I love winter, and I was overjoyed at the prospect of reading a duo of paranormal stories based on folklore relating to winter. Even cooler, I read this in December, although in Texas, we don't exactly get much snow. It was chilly outside at least, so it added to the mood.

I enjoyed the lesser-utilized winter folkore in both of these books. In the case of the Michele Hauf story, A Kiss of Frost, it was Jack Frost. I never thought of Jack Frost as sexy, but Ms. Hauf really manages to make her version quite sexy. However, I had trouble with the fact that the heroine would essentially pick up strangers and go with them to a hotel and have fun sex with them like it was no big deal. I think that's very risky and scary behavior in the modern age of serial killers, stalkers, murderers, and sexually-transmitted diseases that can kill a person. I couldn't get past that to enjoy this story to it's full potential. It's a shame, because it really was a cool idea of having Jack Frost be an assassin for the Winter Gods and Goddesses. I didn't like the cold nature of the frost fairies, but that definitely is typical for the fae to be untouched by human emotions. Jack would have to try not to allow his human woman's passion to melt his cold heart, but he didn't do a very good part of it. I did like that the heroine's career was essentially as a snowflakeologist, for lack of a better term. She was a bit flighty for a scientist, but oh well. I'd give this story 2 1/2 stars.

I liked the second story by Vivi Anna, Ice Bound, very much. It utilized Japanese folklore of the Snow Maiden, who was forced to roam the icy roads and would often kill strangers with her icy kiss. She falls in love with a scientist and doesn't end up killing him, but takes him back to her icy prison that she has been cursed to exist in forever by her betrayed lover. The only time she can leave is when she goes out to lure an unsuspecting traveler to his icy demise. But in the case of the hero, love causes her to spare him, but he has to help free her from her icy prison before they can be together. This was a really cool story idea. It was also interracial, which was great. The heroine was a Japanese woman (or spirit if you prefer). The hero was an American White scientist, with just enough nerdiness to be endearing. He's not really a nerd, just had a cute nerd vibe to him. This was a neat story, so I'd give it four stars.

I find that these Nocturnes are just too short to give time to develop a really meaty story, which I have gotten used to with full-length paranormals. It was a little less obvious in this short story format. If I liked the first story more, this would have been a four star read all around. As it turned out, it's three stars.