A Shifter’s Christmas Box Set

I enjoyed all 3 books in the series. They where all amazingly well written. I couldn’t put them down as soon as I finished one I was on to the next. I love reading about shifters and each book was about a different set of shifters and how their lives where before meeting their fated mates. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. As part of the arc team.

This collection of holiday tales are the perfect thing to snuggle up with during the cold winter months

A Polar Bear Christmas
I’ve got your back
What a fantastic holiday story! The author really played up the dysfunctional family and sent Claus on a one bear mission to bring joy and happiness to his mate. I love how these two characters stood up for each other even when they had no idea fate was at work. This book was a quick read brought the spirit of Christmas alive and is sure to be a holiday favorite.
5 stars

Book 1: A Dragon’s Christmas Description….. Frankie Peters can’t wait to get home for Christmas even if her mom will insist on calling her Francine. She’d be even more excited if she weren’t worried about how the new beast inside her will react to the close quarters and tons of people. She needs her family, but she’s afraid of the monster she’s become. When she gets buried in a snowdrift during the blizzard on the way, a stranger comes to her rescue—a gorgeous, dragon shifter. Atticus gets her car back on the road and teaches her a little about how to tame her beast. He seems at loose ends, and says he’ll keep mentoring her, so she invites him home. The trouble is, she wants Atticus for much more than a mentor and doesn’t know how to tell him. Is it too much to hope for a Christmas miracle that puts all the messed-up parts of her life together? My Review….. Francine or Frankie as she prefers to be called was bitten by a strange dog over a year ago, and now she’s always angry, frustrated and scared. The beast inside her wants out, and Frankie is tired of having to keep it in and quiet. She’s hoping visiting her family for Christmas will help, otherwise she sees herself alone….. Atticus is a dragon shifter, his beast is too big for this world, the dragon is too bossy and dominant to live around anyone, so it went to sleep, intending to sleep the years away. But something woke both Atticus and his dragon. Digging out of the cave they were in, the dragon searches for the reason it woke….. Atticus and Frankie meet in a snow drift, Frankie isn’t scared of a naked man in the snow. And she smells like a shifter, so Atticus assumes she’s a shifter, but she’s scared of the power inside herself, why? Together they rescue people stuck in an accident, it’s all going great, until an idiot calls them freaks. This sends Frankie back into her shell. We meet quite a few characters, so hoping they would all get a book. Both Frankie and Atticus have trust issues, both need to be part of a family, but unsure of their welcome. We have the bad guy, we have the dysfunctional family and we have a couple just waiting for someone. It’s a short story, but it’s full of action. Book 2: A Polar Bear Christmas Description….. As the only human in a long line of beautiful and proud reindeer shifters, Holly Carter has borne contempt and abuse from her family for years. She avoids the cutesy Christmas enclave they’ve built whenever she can, but somehow her mother always convinces her to come home for the holidays. This year, though, she meets Claus, a polar bear shifter from a crime conglomerate looking to shake down one of her cousins. When Holly and Claus concoct a fake relationship that will get Holly protection and Claus access to his target, they don’t expect it to go anywhere. But the relationship soon feels more real than fake. It would be perfect if only Holly weren’t convinced she’s not worthy to mate a shifter and Claus weren’t convinced that he’s got too much blood on his hands to mate to any woman. Can Holly and Claus convince each other of their true value in time to salvage their bond? My Review…… Poor Holly always being bullied, she can’t anything right. Total failure!! Being a human in a shifter family is hard, but being a non shifter in the Carter clan is a nightmare, she’s always been found wanting, and all because she can’t shift into a reindeer. No wonder she hates coming home. Maybe this year might be different! Claus needs to collect something, and he’s found out who has it, getting into the Carter household might prove a problem. They are a very close knit family. No outsiders, they are very cautious. How will he get in? Holly and Claus meet at a bar. They strike up a bargain, she gets a date and possibly a buffer from the family. He gets to nab the stolen item. Sounds like both are onto a winning solution. But you get the notion that it won’t be that simple. Spending time with Holly has Claus looking at his own life, his job is everything to him, he owes his alpha and intends not to let him down. But watching her with her family, Claus just wants to protect her, but that can’t happen, once he has what he came for, he’s gone. I liked this one, we have a big, bad bear and a non shifting reindeer. The way Claus stands up for Holly is good. How he views family as something that isn’t the same for everyone. How Holly finally stands up for herself had me smiling to myself. Will he want to stick around and be there for Holly? Or will he go once he has what he has come for? Book 3: A Snow Leopard’s Christmas Description….. Ellie was just looking for a normal holiday. She had planned to spend it with her family. Her mother, father and her baby boy, Casper. When Nolan showed up, things took a turn for the worst. She couldn’t believe him. Why would he return after all these years? She didn’t need him then, and she doesn’t need him now. Though, she had to admit. Casper and Nolan seemed to get along together really well… My Review…… Not my favourite if I’m being honest. Ellie is a single mum, she loves her little boy so very much. She works from home as a wedding chef (doesn’t actually say what she does) But he’s a live wire, he’s into everything. Her parents are here for Christmas. And I have to admit, I find Ellie’s mum really hard work, she was always putting her down, always finding faults with her and her parenting techniques, wanting her to find a “proper job” All Ellie wanted was her family around her over Christmas. Nolan has spent the last four years travelling, and now he’s back in this tiny village, the one thing drawing him back was a passionate night with a woman he’s tried to forget. But the meeting didn’t go as he had planned. She didn’t seem to be pleased to see him, in fact she’s really angry. When Nolan finds out he’s a father to a four year old, at first he’s angry, how dare she keep this a secret. But later having time to think, he realises she didn’t have any way of reaching him. But all that is about to change. She is his mate, and they have a child, he’s not going anywhere. But convincing Ellie is proving harder than he imagined. We have a couple who are fighting their feelings for one another, we also have Ellie fighting to convince her parents she’s a good mother. We have a stalker, so we have the blocks for a good story. But it was sadly lacking on content.

A Polar Bear Christmas
Holly Carter is the only one in her family that can’t shift despite her family biting her to make her shift. When she walks into a dive bar and overhears someone asking about her family she is immediately intrigued. Claus is a polar bear shifter and has been sent to collect Holly’s cousin for taking something from them. Claus never expected to fall for Holly and he angers him how her family treats her. Will Claus claim Holly for his own?

This is a just one of the three great stories you’ll find in this collection. This is a well written and very entertaining box set. I would recommend it to any book lover.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

A Shifter’s Xmas by Emilia Hartley is a three book boxset that includes the following three stand alone Christmas themed books: A Dragon’s Christmas, A Polar Bear Christmas, and A Snow Leopard’s Christmas. Each book in this set is a fun and entertaining story that features a main female character who goes home for Christmas only to end up finding their forever mate in a most unusual way. These romantic stories made my holiday brighter and entertained me with the snarky female characters who eventually give in to their forever mates holiday antics. I loved all the stories in the set. A Shifter’s Christmas is the perfect romantic read to get in the holiday mood.

Readers quickly lose themselves in Emilia Hartley’s recently released set of three shifter e-books. Hartley uses these Christmas themed novellas – between 17,500 and 40,000 words – to introduce three couples with distinct ties to the shifter world.
With the shortness dictated by a novella, Hartley manages to colorfully sketch out her characters even to providing a bit of back story for each. For the most part, she uses original and imaginative language instead of the hackneyed clichés which emerge in other romances. The idea of “fated mates” appears mildly in each of the novellas, but is not subject to the significant workup it receives in other shifter stories.

“A Dragon’s Christmas” introduces Frankie Peters, a new shifter, who is driving from Maryland to upstate New York during a snowstorm to spend Christmas with her family. She has spent the previous year trying to control her animal, a wolf. Atticus Van Tassel, a colossal white dragon, emerges from a deep nap stimulated by the presence of Frankie. He digs her out of the snow. Together, they continue their drive on to Frankie’s parents’ house trailer. Frankie and Atticus begin to build a relationship, while he helps her deal with her beast. Meanwhile, Atticus sorts out problems of his former territory, and Frankie deals with her younger brother, also a new sifter.

Holly Carter, born into a reindeer shifter family, is not a shifter but fully human, and Claus, a gargantuan Polar Bear shifter, meet at a biker dive in “A Polar Bear’s Christmas.” Holly invites Claus to be her date for Christmas week at the Carter Manor House. Claus is appalled at both the physical and mental treatment Holly receives at her family members’ hands. Cousin Elise is the worst. Claus has an undercover job, not developed to my satisfaction, in finding and dealing with Robert Carter. This novella read like an entertaining romp during which Claus tries to keep Holly from her family’s tyranny while encouraging her lively and optimistic sense of self. Holly’s sense of humor is a light bulb which can burn bright, but flicker out when family members tease and torment her. Claus and Holly’s romp ends satisfactorily in Holly’s Raleigh, NC apartment on Christmas Day.

“A Snow Panther’s Christmas” is a charmingly written novella that presents Ellie, single mom and talented baker, Casper, Ellie’s almost-four-year-old, and seemingly out-of-control son, and Nolan McCaffery, snow panther shifter’and also Casper’s father who had a one night stand with Ellie at which Casper came into being. Nolan shows up at Ellie’s home shortly before Christmas wanting to get to know Casper but lacking in any kind of familial skills. Nolan wants to become a family unit with Ellie and Casper and help her son come to grips with being a shifter. Ellie is afraid that Nolan can not live up to all his promises and her expectations of him. Ellie also wants to take her baking business out of her home and into a commercial kitchen.

“A Snow Panther’s Christmas” is seemingly loaded for Ellie, Nolan, and Casper with a myriad of problems that connect with relatives and neighbors. This was my favorite of the three novellas because each of the characters is actively developed, even Casper. They all work hard to solve their problems so they can become a family unit. I loved the vignettes of Ellie and Nolen interacting with Casper, and also Casper’s actions when left alone.

I received an ARC of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

This is a lovely trio of adult stories involving shifters and takes about two days for the box set. Not saying any more to avoid spoilers, but you won’t be sorry you read them.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

These are all wonderful books. I love the stories of finding ones mate, some not even knowing what that exactly means, because of being new to shifting. Hilarious families, abused humans, fighting family, needing protection and much more. And of course all centered around Christmas. I mean who wouldn’t want to be woken up after five years to find his mate. Or come to the rescue or an arrangement that becomes more. All are different but great !!

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.