During the pandemic, I discovered there were several Little Free Libraries near where I lived at the time. And until I recently moved this year, I visited them a lot.

It was during one of these trips to switch out books that I came across Mischief and Mistletoe. It’s been nearly three years since then, but I finally read it for this Christmas season. And I went in completely blind on December 1. And I am coming back to my blog finally with a review of each short story.

“She Stoops to Wenchdom” by Mary Jo Putney

On December 1, I went in completely blind to the first short story of this anthology. And it was then that I realized this was an anthology of Regency-era stories. I had been expecting contemporary and modern, but I was way off.

That said, it was like a breath of fresh air. And while Regency is hit-or-miss for me, this specific story was a hit. And maybe that’s because it was a short story, not a full-length novel, during one of my infamous reading slumps.

I liked how Lucy went after her dreams and man. And I loved seeing both sides of the romance and “will they and won’t they” throughout the story.

“Miss Brockhurst’s Christmas Campaign” by Jo Beverley

On December 2, I opened the book, not knowing what to expect from this short story.

There were a few moments that I wanted to skip ahead or skim the story, but overall, I genuinely liked this story. And while I’ve grown tired of love triangles, it fit with this story – it was the whole point of it.

And the ending? It was so satisfying and just what I wanted for the characters. A Christmas happily-ever-after is so fun to read.

It was also perfectly paced for the short length of the story. Short chapters holding each story’s beat – what more could I ask for?

“Intrigue and Mistletoe” by Joanna Bourne

Again, on December 2, I went into this story without knowing much. The only thing I knew from the synopsis on the back of the book mentioned a spy romance, which I figured was this one because of the title.

I’m going to be completely honest. I skipped this one after a couple of chapters. Something about it just didn’t work for me. I’m sure it’s amazing for people who want to read about wartime spies of the Regency era.

But me? I want a happy-go-lucky, maybe a tiny bit of tension, straightforward romance story. I don’t want to deal with spies and lies when thinking of holiday romances. So, this was a DNF for me.

“Wench in Wonderland” by Patricia Rice

I finished my December 2 reading sprint with the first of two chapterless stories in this anthology.

A lot of the chaos in this story could have been dealt with sooner if she had just said who she was. But I understand why she lied and deceived the other characters.

Did I enjoy it? Yes. Is it my favorite story? No. It is close, but after reading all of the stories in this book, it isn’t one of the few I’d re-read at Christmastime.

“On a Wicked Winter’s Night” by Nicola Cornick

This story went a completely different way than I expected it. I was expecting a cute story with a yearning male protagonist. And yes, he yearned – for years.

What I didn’t expect was the ending. I was not expecting to tear up a bit. At the point of reading this story, it was my second favorite. But that might have changed after reading the others. My top three will be listed at the end of this post if you want to find out.

“Weathering the Storm” by Cara Elliott

For the second of the two short stories without chapters, I will say I enjoyed it. However, I didn’t love it as much as the other stories in this anthology. I just knew what was coming with every twist, and it still fell a little flat for me.

Maybe I’m just not a sailor romance girl, as I would expect with my upbringing, but this just wasn’t for me. It was a bump better than the spy story, though, because I finished this story.

“The Mistletoe Bride” by Anna Gracie

It was good. I didn’t feel one way or the other about this story. That said, I did enjoy the epilogue of it – the only epilogue in the entire book, mind you.

There were a few moments that I didn’t love, and there was the fact that they said “I love you” within a month…I wouldn’t put this in my top three.

“A Wilder Wench” by Susan King

I was interested right away from the prologue of the story, but fell off in chapters one and two, only to be reeled back in for the last chapter. And while I liked how it wrapped up, I don’t think it makes it to my top three.

That said, if someone’s looking for heist hijinks in the Regency era, this is for you. And if you like pie (you’ll get it if you read it).

My Top Three

Starting with my third favorite, we have “Wench in Wonderland” by Patricia Rice. After finishing all the stories in this book, though I didn’t love this story, it was very enjoyable. I also loved how I was reminded of Eloise’s Bridgerton book when I was reading this story.

My second favorite stayed “On a Wicked Winter’s Night” by Nicola Cornick. It is very, very close to being above my number one pick, but I just couldn’t do it. So, if my number one pick is a 10/10, this is a 9.9/10. I have to give it to a yearner…which is specifically what the next story also had.

And my favorite story from this book was “She Stoops to Wenchdom” by Mary Jo Putney. And I find this fitting because, on the back of the book, there’s a quote from Cathy Maxwell on this author. “No one writes historical romance better.” I kind of agree on that – if we’re not including Julia Quinn.

And that was my review and top three ranking of the stories in Mischief and Mistletoe. Have you read it? What did you think? And an even more important question: do you have Christmas anthologies to recommend? I need more.