Review--Burning Bright: Four Chanukah Love Stories

-
Burning Bright: Four Chanukah Love StoriesBurning Bright: Four Chanukah Love Stories by Megan Hart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Burning Bright: Four Chanukah Love Stories, is out in ebook, just in time for the holiday:

“Miracle” by Megan Hart—This sweet tale touches on a little known issue, very religious Jews who go “off the derech”, leaving their strictly observant communities for the wider world. It’s a difficult adjustment for Ben Schneider, but he finds his neighbor Amanda willing to help him navigate through new customs and traditions as she shows him her Chanukah celebration of helping her neighbors experience the holidays with joy.

“A Dose of Gelt” by Jennifer Gracen—“Gelt” is money, the traditional Chanukah gift, symbolized by foil wrapped chocolate coins. Evan Sontag and Shari Cohen have so much in common and such a great relationship that when Evan brings Shari to his family’s annual Chanukah party, there’s discussion of when they’re setting a date. Honestly, Evan, if you didn’t think that was going to happen at the family gathering—with your grandmother—you haven’t been paying attention. He flips out, because as a family law attorney he’s seen too many marriages end up on the rocks and he doesn’t think marriage is for him. Now he has to win back Shari, the woman he realizes he can’t live without. It helps that there are eight days of Chanukah with which to offer heart-felt gifts...and his heart, too.

“Home for Chanukah” by Stacey Agdern—Jon Adelman travels the country producing modern Jewish music, discovering and promoting artists who fuse tradition with current sounds. It’s a busy life which doesn’t leave him any time to make his apartment into a home. When his neighbor, designer Molly Baker-Stein, sees his folding chair, futon and card table living arrangements, she’s horrified. For Chanukah she’s going to help Jon have the living space he deserves…and things go terribly wrong. It’s going to take a Chanukah miracle (and help from both sides of the family—do you see a trend in these stories?) to get them back together and appreciating one another.

“All I Got” by KK Hendin moves the action across the Atlantic. Modern Orthodox Tamar is taking a winter break from college to eat sufganiyot in Israel, apartment sit for a friend from their girls’ seminary year, and flirt with cute soldiers at bus stops. She’s particularly charmed by Avi, with his sweet smile and Southern accent, but she knows it can’t go anywhere because she’ll return to the States after the holiday. This story is peppered with a lot of “Henglish”, Hebrew/English mixed conversation, but the tale is universal as lovers try to connect, each knowing their lives are separated by an ocean.

There's a push in romance writing for more diverse stories, and a new collection from a major publisher celebrating a holiday other than Christmas is a lovely treat!


View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do you have permission to waltz?

-
Image
"Would you care to dance as well?” Light-footed Captain St. Armand was standing behind Daphne, smiling down at her, but before she could answer Alexander said, “Mrs. Murray was about to favor me with a dance, Captain St. Armand.” “I was?” “Indeed you were,” Alexander said, helping Daphne to her feet. She cocked her head to the side, listening to the music. “That music is in waltz time, Dr. Murray. Do you know the waltz? It is my favorite!” “Then it will be my favorite also.” Daphne looked up at him as he took her into his arms, a quizzical grin on her face. “What a charming thing to say, Dr. Murray! I vow, you are becoming quite the gallant.” Alexander said nothing to this, concentrating on the music. Yes, he'd waltzed when ashore. On occasion he'd been invited to balls and assemblies, even a surgeon being a useful man to have when the navy was expected to provide gentlemen at entertainments. But he'd never felt the music, the dance had never mattered so mu...
Read more
-
Image
HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION Worldcon (Denvention3) was fantastic. I arrived Wednesday in plenty of time for my 4:00 panel, Survival Tips for New Writers. The other panelists were David Coe and this year's Campbell Award winner, Mary Robinette Kowal, and along with the audience I picked up tips from them on how to improve my work habits. On Thursday I had a full day of panels. How do Ebooks Change Writing--an Ebook Writing Primer was intriguing, and moderator Dave Howell worked hard to keep us focused on the topic and not wandering off into weird ebook stories. We talked about interactive ebooks with hyperlinks, but also about how many readers seem content with ebooks simply being an exact copy of a print book delivered through different media. Aaaargh! The Pirate Panel was just what you might expect from the title, an exploration of why we like pirates so much, and where pirate history and mythology collide. The other panelists--David Riley, MistyMassey and Linda Donoh...
Read more
-
Book Reviews--Dearly Devoted Dexter Dearly Devoted Dexter Jeff Lindsay 2005, Doubleday Dexter Morgan, the serial killer who only takes out the trash, is back in a novel that picks up where Darkly Dreaming Dexter ended. In that first novel we learned how Dexter’s foster father saw early what the boy was and channeled his social quirks into a more acceptable outlet. Oh, Dexter still likes to torture people to death–that will never change–but thanks to his cop dad Dexter has a mission–to only use his talents on really, really bad people. Specifically, other serial killers. Dexter works for the Miami PD as a blood spatter specialist and he cheerfully goes through his life, as he puts it, pretending to be human and letting his dark friend come out to play every now and then. Dexter’s sister is a Miami cop and while she has a pretty good idea what he’s up to, she leaves him alone to do his thing. The problem is, Dexter’s doing a little too good a job of passing for human. So much so that t...
Read more