This is an OK set of shifter romance novellas, some better than others. Since they were short novellas, they all suffered from a lack of character development. I believe that all of them were short novellas that were part of a series, which made them difficult to read. It didn't seem like any of them were the first book in a series, so they had characters that I felt like I should already know -- but I didn't, since I hadn't read the other books in those series. My rating for the set is 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 stars.
Gracie's Gift, by V. Vaughn, 3 stars -- This is an OK romance, with likable characters, but it ended too abruptly. Gracie and Jack got together, and it was over. I wanted to read about her becoming a shifter. I also really wanted an epilogue, to see how they were doing a few months or even years down the road.
A Furry Little Christmas, by C. D. Gorri, 3.5 stars -- This was a cute age-gap romance (older woman/younger man). It was one of the only novellas in this set that really didn't have a lot of characters from other books -- at least, not so many that it was hard to follow. I liked, too, that the age gap was that the woman was older, not the man.
Unwrapping Her Dragon, by Julia Mills, 3 stars -- This novella was cute, but it would have been very difficult for readers who had not read Julia's Dragon Guard series to understand. There are a lot of characters, and references to characters from other Dragon Guard books. It really bothered me, too, that the dragons of fate were separated from their fated mates by God. That didn't seem like something a loving God would do.
Her Cowboy Warrior, by Liv Brywood, 3.5 stars -- This was one of my favorites in the series. Gage left Raven years before, because he didn't trust his shifter side. He thought he was a monster, and didn't think he could control his bear. He believed Raven would be better off without him, even though they were deeply in love. This was their second-chance romance, where he ends up being her hero, and they do get back together.
Tis the Season for Sass, by Melanie James, 2.5 stars -- This story really suffered from being pulled out of a series that I had not read. There were a lot of characters that I felt I should already know, and I also felt I was missing a great deal of information about the Black Paw pack.
A Fated Mate for Christmas, by Selena Blake, 2.5 stars -- This novella also suffered greatly from being pulled from a series that I had not read. I felt that I was missing a lot of information on the Ravenwood pack, and the other characters. I also thought that the resolution in the end was a little too easy, considering all the terrible things that Gabrielle's father had done.
Her Cowboy's Christmas Surprise, by J. K. Harper, 1 star -- This story was incredibly poorly written. It had editing issues in practically every sentence, so many that the story was difficult to read. (Examples: misused words like to/too, changing from past to present tense in the middle of a sentence, run-on sentences, and lots of incorrect grammar). It was also very repetitive, in that a character's thoughts were often repeated 2 or 3 times in just a couple of pages, then sometimes again just a few paragraphs later. This author desperately needs a good editor, and also needs to learn grammar rules. The errors were so frequent, and so bad, that it made the story hard to follow -- and almost impossible to enjoy.
The Honeybear's Xmas Curse, by Jacqueline Sweet, 3.5 stars -- This was a surprisingly sweet shifter romance. There were a few characters that had been introduced in other books in the series, but this novella was still fairly easy to follow. I did wish that it had given more backstory on both Theresa and Gauge, but that was a minor issue.
My rating system is below.
1 star -- Hated it, or did not finish. I usually only give this rating if some of the content is truly objectionable to me, like if one of the main characters does something really awful, and gets away with it.
2 stars -- Didn't like it. This rating usually means that I thought the writing wasn't very good, the editing was terrible, I didn't like the characters, or it had other major flaws.
3 stars -- I liked it, but had some minor issues with it. This rating means that there were minor editing issues, the story needed more character development, it was just too unrealistic, or had some other fairly minor issue. The majority of books I read get this rating – I do not consider it a bad rating.
4 stars -- I liked it a lot. This is a high rating for me, and I rarely give a higher one.
5 stars -- I loved it, and will probably read it again. Very few books are good enough to get this rating from me. The ones that do are usually classics.