Author: Meg Harding
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: 48 Pages
Category: Holiday, Urban Fantasy
At a Glance: I totally enjoyed this story.
Reviewed By: Carrie
Blurb: Two hundred years ago on Christmas Eve, William Mashinter was frozen in time, cursed by his wife to roam the world on his own, waiting for the love of his life to find him. The love of his life, whom she killed. Time hasn’t healed this wound, and William is tired of the happy holiday and the constant reminders of a love that’s been taken from him. But then the impossible happens, and maybe… maybe he can get a new Christmas perspective.
Brady Gallagher has lived three different lives, always aware of the first and most important, yet unable to find the man who will fill in the missing pieces and let him know he’s not crazy. He encounters him at a work event, of all places, but is he willing to throw everything else to the wind and embrace the miracle laid out before him?
Review: “Two hundred years ago, William Mashinter the Third learned a very important life lesson. One he won’t forget – even if he lives two hundred more.
Don’t piss off a witch.”
In Cursed Miracles, Meg Harding weaves a tale of past, present, and future with just a touch of magic. William Mashinter hates Christmas. On Christmas Eve his soulmate and lover was taken from him, and William was frozen in time, cursed to walk through centuries, never aging, until his true love finds him once more. Normally, he rubs along well enough, but at Christmas all the old feelings resurface, and he feels his loss much more keenly. I appreciate the way Harding writes this character. He’s a grumpy scrooge kinda guy who everyone loves because underneath, he still has a heart of gold—even if it’s bruised and still bleeding two-hundred years later. It made me smile to hear how he’s the only one who lets the children waltz standing on the tops of his shoes. Your heart aches for William. I wish that Harding had brought a little magic into the modern-day storyline. She does such a masterful job weaving a story of forbidden love and a vengeful witch that I wish the modern-day story had just a touch of that paranormal. But that is just a wish, and in no way did the lack of it diminish my enjoyment of this story. I love both historical and contemporary romances, and this story definitely gives you a piece of both.
Brady Gallagher is a renowned chef. He’s been many things in all his reincarnations, but he likes where he is now. Each time he is reborn, he remembers traces of his former lives; his body is renewed with each birth, except for a giant scar over his heart which has followed him for two-hundred years. Really, he thinks he is crazy. He pines for…something—or is it someone?—never being able to grasp that elusive thing that haunts him. Catering a fancy investment banker Christmas dinner is a piece of cake, until he hears a voice that brings his world to a crashing halt. Realizing that you are not a lunatic and that your memories of centuries past really are your memories is a big pill to swallow, and I appreciate that Harding didn’t just have these two run at each other, embrace, and walk off into the sunset. This “present day” part of the tale is realistic, grounded in the reality that the MCs are two men with lives and jobs and responsibilities. The joy definitely comes through, though, and the reuniting of these men was totally satisfying for my romantic meter.
The epilogue covers the “future” portion of the story, where we see these two men living a life they could never have dreamed of living in Victorian times. THIS is where they walk off into the sunset with their children on Christmas Eve and our past, present, and future journey ends. I totally enjoyed this story. Take it for what it is—a short story about a curse that was maybe/probably a blessing-in-disguise Christmas miracle—and enjoy. Oh, and I loved the cover art by Catt Ford. It sets the table for the story inside, and I LOVE it when a cover does that!
You can buy Curse Miracles here:
[zilla_button url=”http://bit.ly/2fTzSCS” style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Dreamspinner Press [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”http://amzn.to/2hH5FeK” style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon US [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”http://authl.it/B01NADQJ0U?d” style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon Int’l [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”http://bit.ly/2h9xZpL” style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] All Romance eBooks [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”http://bit.ly/2h9sMy4″ style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Kobo [/zilla_button]
The Novel Approach Reviews 
Leave a Reply