This book contains two unrelated stories (both are set at Christmas and a ranch favors prominently in each story). If I could rate the two stories individually, I would rate Arlene James' story a 4 and Lois Richer's a 3.

I really enjoyed Arlene James' "The Rancher's Christmas Baby". Rancher Dixon Lyons returns home one night to find his estranged mother has returned, bringing with her a baby and a Lenape woman. Dixon wrestles with his past feelings and beliefs and comes to have a relationship with his mother--and surprisingly, his father (and the family he now has) also accept her into their fold. (Too often these stories make the exes a point of contention in the plot.) I feel that Dixon changed and learned life lessons. I do feel the romance part of the story came on rather quickly to know if it truly was a life-long love had this happened in real life. Of course, in fiction, it's the author who decides if the characters stay together or break apart.

In contrast, Lois Richer's "Christmas Eve Cowboy" seemed to start off too slowly and I never seemed to care for her characters as much as I did for James'. I can understand another reviewer's point that too much time was spent on Elizabeth dwelling on her ex-husband's trashing of her self-esteem. Perhaps that wasn't the best choice for a short piece of fiction. In real life, that kind of tearing down probably takes years to repair--probably needing more than a friendly small town and one man who's learning to love you and a few short months to accomplish. I did like that Brett was so encouraging in pushing Elizabeth to do things she liked to do but had given up because of he ex's criticism.

I wish more page time had been given to how Brett resolved his conflicts of wanting to be a veterinarian/not wanting his father to give up the ranch that was his dream/wanting to take care of his father/not wanting to leave Elizabeth instead of just a quick sum up that tells us he's figured out a way to do a distance learning program (not quite sure how you do that for something as competitive as veterinary school, but--as I said above, it's fiction and the author can mold events to her/his liking.) ( )