Star of Wonder

Medieval Romance
Day of Wrath by Jo Beverley takes place in the year 999 A.D. Novice nun, Wulfhera of Froxton, has left her convent because of danger from the Danes. When she arrives at Froxton, she finds that her father is ill and her Raefnoth, her childhood friend, and his men have taken refuge there, having been forced from their own home by the Danes. Furthermore, Hera's sister Alfrida is living with Torkil, the Danish Viking leader. Hera had always secretly loved Raef and realizes that she had joined the convent as a reaction to a broken heart when he married another woman. When Hera finds the pendant, it begins to exert its magic.

What I liked about this story was that with one exception, the Star was not a very obvious miracle-working talisman. Hera and Raef; Alfrida and Torkil all behave according to what we know about their characters, and their HEA endings were because of their own actions - helped along a bit by the Star.

Beverley's story was my favorite of this collection. The characters all felt like real people and authentic to the period, not just characters dressed in costumes. The only flaw in the story was a scene where Hera and Raef are in a dungeon and decide to make love. Scenes like that never work for me no matter how skilled the writer. Grade: B

European Historical Romance (Regency England)
Starlight Wedding by Alice Alfonsi begins with a prologue in 1793 where Lady Anna Devon is in a French prison. As she is dying, she makes her last wish on the Christmas star for her newborn son, Jacques, to remain safe and be reunited with his English father, Thomas Court, Earl of Devon.

Moving ahead 6 years, we find The Honorable Miss Felicity Fairchild angry at having a good name and suitable fortune, yet still garnering pitying looks at her spinster status - she wants a home, husband and children of her own. As she walks, she spies a pretty pendant which she picks up. When Felicity holds the Star, she seems to hear a woman singing. Then Felicity is attacked by a couple of ruffians, but is rescued by William Court, brother of Thomas.

After Thomas's death, he left his son Jacques in William's care. William is not very happy about the situation. He is a merchant seaman and does not want the responsibilty of being guardian to a child. When Felicity meets Jacques, she loves him at once - he is a charming little boy - and she and William agree to a marriage of convenience that will leave him free to travel and her as the mother of Jacques. But Felicity has the Star - and it begins to work its magic on them.

There is a lot going on in Starlight Wedding, almost too much for such a short story. Grade: C+

Frontier/Western Hist Romance
Last Kiss At The Loving Cup Saloon by Tess Faraday was the weakest story in the collection. In 1899, gambler Joe Nelson's poker hand wins him a broken down saloon from Colin Stark. What Joe did not realize, was that the saloon came complete with four orphans.

In the meantime, Colin Stark has married by proxy a woman named Katherine and she is traveling west to meet him. On the way, a gypsy foretells dire consequences for Katherine if she stays with Colin, for he is evil.

Back at the saloon, Joe promises the orphans a Christmas complete with a mama and goes to meet the train in the hopes of finding a woman who will go along with his plan. When he sees Katherine, he all but kidnaps her and explains his plan. Worried by the gypsy's fortune, Katherine goes with Joe.

Very late in the story, Katherine finds the Star and it begins to work its magic - but I had lost interest. Joe and Katherine were bland and while neither was obnoxious, they were very one dimensional characters. I found myself nodding over the story and wondering if it would ever end. Grade: D+

Contemporary Romance
The last story, Joy to the Word by Kate Freiman takes place in 1999. Angela McMichaels and her brother Matthew are the last members of a very wealthy family who run the McMichaels Foundation. As the story opens, Angela is mourning the death of her brother in a plane crash. To add to Angela's sorrow, it appears that Matthew had been stealing large amounts of money from the foundation and had rigged the system to cause a Y2K crash. Lucien Drake, the sole paid employee of the foundation, is the one who has discovered the evidence of Matthew's wrongdoing. Angela turns to Joshua Davidson, a good friend of Matthew's, who is warm and comforting - until he starts to wonder if maybe Matthew did embezzle the funds as it increasingly appears he did.

Joy to the Word is told in the first person and Angela's discoveries are ours too. It is a pleasant enough story and Freiman deserves credit for not having Angela fall prey to the Big Misunderstanding even though I saw the potential for one coming a mile away. The one problem with this story came at the end when it seemed like there were one too many Big Surprises revealed. Grade: C

Star of Wonder is a pleasant enough holiday anthology, but with the exception of Jo Beverley's story, it is not really all that memorable. It might be worth looking up if you like Christmas stories with a theme - the Star is an interesting unifying device.

-- Ellen Micheletti

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