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Maybe This Christmas -
Two heartwarming Christmas stories from beloved New York Times bestselling author Janet Dailey--and filled with romance, charm, and delightful holiday spirit. Some Christmas vacation! An unexpected blizzard just stranded Jennifer Glenn in the heart of the mountains, and her boots aren't made for walking. But the Jeep's buried in a snowdrift and a lonely log cabin is the only shelter for miles around. Just her there's only one bed. She's not about to share it with Logan Taylor, even though the handsome rancher swept her up in his arms and carried her over the threshold. He can just take the chair by the fire like a gentleman--if he is a gentleman--and he can just stop calling her darlin'. Or she'll never fall asleep! Happy holidays were only a memory for Dina Chandler in the years after her husband's plane disappeared over the jungle. But the Christmas to come will be a celebration like no other...now that Blake has returned. His long ordeal has changed everything--except his passionate love for the woman who was once his wife. Winning her back will be the greatest challenge--and the greatest gift--of all.
347 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
3 people are currently reading
202 people want to read
About the author
Janet Dailey
397 books1,853 followersJanet Anne Haradon Dailey was an American author of numerous romance novels as Janet Dailey (her married name). Her novels have been translated into nineteen languages and have sold over 300 million copies worldwide.
Born in 1944 in Storm Lake, Iowa, she attended secretarial school in Omaha, Nebraska before meeting her husband, Bill. Bill and Janet worked together in construction and land development until they "retired" to travel throughout the United States, inspiring Janet to write the Americana series of romances, where she set a novel in every state of the Union. In 1974, Janet Dailey was the first American author to write for Harlequin. Her first novel was NO QUARTER ASKED.
She had since gone on to write approximately 90 novels, 21 of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List. She won many awards and accolades for her work, appearing widely on Radio and Television. Today, there are over three hundred million Janet Dailey books in print in 19 different languages, making her one of the most popular novelists in the world.
Janet Dailey passed away peacefully in her home in Branson on Saturday, December 14, 2013. She was 69.
Born in 1944 in Storm Lake, Iowa, she attended secretarial school in Omaha, Nebraska before meeting her husband, Bill. Bill and Janet worked together in construction and land development until they "retired" to travel throughout the United States, inspiring Janet to write the Americana series of romances, where she set a novel in every state of the Union. In 1974, Janet Dailey was the first American author to write for Harlequin. Her first novel was NO QUARTER ASKED.
She had since gone on to write approximately 90 novels, 21 of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List. She won many awards and accolades for her work, appearing widely on Radio and Television. Today, there are over three hundred million Janet Dailey books in print in 19 different languages, making her one of the most popular novelists in the world.
Janet Dailey passed away peacefully in her home in Branson on Saturday, December 14, 2013. She was 69.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
December 28, 2019
This book is very out of date, (written in the 70’s) although it has been “updated” to include references of reality tv and cell phone. It is sexist, not romantic in any way.
December 7, 2014
This review was originally posted to Author Unpublished.
Maybe This Christmas by Janet Dailey is a short 2-book anthology of purportedly “heartwarming” holiday-themed romance novels. The novels were originally written in the 70’s and despite the marketing claiming the books were updated and re-written for the modern times for their second publishing (2003), I’ll admit… there’s little heartwarming about these stories, and except for short 2-page scenes depicting Christmas…. they aren’t even holiday related. Before I get ahead of myself, let’s delve into the first book.
Warning: There will be spoilers. Many of them. Don’t feel bad, you aren’t going to want to read this book. I should include that if you do choose to read this book and skip this review, here are your trigger warnings: There is blatant problems with males in these stories not understanding what “no” means. This may prove as a trigger to some readers who may have dealt with abusive or damaging relationships in the past.
Darling Jenny was the excruciating story of Jennifer Glenn, a secretary who flees her life in the city after her boss makes unwanted advances, and moves in with her sister in the lovely town of Jackson Hole.
Right away, I was put off by the writing. Don’t get me wrong, the narrative is decently written for the most part. There was only one error that I found (Pg, 130, Line 32), and the writing flowed easily and was reasonably well constructed. The story was engaging in all the right places. I didn’t get bored. However, the writing tended to lean towards the overly-descriptive and the author had a penchant for info dumps when it came to describing characters. It’s not my favorite tactic when it comes to writing, but I was able to push through.
The real problem was the believability. The character’s actions were so overblown and dramatic that half the time I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Their decisions made little sense, and the main character, Jennifer, was infuriatingly dense. The only character worse than her, was Logan, the main male lead who practically forced himself upon her on several occasions (leaving her struggling to the point of drawing blood), and had the brilliant line of: “I’ll touch you any damned time I please!”
I cringed.
Despite the story’s “updating”, the misogyny and male entitlement in this book were disgustingly vivid. By the time I reached the last page, I was literally staring down at the book saying “What The Flip did I just read?”
The romance made no sense whatsoever. The entire book Jennifer was trying to avoid Logan. She was pissed off at him 98% of the time (with good reason I might add), and other than the sexual attraction she felt towards him… didn’t seem to know him all that well. I rolled my eyes when she first thought she’d fallen in love with him. He constantly pushed her into uncomfortable situations, refused to call her by the name she preferred, and treated her like property (which he didn’t even have claim to!) I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
It didn’t get any better. Jennifer was so adamant about her dislike for Logan and his unavailability that I could only stare in wonder at the ending. The pair should never have been in a romantic relationship. Period. The frustrating part is that I generally like romances where the two main characters bicker and fall in love. I don’t know what this was exactly, but despite the decent writing, it was a terrible book. I’m amazed that this managed to get re-published in 2003. By 2014 standards, this would have ended straight in the trash can.
In the end, I can’t recommend, nor would choose to re-read Darling Jenny. I give it 2 stars only because A) the writing itself was decent and B) I finished the story. The characters and plot were so offensive and unbelievable that I can’t in good conscience give it three stars (My usual “Meh.” rating). As a woman, I found this story incredibly offensive. I understand that in the 70’s this was the typical romance that was printed… but it should have been heavily edited (as the marketing indicated) before it was reprinted.
The second book in this anthology was Strange Bedfellow, and like the first book in the anthology, it certainly had its issues. This story was about Dina Chandler and the mess of her marriage when her husband is lost and presumed dead for three years in the South American jungles. He suddenly comes back and both discover that neither one of the couple is the same person they remembered. Cue a crap-ton of fighting. I wouldn’t call this a romance by almost any stretch of the word.
Like Darling Jenny, Strange Bedfellows was decently written. Once again, the writing was easy to follow, engaging, and error free. However, The author has a penchant for skipping large amounts of time and over-describing everything. The biggest problem, once again, was with the romance and characters.
If you don’t want to read spoilers, stop now… cause here they come.
Dina and Blake hated each other’s guts. They bickered non-stop throughout the story all the way until the last few pages. To be honest, it was a bit exhausting to read. Every single moment was a battle with them, and I couldn’t help but be put on edge by the chauvinistic way Blake treated his wife. Several times he made comments to his wife that would have made any good Feminist boil with rage.
Their relationship was unhealthy and abusive. Blake was constantly cornering his wife (and I use that term loosely… remember, they hadn’t seen each other in three years), often standing in her way and crowding her or somehow restraining her from going anywhere he didn’t want her to go. He was constantly trying to pressure her into sex, even trying to force her (and somewhat succeeding) several times. He wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, and believe me, she said it plenty of times. The whole thing was sickening to watch from a reader’s perspective.
Then, suddenly, near the end of the book the two are completely fine. Blake’s personality seems to do a 180 and he goes from glaring at her all the time and pushing her around to declaring his undying love and asking her opinion on things… like this is something he’s been doing all along. It felt fake. Again, I know this book was originally written in the 70’s… but even with that caveat, it’s pretty disturbing.
I’ll be honest… I read the book (both books) from start to finish. As much as I hated the characters and the plots, the writing sucked me in. It wasn’t the best romance writing I’ve seen, but it was pretty solid. It’s the characters, and their actions that I find so disturbing and unbelievable. I can’t say that I enjoyed the book—it had a lot of serious problems—and I can’t recommend it for those same reasons. I don’t think the author is a bad writer per se…. but I think it was a poor choice to republish these two stories without giving it a very thorough modern makeover. There’s no excuse for publishing a book in this modern age—particularly a romance book which is geared mostly towards woman—and having the relationships between the characters portrayed this way as if it were okay. The way the men treated the women in these books was mind-bogglingly disturbing. It’s not okay. If you’re looking into buying this book as a fun romantic holiday read…. run the other direction. You won’t find that here.
Maybe This Christmas by Janet Dailey is a short 2-book anthology of purportedly “heartwarming” holiday-themed romance novels. The novels were originally written in the 70’s and despite the marketing claiming the books were updated and re-written for the modern times for their second publishing (2003), I’ll admit… there’s little heartwarming about these stories, and except for short 2-page scenes depicting Christmas…. they aren’t even holiday related. Before I get ahead of myself, let’s delve into the first book.
Warning: There will be spoilers. Many of them. Don’t feel bad, you aren’t going to want to read this book. I should include that if you do choose to read this book and skip this review, here are your trigger warnings: There is blatant problems with males in these stories not understanding what “no” means. This may prove as a trigger to some readers who may have dealt with abusive or damaging relationships in the past.
Darling Jenny was the excruciating story of Jennifer Glenn, a secretary who flees her life in the city after her boss makes unwanted advances, and moves in with her sister in the lovely town of Jackson Hole.
Right away, I was put off by the writing. Don’t get me wrong, the narrative is decently written for the most part. There was only one error that I found (Pg, 130, Line 32), and the writing flowed easily and was reasonably well constructed. The story was engaging in all the right places. I didn’t get bored. However, the writing tended to lean towards the overly-descriptive and the author had a penchant for info dumps when it came to describing characters. It’s not my favorite tactic when it comes to writing, but I was able to push through.
The real problem was the believability. The character’s actions were so overblown and dramatic that half the time I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Their decisions made little sense, and the main character, Jennifer, was infuriatingly dense. The only character worse than her, was Logan, the main male lead who practically forced himself upon her on several occasions (leaving her struggling to the point of drawing blood), and had the brilliant line of: “I’ll touch you any damned time I please!”
I cringed.
Despite the story’s “updating”, the misogyny and male entitlement in this book were disgustingly vivid. By the time I reached the last page, I was literally staring down at the book saying “What The Flip did I just read?”
The romance made no sense whatsoever. The entire book Jennifer was trying to avoid Logan. She was pissed off at him 98% of the time (with good reason I might add), and other than the sexual attraction she felt towards him… didn’t seem to know him all that well. I rolled my eyes when she first thought she’d fallen in love with him. He constantly pushed her into uncomfortable situations, refused to call her by the name she preferred, and treated her like property (which he didn’t even have claim to!) I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
It didn’t get any better. Jennifer was so adamant about her dislike for Logan and his unavailability that I could only stare in wonder at the ending. The pair should never have been in a romantic relationship. Period. The frustrating part is that I generally like romances where the two main characters bicker and fall in love. I don’t know what this was exactly, but despite the decent writing, it was a terrible book. I’m amazed that this managed to get re-published in 2003. By 2014 standards, this would have ended straight in the trash can.
In the end, I can’t recommend, nor would choose to re-read Darling Jenny. I give it 2 stars only because A) the writing itself was decent and B) I finished the story. The characters and plot were so offensive and unbelievable that I can’t in good conscience give it three stars (My usual “Meh.” rating). As a woman, I found this story incredibly offensive. I understand that in the 70’s this was the typical romance that was printed… but it should have been heavily edited (as the marketing indicated) before it was reprinted.
The second book in this anthology was Strange Bedfellow, and like the first book in the anthology, it certainly had its issues. This story was about Dina Chandler and the mess of her marriage when her husband is lost and presumed dead for three years in the South American jungles. He suddenly comes back and both discover that neither one of the couple is the same person they remembered. Cue a crap-ton of fighting. I wouldn’t call this a romance by almost any stretch of the word.
Like Darling Jenny, Strange Bedfellows was decently written. Once again, the writing was easy to follow, engaging, and error free. However, The author has a penchant for skipping large amounts of time and over-describing everything. The biggest problem, once again, was with the romance and characters.
If you don’t want to read spoilers, stop now… cause here they come.
Dina and Blake hated each other’s guts. They bickered non-stop throughout the story all the way until the last few pages. To be honest, it was a bit exhausting to read. Every single moment was a battle with them, and I couldn’t help but be put on edge by the chauvinistic way Blake treated his wife. Several times he made comments to his wife that would have made any good Feminist boil with rage.
Their relationship was unhealthy and abusive. Blake was constantly cornering his wife (and I use that term loosely… remember, they hadn’t seen each other in three years), often standing in her way and crowding her or somehow restraining her from going anywhere he didn’t want her to go. He was constantly trying to pressure her into sex, even trying to force her (and somewhat succeeding) several times. He wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, and believe me, she said it plenty of times. The whole thing was sickening to watch from a reader’s perspective.
Then, suddenly, near the end of the book the two are completely fine. Blake’s personality seems to do a 180 and he goes from glaring at her all the time and pushing her around to declaring his undying love and asking her opinion on things… like this is something he’s been doing all along. It felt fake. Again, I know this book was originally written in the 70’s… but even with that caveat, it’s pretty disturbing.
I’ll be honest… I read the book (both books) from start to finish. As much as I hated the characters and the plots, the writing sucked me in. It wasn’t the best romance writing I’ve seen, but it was pretty solid. It’s the characters, and their actions that I find so disturbing and unbelievable. I can’t say that I enjoyed the book—it had a lot of serious problems—and I can’t recommend it for those same reasons. I don’t think the author is a bad writer per se…. but I think it was a poor choice to republish these two stories without giving it a very thorough modern makeover. There’s no excuse for publishing a book in this modern age—particularly a romance book which is geared mostly towards woman—and having the relationships between the characters portrayed this way as if it were okay. The way the men treated the women in these books was mind-bogglingly disturbing. It’s not okay. If you’re looking into buying this book as a fun romantic holiday read…. run the other direction. You won’t find that here.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 1, 2017
I wasn't able to finish either book. The first book I was annoyed with the heronie's snraky attitude but more annoyed with the "hero" who kept telling her that she liked it when he kissed after she told him to stop. He also kept telling her she needed to get over the guy that hurt her, when her boss had recently tried to coerce her into having sex with him, because he had been taking her out on dates, so she owed it to him.
In the second book, her husband was missing and presumed dead for 2 years and the first night he is back he rapes her and then I am supposed to read an entire book about her falling in love with him again. No thanks. She needs to call the cops and get a divorce. She repeatedly tells him to stop and that they need to get to know each other again and he corners her, throws her on the bed and rapes her.
Never reading anything by Janet Dailey again!
In the second book, her husband was missing and presumed dead for 2 years and the first night he is back he rapes her and then I am supposed to read an entire book about her falling in love with him again. No thanks. She needs to call the cops and get a divorce. She repeatedly tells him to stop and that they need to get to know each other again and he corners her, throws her on the bed and rapes her.
Never reading anything by Janet Dailey again!
February 18, 2019
Two stories from Ms. Dailey's Americana series, which were originally written in the 1970's. They've been updated slightly to include references to email and cell phones. However, the overall feel of the books are that the heroines are just powerless over their attractions to their men. Ugh. I couldn't see why "Darling Jenny" even liked her guy; he treated her like a child. Strange Bedfellow was a bit better, but the returning husband didn't give his overwhelmed wife much time to adjust to his re-appearance. I have several more of this Americana series sitting in a box somewhere; I'm going to locate them and donate them - I don't have any interest in reading more of this series.
May 16, 2022
Two stories in Maybe This Christmas (Darling Jenny & Strange Bedfellow). #1 Darling Jenny - I thought this was set in Minnesota for the state's challenge. But it moved from Minneapolis to Jackson Hole, Wyoming in short order. I did like the story though. #2 Strange Bedfellow does take place in Rhode Island which I also need for the state challenge. Though this couple had a rocky relationship it was a decent romance story.
December 26, 2019
The two short stories in this book were the least romantic romances I have ever read. The women were wishy-washy shrews and the men were total asshats. If it wasn’t one of the only books I brought, I would have DNF’d it.
July 10, 2022
The first story, Darling Jenny was somewhat entertaining, but the characters in my opinion weren't 'real', the storyline seemed too contrived. I did not care for the second story Strange Bedfellows. I didn't like any of the characters.
November 27, 2010
From the back cover:
DARLING JENNY
Some Christmas vacation! An unexpected blizzard just stranded Jennifer Glenn in the heart of the mountains, and her boots aren't made for walking. But the Jeep's buried in a snowdrift and a lonely log cabin is the only shelter for miles around. Just her luck: there's only one bed. She's not about to share it with Logan Taylor, even though the handsome rancher swept her up in his arms and carried her over the threshold. He can just take the chair by the fire like a gentleman--if he is a gentleman--and he can just stop calling her darlin'. Or she'll never fall asleep...
STRANGE BEDFELLOW
Happy holidays were only a memory for Dina Chandler in the years after her husband's plane disappeared over the jungle. But the Christmas to come will be a celebration like no other...now that Blake has returned. His long ordeal has changed everything--except his passionate love for the woman who was once his wife. Winning her back will be the greatest challenge--and the greatest gift--of all.
And my review:
These two stores were marketed as having been "updated" for the 2003 release date, but from what I can tell, not much has been changed. There are references to cell phones, email and PC's, but that's about it. The attitudes of the characters are very dated, especially in the gender roles.
For example, in DARLING JENNY, the heroine comes to the big city to land her dream job. She's had years of studies to prepare, has dreamed of this for most of her life and worked so hard...and she's come to be...a secretary. With all the buildup, I would have expected that she was going to be a lab tech working on cancer research. Nope, her dreams are of typing and filing and making coffee. (Not to bash secretaries mind you, I was one myself, but don't make it sound like the heroine is out to change the world.)
And her "evil" boss, the man that she's running from? He wanted to have sex with her. The way it was hyped up about how cruel he was, I thought he must have called her into his office and raped her on his desk. Not dated her and expected to have consensual sex. Hey, I have no problem with a woman who doesn't sleep around (I admire women like that, usually), but her attitude just goes to show the book's age.
Once the hero showed up, he and heroine descended into petty bickering that lasted for most of the book, in between a few heated scenes to show progress in their relationship. And I couldn't stand the way the hero kept treating her like she was a stupid little girl. I'm sure many men did treat women this way in the 70s, but it's not exactly what most women today would find romantic.
STRANGE BEDFELLOW also showed its age. I didn't have a problem with the recycled plot (man comes back to claim his wife after being declared dead), but I did have a problem with the hero. He was supposed to be tortured, but instead came across as mean. I got as far as the first "love" scene. I put the word love in quotes because there was no tenderness or love that I could see. It was more of the hero saying "I had to be celibate for two years, you're my wife, I want sex, so lie on your back." Not romantic. Geez, buddy, give the woman at least a day or two to adjust to the fact that you're not dead. How about "I love you so much, Dina, I've missed you and want to make love to you"? Nope. Just "I'm horny, give me sex, now!" I know this was often par for the course, given sexual attitudes in the 70s, but it's little more than offensive to today's modern woman.
As a very happily married stay-at-home mom with a young son, I don't really consider myself a hard-core feminist, but even I found these stories irritating with their dated portrayal of women and over-arrogant men. Not recommended by this reader.
DARLING JENNY
Some Christmas vacation! An unexpected blizzard just stranded Jennifer Glenn in the heart of the mountains, and her boots aren't made for walking. But the Jeep's buried in a snowdrift and a lonely log cabin is the only shelter for miles around. Just her luck: there's only one bed. She's not about to share it with Logan Taylor, even though the handsome rancher swept her up in his arms and carried her over the threshold. He can just take the chair by the fire like a gentleman--if he is a gentleman--and he can just stop calling her darlin'. Or she'll never fall asleep...
STRANGE BEDFELLOW
Happy holidays were only a memory for Dina Chandler in the years after her husband's plane disappeared over the jungle. But the Christmas to come will be a celebration like no other...now that Blake has returned. His long ordeal has changed everything--except his passionate love for the woman who was once his wife. Winning her back will be the greatest challenge--and the greatest gift--of all.
And my review:
These two stores were marketed as having been "updated" for the 2003 release date, but from what I can tell, not much has been changed. There are references to cell phones, email and PC's, but that's about it. The attitudes of the characters are very dated, especially in the gender roles.
For example, in DARLING JENNY, the heroine comes to the big city to land her dream job. She's had years of studies to prepare, has dreamed of this for most of her life and worked so hard...and she's come to be...a secretary. With all the buildup, I would have expected that she was going to be a lab tech working on cancer research. Nope, her dreams are of typing and filing and making coffee. (Not to bash secretaries mind you, I was one myself, but don't make it sound like the heroine is out to change the world.)
And her "evil" boss, the man that she's running from? He wanted to have sex with her. The way it was hyped up about how cruel he was, I thought he must have called her into his office and raped her on his desk. Not dated her and expected to have consensual sex. Hey, I have no problem with a woman who doesn't sleep around (I admire women like that, usually), but her attitude just goes to show the book's age.
Once the hero showed up, he and heroine descended into petty bickering that lasted for most of the book, in between a few heated scenes to show progress in their relationship. And I couldn't stand the way the hero kept treating her like she was a stupid little girl. I'm sure many men did treat women this way in the 70s, but it's not exactly what most women today would find romantic.
STRANGE BEDFELLOW also showed its age. I didn't have a problem with the recycled plot (man comes back to claim his wife after being declared dead), but I did have a problem with the hero. He was supposed to be tortured, but instead came across as mean. I got as far as the first "love" scene. I put the word love in quotes because there was no tenderness or love that I could see. It was more of the hero saying "I had to be celibate for two years, you're my wife, I want sex, so lie on your back." Not romantic. Geez, buddy, give the woman at least a day or two to adjust to the fact that you're not dead. How about "I love you so much, Dina, I've missed you and want to make love to you"? Nope. Just "I'm horny, give me sex, now!" I know this was often par for the course, given sexual attitudes in the 70s, but it's little more than offensive to today's modern woman.
As a very happily married stay-at-home mom with a young son, I don't really consider myself a hard-core feminist, but even I found these stories irritating with their dated portrayal of women and over-arrogant men. Not recommended by this reader.
March 2, 2021
The first story was 4 stars. THe second story was 2 stars. Strange bedfellow had nothing to do with Christmas and both heroine and hero were totally unlike able.
December 12, 2012
Maybe This Christmas is cute. Not great by any means, but it's cute. There are 2 books in it, Darling Jenny and Strange Bedfellow, both by Janet Dailey. Each one is short, less than 200 pages.
Imagine those less-than-90-minutes Hallmark or Lifetime channel cheesy Christmas movies. We've all seen them, some are better than others, and there seem to be never-ending supply of them. Well, now this genre of movie exists in book form. I love those movies, and found the book okay.
Strange Bedfellow could've been drawn out a lot longer. It's the story of a woman whose husband is assumed to be dead, she eventually gets past her grief and develops relationship with his best friend. At their engagement party, her husband returns, shocking everyone. This reminded me a lot of LaaVyrle Spencer's "Twice Loved." Since that is a book a cherish, it was admittedly going to be difficult for this one to live up. Sadly, it didn't.
Darling Jenny was cute. I think I preferred it, although there's nothing overly special about that one either. The fun in these books is the Christmas element.
Imagine those less-than-90-minutes Hallmark or Lifetime channel cheesy Christmas movies. We've all seen them, some are better than others, and there seem to be never-ending supply of them. Well, now this genre of movie exists in book form. I love those movies, and found the book okay.
Strange Bedfellow could've been drawn out a lot longer. It's the story of a woman whose husband is assumed to be dead, she eventually gets past her grief and develops relationship with his best friend. At their engagement party, her husband returns, shocking everyone. This reminded me a lot of LaaVyrle Spencer's "Twice Loved." Since that is a book a cherish, it was admittedly going to be difficult for this one to live up. Sadly, it didn't.
Darling Jenny was cute. I think I preferred it, although there's nothing overly special about that one either. The fun in these books is the Christmas element.
December 20, 2009
I picked this up at Walmart years ago, and only just thought to pick it up off my shelf and read it, it being in season and everything. I wanted something light, fluffy, and a bit mindless, and honestly, this fit the bill.
Darling Jenny was an okay story. The main character bothered me with her stubbornness in the beginning, and then her almost-simpering in the end. The love interest bothered me with the occasional comment along the vein of "You'll come around to liking me," which came off as creepy. The story wasn't too bad, and the other characters came off as pretty believable.
I honestly only got halfway through Strange Bedfellow. I knew how it was going to end (thank you back-blurb), but I didn't want it to end that way, and I couldn't stand by and watch the trainwreck.
Perhaps the romance demographic doesn't fit with me, since I don't like the overt masculinity of the typical male love interest.
Darling Jenny was an okay story. The main character bothered me with her stubbornness in the beginning, and then her almost-simpering in the end. The love interest bothered me with the occasional comment along the vein of "You'll come around to liking me," which came off as creepy. The story wasn't too bad, and the other characters came off as pretty believable.
I honestly only got halfway through Strange Bedfellow. I knew how it was going to end (thank you back-blurb), but I didn't want it to end that way, and I couldn't stand by and watch the trainwreck.
Perhaps the romance demographic doesn't fit with me, since I don't like the overt masculinity of the typical male love interest.
December 22, 2011
Okay, so I know this wasn't supposed to be a ground-breaking piece of literature, but this was one of the sappiest books I've ever read. Some of the lines were so cheesy and ridiculous that I literally laughed out loud. I know romance novels are supposed to be escapism, but this type of book sets women up to be disappointed. I don't mean to sneer, but I felt silly just reading it. I give it a D+.
October 6, 2008
I picked this book up at the library just so I could get a taste of Janet Dailey - OMG, what a waste of my time! I didn't even bother reading the second story - Darling Jenny was more than enough! I skipped through so much of it because it literally hurt my head to read it. Just flat out awful and the storyline was just stupid!
December 20, 2011
Two fun books in one. Imagine. You're stranded in a snow storm with a man you don't know and you are expected to share a bed in a cabin. Or you just get enjaged and your husband who died in the jungle comes home. Janet Dailey gives us great stories.
December 14, 2015
Definitely not really a Christmas book, but that being said, both story's were very entertaining. The 1st Darling Jenny was cute with a romantic twist of confusion. The 2nd Strange Bedfellows was turbulent to say the least. But again both were quite well written and enjoyable.
November 22, 2008
Two cute holiday stories that were easy to read, fun, and light-hearted. I enjoyed them both immensely for the fluff they were.
October 17, 2010
Cute, warm, and fuzzy.
FBC Category: Set in cold weather.
FBC Category: Set in cold weather.
December 13, 2011
Both of the stories in this book were just okay. I think I enjoyed the first one a little bit more. None of the characters really drew me in.
December 17, 2012
Very predictable. I thought I was reading a Harlinquine Romance, one of my least favorite reads. This was enough to put me off reading romance books for a long time.
Read
February 7, 20162012
March 4, 2016
this was 2 stories in one book. The 2nd story was about a husband who was lost and thought to be dead returns home.
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