Christmas Angel, by Lisa Marie Rice

Lisa Marie Rice day today. First: Christmas Angel (excerpt)

Nicole Caron lost the love of her life on Christmas Eve. Now only the Christmas Angel can help her.

Christmas Angel is part of Ellora's Cave Quickies of Christmas series, which means it's a short story. It's on the short side, as short stories go, too, barely 35 pages long.

So, just not much space there to develop anything deeply, but what there was, I liked very much. The story is simple: Nicole Caron is a diplomat. A year before the start of the story, she was posted in Jordan and met an Italian apparently attached to the Italian embassy. She fell in love, she thought he felt the same way, but then the guy just disappeared. A year later, Nicole has been posted to the consulate in Napoli, and guess who shows up?

About half of the story is devoted to Nicole remembering those early days with Alessandro, and this was surprisingly affecting. Rice manages to convey the feel and heavily romantic atmosphere of these two falling in love just perfectly. And then, the part of the story set in the present is even better. Alessandro has a very good reason to justify his absence, and the way he goes about trying to get Nicole back is sweet (and very hot!).

A few more pages wouldn't have gone amiss, but for a short, short story, this was great. A B.