The Bite Before Christmas

Hold on to your Santa hats... we've got two reviews on two books with the same name! Too bad neither one is recommended....

The Bite Before Christmas
By Heidi Betts

This book is a compilation of three short stories -- all related -- about vampires at Christmas time. The titles are: "All I Vant for Christmas," "A Vampire in Her Stocking," and "Its a Wonderful Bite." Spoiler alert here! The first story is about a vampire who wants to celebrate a traditional Christmas, so he hires an event planner to do everything for him in his home for Christmas. Of course, he demands she stay at his mansion and she ends up in his bedroom. The second story is about a vampire secretary who is in love with her boss. He announces that he is dying of cancer and her best friend (see story number three) turns him into a vampire against his wishes. He ends up under her tree. The third story is about the vampire who has been in the background of the first two stories. She wants her live-in boyfriend of hundreds of years to finally ask her to get married. She wakes up in an alternate universe where she saves her boyfriend's life and realizes her love for him is more than just a ring around her finger. They end up getting married. One word here: ridiculous.

What did this book have to do with my faith? Well, what did this book have to do with Christmas? Vampires are supposed to be evil and to find crosses, i.e. Christ, very dangerous. So, why would they want to celebrate his birthday? I suppose for the same reason nominal Christians still celebrate Christmas today -- it is simply a secular celebration and has nothing to do with Christ.

I don't recommend this book, so let's go on to its evil twin, shall we?

The Bite Before Christmas
By Lynsay Sands and Jeaniene Frost

I have read Frost but not Sands. The first story is called "The Gift" and it is by Sands. In her world, vampires are actually members of another race that came from Atlantis. Shall we stop there? Anywho,  all of these creatures have lifemates that become the only ones they can have sexual thoughts/actions with -- usually found after hundreds of years (the lifemates that is, not the romance!). Teddy is an older man in his late fifties who gets snowed in a cabin the mountain. His nearest neighbor joins him as they attempt to weather the storm -- she just happens to be a vampire and his lifemate. He sees her as too young for him. They have intense dreams about one another and, well, you can guess where this is going to go. All I will add here is that when a lifemate is "turned" they become young looking as well.

On to the second story, "Home for the Holidays." I thoroughly enjoyed Frost's first book, Halfway to the Grave, but I got tired of the same characters after the third book (Frost has written six in this series). These are the same characters, so you might be lost if you were not familiar with the world of Cat and Bones. In this story, I am not sure what Christmas has to do with anything but a date on the calendar. Bones gets take over by a nasty demon and it is up to Cat and a few friends to get him out without killing him. Cat and Bones have intense moments, violent moments, and sugary moments. That probably sums it up quite nicely. I hated how what they needed to do to save Bones kept changing. I call that a bad bit of editing.

What did this book have to do with my faith? Is Christmas about romance? I love to read Christmas romance books in December but what do they really have to do with anything Christmasy? This is a time to celebrate Christ's birth and God's own sacrifice. We know what is really going to happen to that tiny baby. I wouldn't call that romantic. It would be good for all of us to keep feelings of romance as a bonus of the season but not the true purpose of the season.

I don't recommend this book.

Happy reading and Merry Christmas!

Amelia