Review: Cowboy Christmas by Carol Finch, Elizabeth Lane & Pam Crooks

Cowboy Christmas
By:  Carol Finch, Elizabeth Lane & Pam Crooks
Publisher:  Harlequin
288 pages
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Three heartwarming tales of love in the old west.

A Husband for Christmas by Carol Finch
Bakery proprietess, Victoria Thurston has a predicament.  She's written her family that she has a husband in Lone Ridge, Texas, Marshal Logan Daniels.  The thing is, she's only ever briefly spoken to him, hence the predicament when her family expects her to visit at home for the holidays with her husband in tow.  She decides to proposition him to be her husband for the visit with pay of course.  Her only other option is to tell her family that he was killed in the line of duty.  He agrees of course, realizing quite quickly that there is definitely an attraction there.  They make a date to get to know each other and end up practicing kissing as all married couples would certainly be accustomed to that and find out that it's difficult to resist each other.  This is one partnership that could mean forever.

The Homecoming by Elizabeth Lane
Clay McAllister has been in prison for three years when he is released a week before Christmas.  He was serving the time for defending his kid brother in a bar and brothel when a man is accidently killed by his hand.  He makes his way home to his wife Elise and their five year old son Toby not knowing what to expect when he gets there.  He was under the impression that his brother, Buck came home with the money from the cattle they sold to sustain the farm.  All these years, he never received word from Elise, all his letters marked return to sender.
He arrives home to realize that the money never made it there and Elise hasn't heard from Buck.  She harbors pain and resentment towards Clay, believing that he was in the brothel for his own wants and needs and can't seem to forgive him. 
There are a lot of wrongs that need to be righted and forgiveness given for the McAllister's to be a family once again.

The Cattleman's Christmas Bride by Pam Crooks
Allethaire Gibson is a socialite from Minneapolis who flees to Montana where her father lives in search of help when her life falls down around her once again.  Three years ago, she was kidnapped and held for ransom.  Her life would never be the same.  Rumors abound that she must have become a fallen woman while living with outlaws for that time so she works extra hard to do good for her community, primarily in the Ladies Literary Aid Society in fundraising for a new library.  When those funds go missing, supposedly withdrawn by her, she leaves the city heartbroken.  While on the trainride to Montana, the train is boarded by outlaws, some of which are the same responsible for her kidnapping, the outlaws take money from her luggage, more of the library funds that she didn't put in there.  Mick Vasco, who happened to be one of those original outlaws who kidnapped her actually rescues her from the situation and agrees to take her to her father so that all can be explained.  Can she trust him to do as he says, but most of all can she trust him with her heart?

These were engaging holiday stories, all three.  I think I most enjoyed A Husband for Christmas, simply because it was the most fun to read and had several comic moments. 
The Homecoming was difficult to read, due to the raw emotion of the story.  I truly ached for the character's pain as if it were my own. 
The Cattleman's Christmas Bride was an excellent example of something wonderful coming from something negative and painful in one's life. 
An overall wonderful anthology truly worthy of your time.  You are bound to get something from it.