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Christmas Love Stories
'TIS THE SEASON FOR ROMANCE!
Holiday Spirit by Kay Hooper
A matchmaking grandmother and three holiday ghosts arrange a sensuous reunion for a headstrong noblewoman and her seductive former fiancé.
Gifts of Love by Shannon Drake
A beautiful but impoverished mail-order bride travels west to discover Christmas joy-and passionate adventure-in the arms of a rugged ex-gunfighter.
Surrender by Lisa Kleypas
An aristocratic Bostonian learns the true meaning of giving when she falls tenderly and passionately in love with a troubled stranger: her husband.
A Creole Christmas by Diane Wicker Davis
A lovely New Orleans innocent's Yuletide wish for love comes true when she loses her heart to her handsome girlhood hero.
Holiday Spirit by Kay Hooper
A matchmaking grandmother and three holiday ghosts arrange a sensuous reunion for a headstrong noblewoman and her seductive former fiancé.
Gifts of Love by Shannon Drake
A beautiful but impoverished mail-order bride travels west to discover Christmas joy-and passionate adventure-in the arms of a rugged ex-gunfighter.
Surrender by Lisa Kleypas
An aristocratic Bostonian learns the true meaning of giving when she falls tenderly and passionately in love with a troubled stranger: her husband.
A Creole Christmas by Diane Wicker Davis
A lovely New Orleans innocent's Yuletide wish for love comes true when she loses her heart to her handsome girlhood hero.
392 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1991
4 people are currently reading
622 people want to read
About the author
Kay Hooper
108 books2,453 followersKay Hooper (aka Kay Robbins) was born in California, in an air force base hospital since her father was stationed there at the time. The family moved back to North Carolina shortly afterward, so she was raised and went to school there.
The oldest of three children, Kay has a brother two years younger and a sister seven years younger. Her father and brother are builders who own a highly respected construction company, and her mother worked for many years in personnel management before becoming Kay's personal assistant, a position she held until her untimely death in March 2002. Kay's sister Linda works as her Business Manager, Events Coordinator, and is playing a major role in the creation and operation of The Kay Hooper Foundation.
Kay graduated from East Rutherford High School and attended Isothermal Community College — where she quickly discovered that business classes did not in any way enthrall her. Switching to more involving courses such as history and literature, she also began to concentrate on writing, which had been a longtime interest. Very quickly hooked, she asked for a Christmas typewriter and began seriously working on her first novel. That book, a Regency romance titled Lady Thief, sold to Dell Publishing in 1980. She has since published more than 60 novels and four novellas.
Kay is single and lives in a very small town in North Carolina, not far from her father and siblings. Deigning to live with her are a flock of cats — Bonnie, Ginger, Oscar, Tuffy, Felix, Renny, and Isabel — of various personalities who all like sleeping on manuscripts and whatever research happens to be spread across Kay's desk. And living amongst the many felines are two cheerfully tolerant dogs, a shelter rescue, Bandit, who looks rather like a small sheepdog, and a Sheltie named Lizzie.
The oldest of three children, Kay has a brother two years younger and a sister seven years younger. Her father and brother are builders who own a highly respected construction company, and her mother worked for many years in personnel management before becoming Kay's personal assistant, a position she held until her untimely death in March 2002. Kay's sister Linda works as her Business Manager, Events Coordinator, and is playing a major role in the creation and operation of The Kay Hooper Foundation.
Kay graduated from East Rutherford High School and attended Isothermal Community College — where she quickly discovered that business classes did not in any way enthrall her. Switching to more involving courses such as history and literature, she also began to concentrate on writing, which had been a longtime interest. Very quickly hooked, she asked for a Christmas typewriter and began seriously working on her first novel. That book, a Regency romance titled Lady Thief, sold to Dell Publishing in 1980. She has since published more than 60 novels and four novellas.
Kay is single and lives in a very small town in North Carolina, not far from her father and siblings. Deigning to live with her are a flock of cats — Bonnie, Ginger, Oscar, Tuffy, Felix, Renny, and Isabel — of various personalities who all like sleeping on manuscripts and whatever research happens to be spread across Kay's desk. And living amongst the many felines are two cheerfully tolerant dogs, a shelter rescue, Bandit, who looks rather like a small sheepdog, and a Sheltie named Lizzie.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 8, 2010
I chose this collection of four holiday novellas from 1991 because one of them was by Lisa Kleypas. I chuckled over what they saw fit to include in her bio, 'Lisa is a former Miss Massachusetts and competed in the 1985 Miss America pageant.' Of course, they also mentioned that she was Romantic Times' award winner for New Historical Regency Author in 1987 and in 1989 was awarded Affaire de Coeur's Golden Unicorn for Best Time Travel Romance. At the time, they bragged that she had published four novels.
I liked all four of the stories, but none of them was outstanding or memorable. I will probably read this again during the holiday season.
I liked all four of the stories, but none of them was outstanding or memorable. I will probably read this again during the holiday season.
February 8, 2010
The Lisa Kleypas short story makes this a 5 star book.
October 18, 2011
I love Christmas love stories and these were heart-warming and perfect!
Want to read
March 23, 2016OVERALL:
Holiday Spirit by Kay Hooper
Gifts of Love by Shannon Drake
Surrender by Lisa Kleypas
A Creole Christmas by Diane Wicker Davis
Holiday Spirit by Kay Hooper
Gifts of Love by Shannon Drake
Surrender by Lisa Kleypas
A Creole Christmas by Diane Wicker Davis
December 24, 2025
Nice little Christmas stories to read during the holidays. My ranking of the individual stories:
1. Surrender (Lisa Kleypas)
Congrats Queen. You have done it again. Constantly raising the bar for us all, and doing it flawlessly.
2. Holiday Spirit (Kay Hooper)
Not the Christmas Carol retelling I had hoped it would be, but still cute.
3. Gifts of Love (Shannon Drake)
Great premise, rough execution. Includes two classic racist tropes: former Confederate soldier hero and savage Native Americans who kidnap our heroine and only decide not to rape her when they realize she's married to a guy they respect.
4. A Creole Christmas (Diane Wicker Davis)
Tryna strike a chord and it's probably a minooooooor. Bad vibes all around. 16-year-old heroine has to convince 25-year-old hero and her family that she's mature enough to get married (spoiler alert: she's not). The big conflict that threatens their relationship at the end is a family feud over food.
1. Surrender (Lisa Kleypas)
Congrats Queen. You have done it again. Constantly raising the bar for us all, and doing it flawlessly.
2. Holiday Spirit (Kay Hooper)
Not the Christmas Carol retelling I had hoped it would be, but still cute.
3. Gifts of Love (Shannon Drake)
Great premise, rough execution. Includes two classic racist tropes: former Confederate soldier hero and savage Native Americans who kidnap our heroine and only decide not to rape her when they realize she's married to a guy they respect.
4. A Creole Christmas (Diane Wicker Davis)
Tryna strike a chord and it's probably a minooooooor. Bad vibes all around. 16-year-old heroine has to convince 25-year-old hero and her family that she's mature enough to get married (spoiler alert: she's not). The big conflict that threatens their relationship at the end is a family feud over food.
October 18, 2020
My favorite stories are Holiday Spirit and Surrender (both ★★★½). I understand why they were the only ones reprinted (I'd buy that version, even if the cover is meh compared to this one). The one I liked less is Gifts of Love.
September 16, 2025
3.25 ~3.5
December 17, 2013
okay. i am not a regular reader of romance, but i tend toward it at christmas, just as with carrols and stop-action seasonal films. this was an easy collection of 4 novellas, each one satisfying. i especially appreciated the last for its simplistic portrait of 'a creole christmas' and its view of a native, yet foreign culture.
October 18, 2015
I love all books that have to do with Christmas.I usually go to work and pull off a bunch of Christmas books and check them out and read,read,read.This was my last one.I loved it really.Just so much romance adn giving with love.I really enjoyed this Christmas collection.
August 20, 2017
This is the first time I have read Kay Hooper. Read this short historical story in Gifts of Love anthology (with Lisa Kleypas). Two tales of lovers gone wrong. One unfolding in misdirection and hurt feekings and one plays out thru nightly ghostly visits. An okay read. RATING 3.5
December 12, 2023
Historical love story with ghosts of family past to teach the current residents about love.
Merged review:
Love story for two people thrown together by circumstances that nether knew they needed.
Merged review:
This book is confusing.
Merged review:
Love story for two people thrown together by circumstances that nether knew they needed.
Merged review:
This book is confusing.
December 11, 2015
Christmas themed Short stories, Enjoyed the one written by Lisa Kleypas.
not-read-fully
May 18, 2014Surrender by Lisa Kleypas - ★★★☆☆
October 21, 2014
Same as Gifts of Love
November 23, 2014
The book cover has a nice christmas classic to the way the theme is set out. I give this book 5 stars.
December 22, 2014
stories from 4 authors with the common themes of reconciliation and second chances -- all set around the Christmas season
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews