Inc.

review 1: Comfort and Joy (Anthology)Joanna Chambers, Harper Fox, L.B. Gregg, Josh LanyonFour StarsI resist shorter fiction and anthologies, because often they just don’t satisfy me. But this Christmas-themed anthology of four long stories is not only by four authors with great writing creds, but they work together thematically to put you in the mood for the holiday season.Which is to say, they make you cry. Two of these come to us from the UK, Joanna Chambers’ “Rest and Be Thankful,” and Harper Fox’s “Out.” The other two are American, one East Coast (“Waiting for Winter” by L.B. Gregg) and one West Coast (“Baby It’s Cold,” by Josh Lanyon). All of them involve snow on Christmas Eve, three of them focus on young men at cross-purposes with each other, and one o... moref them takes place in a luxury hotel in Edinburgh. How to start. They all made me weepy, but that might simply be the season and my generally low emotional tipping point at this time of year. Confessing, as usual, that Harper Fox is my favorite author, I also must say that the rather oddball setting for “Out” made this story stand out. Cosmo Grant (love that name) is trapped in a grand old hotel in Edinburgh. Severe agoraphobia triggered by a horrific incident has kept Cosmo “in” for over a year. Torn between his love for the staff at the hotel and his hatred of his boss, Cosmo is stuck, physically and emotionally. And then Ren Vaudrey walks into the marble splendor and turns Cosmo upside down. The hotel itself is a major character in this gay romantic take on “The Grand Hotel Budapest.” (Note: I’m pretty sure I stayed in the hotel Fox uses as the model for this in 1970 with my dad when I was fifteen.) The other three are, to be sure, wonderful stories. In spite of diverse locales, it is more than the snow that echoes through all three narratives. These are cautionary tales about miscommunication; not speaking your heart when you should, and speaking from your own heart without giving through to what the other guy might be feeling. Chambers’ “Rest and Be Thankful” is surprisingly low key, and is about two men discovering each other, almost by accident, as if for the first time. It really is a tale of how easily we hurt ourselves by assuming the worst of others. Lanyon’s “Baby It’s Cold” and Gregg’s “Waiting for Winter” concern couples who have split and, charmingly, both involve slightly screwball ploys on the part of one character that go awry. These are more painful to read, since they cast a bright light on the ways we hurt people we love most out of fear and insecurity—and sometimes plain stubbornness. For all their similarities, these stores are not the same. No one would say that landscape paintings are all the same. In a parallel way, romance stories all share certain essential ingredients. It is the author’s skill as a writer and as a narrator (not the same thing) that makes each of these individual and uniquely appealing. This is very much the case here. Everyone who reads this anthology will find the one story that touches most deeply and satisfies most fully. Which of these four will do that for you depends upon who you are.
review 2: Overall 4.0 /5.0Wonder holiday anthology with stories from some of my favorite authors. Rest and Be Thankful is Joanna Chambers story. It was fun reading a contemporary story from her as I have only read her historical m/m books. This story is a mix of misunderstandings, lack of communication and a winter blizzard that create a lovely enemy to friends romance. This was probably my favorite story. Out by Harper Fox was unusual with its main character basically having PTSD which results in agoraphobia. The story combines crime, mystery and romance. It was fun and fast paced. Waiting for Winter by L.B. Gregg was a more difficult one for me. The lack of communication and interactions between the characters had me wondering who was waiting for whom. Winter and Luke are a mess. Only when a winter storm traps them together, do they start to communicate. The Christmas tree and insights we get into why each character behaved as they did finally brought this holiday romance together for me. Baby It’s Cold by Josh Lanyon was a fun food centric romp. It kind of reminded me of an old comedy where the characters come up with a hare-brain scheme that could have been solved with a bit of honest, open communication. Sweet, sometimes silly holiday romance with a cute ending. less

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