Search - It Happened One Night: The Fall of Rogue Gerrard / Spellbound / Only You / From This Moment On

This book is a compilation of four novellas with the same basic premise. I liked the stories by Stephanie Laurens and Mary Balogh the most, which surprised me because I've read one novel each by those authors, and I wasn't mad to read more by either one. I actually picked up the book because I'm a fan of Jacquie D'Alessandro's Regencies, but this story was a disappointment. Her most recent work, this story included, seems wooden and recycled, without the spark and humor of her earlier novels. I'd never read Candice Hern before, but her style didn't really appeal to me.

I enjoyed Mary Balogh's and Stephanie Lauren's stories. The other two were not as enjoyable. The premise of all four stories centers around the same plot; the hero and heroine meet again after a 10 year separation. Each story is unique, and the characters handled differently by each author. Nice weekend read.

An anthology of historical romances based on the same basic plot premise: former loves meet at an inn after not having seen each other for 10 years. This basic premise is a good one for the novella format, since it always seems to work best for a shorter story if there is some past history to build on in a short time. I have only read Laurens and Balogh before this anthology and their stories will not disappoint their fans, and the D'Alessandro story was very readable as well. The Hern story had too much past baggage associated with it and there was much more rehashing than romance. It's tough to rate anthologies since there is always something that you just didn't care for, but this one is pretty good overall.

An excellent group of authors but the stories didn't do it for me. Possibly this is because it is packaged as a Christmas anthology and isn't...

Each story in this anthology has the same basic plot: Hero and heroine who haven't seen each other in 10 years, accidentally meet at a country inn.

This book actually took me a long time to read. I just couldn't get interested in these stories which were mediocre at best. The best for me was Mary Balogh's story of two young lovers separated (by her father) when they were young, now finding each other due to a carriage accident. Neither Laurens or D'Allesandro's stories showed us anything new. Candice Hern is a new author for me. The story was about an older couple (40's). The problem was they spent most of the story reminiscing about their various meetings throughout the years. I just wanted to say "Stop talking and get on with it". My rating: 3 Stars.

great read