Amor Actually

A Holiday Romance Anthology

By: Adriana Herrera, Zoey Castile, Alexis Daria, Diana Muñoz Stewart, Priscilla Oliveras, Sabrina Sol, Mia Sosa

Narrated by: Ramona Master, Gomez Pugh

Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

It’s Christmas Eve in NYC, when anything is possible. For these couples, it’s the season to find true love. From second chances, big leaps, missed connections, and reconnections, this charming collection celebrates the spirit of the holidays and delivers nine perfect HEAs.

Make the Yuletide Gay by Adriana Herrera

After a string of broken engagements, an international Latin pop star finds love in her sexy and constant manager.

Only Yours by Sabrina Sol

The mayor of New York embarks on a Christmas Eve search to find the woman he loves before she gets away.

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Priscilla Oliveras

Challenged by his friends to find a plus one to dinner, widower Hector Gutierrez isn’t sure he’s still got any good moves left.

All I Want for Nochebuena by Alexis Daria

When sparks fly between adult film stars Honey and Julie, Honey must work up the courage to invite Julie to her family’s holiday party.

Santa’s Eager Little Helper by Mia Sosa

Sarita’s plan to confess her crush on a coworker goes awry when she’s tasked with playing the sexy elf to his grumpy Santa.

The Nochebuena Dating Dare by Diana Muñoz Stewart

Eneida Lucero takes a second chance on love with the handsome musical director at her school—even if it means causing some drama.

Love in Spanglish by Zoey Castile

A heartbroken romance writer gets snowed in with a novel-worthy hero who may just make her believe in love again.

To Us, You Are Perfect by Alexis Daria & Adriana Herrera

Newlyweds Pasquale and Yamilette’s Christmas is just short of perfect. The missing piece is their best friend.

The Great Holiday Escape by Zoey Castile

On Christmas Eve, selfless Gigi receives an all-expenses-paid trip to a South Beach weekend where two beautiful strangers steal her heart.

©2021 Adriana Herrera, Zoey Castile, Alexis Daria, Diana Muñoz Stewart, Priscilla Oliveras, Sabrina Sol, Mia Sosa (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

On the nose send-up of Love Actually in NY & LGBTQ

Pros: There’s a wide variety of novellas that are low on angst and high on amor, feature FF, MF, and MFM couples, and occasionally connect with characters from the other novellas. Latin flavor is sprinkled throughout, although other than constantly reminding us it’s Noche Buena, sometimes the accented narration and Latin cussing are the only other cultural indications. The narrators are fabulous,
except when two women or two men were in the scene, I sometimes had difficulty distinguishing them.

Cons: Even in novella format, I like to have a story with the sex. During the holidays, I don’t even need the sexy parts if the story is cozy enough. But, a few of these are over focused on the sex. Some of the novellas only cared about telling instead of showing, especially telling us about the relationship dynamics and how it’s okay to be gay. Indeed, the LGBTQ parts factored in way more than the NY setting (what’s the point of a NY Xmas if no one is skating at Rockefeller Center or walks thru Central Park?). There’s no Table of Contents, so you’re stuck listening to them all and then blindly attempting to find the next novella’s beginning if the current one doesn’t float your boat. I enjoyed about half of these, which is what it takes for me to consider an anthology worth while.

Ch 2 Make the Yuletide Gay by Adrianna Herrera- FF - The one with the most speechifying, cussing, and sex, making it my least favorite. The first few minutes drop F bombs and mention ageism, the patriarchy, and throuples. This wasn’t a romance as much as a coming out story, heavy on dissing those who
“did not approve of my life choice” and telling (not showing) that “the important thing is that you’re…
open to new possibilities.” If this was meant to put me in the right mindset for the rest,
it had the opposite effect. I almost stopped here.

Ch 7 Only Yours by Sabrina Sol - MF - That scene in Love Actually, where Natalie writes him the letter declaring her heart, and then David goes door to door in town with his bodyguard to find her, complete with spontaneous caroling? It’s all in there, right down to using the same character names. 🎄🌶️

Ch 11 Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Priscilla Oliveros- MF - That scene in Love Actually with the school concert, kids and the parents that support them? This one tweaks things, but still delivers cozy romance.

Ch 17 All I Want For Noche Buena by Alexis Danila - FF - Another one preachy on how diversity and inclusion are so important. Also lots of piercings and lube.

Ch 20 Santa’s Little Helper by Mia Sosa - MF - I got this anthology for Ms. Sosa’s sassy rom-com and this did not disappoint at Sarita can’t help but “poke the bear.” Plus, the holiday hijinks are on full display, making this naughty and nice. 🎄🌶️

Ch 25 Noche Buena Dating Dare by Diana Munoz Stewart - MF - About dating after divorce. Bit too angsty.

Ch 36 Love in Spanglish by Zoey Castile - MF - Had me at “he made the universal sign for kowabunga” in this fun and sweet story of getting lost in translation. A great tweak of the Colin Firth arc in Love Actually. My favorite of the bunch. 🎄🌶️🎄🌶️

Ch 44 To Us You Are Perfect by Alexis Danila & Adriana Herrera - MFM - More assurances that it’s ok to be gay. But at least we get a better ending to Love Actually’s odd-man out arc with Keira Knightly, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Rick Grimes, er Andrew Lincoln (isn’t it funny that I can’t remember character’s names in a movie I’ve watched a hundred times?). The part with the signs is still sweet. 🎄🌶️

Ch 47 The Great Holiday by Zoey Castile - MFM - now this guy I do remember from the movie…
this moves us past the now outdated, nonPC story of Collin flying across the pond for a new sexual start. Here, Gigi is simply savoring a luxury vacation when carpe diem turns into carpe-double-Ds.
Although, what’s with the love of the word “labia”? I swear this is the third or fourth novella that got so anatomical… it even talked about how she “dragged her tongue in circles under his frenulum”
….um, what? Or maybe “under his frenum”? Always interesting when I need to pull out the dictionary.

To Me, You’re Perfect

Why did I not think this would be an anthology of the various different storylines in Love, Actually??? Because that’s absolutely what it was, only a thousand times better than the movie. It was fast-paced, festive, and full of love stories that didn’t make me want to beat my TV screen with a hockey stick. The narrators were FANTASTIC. This is cinema.

Love in Spanglish by Zoey Castile was my favorite, followed closely by Only Yours by Sabrina Sol, All I Want for Nochebuena by Alexis Daria, Santa’s Eager Little Helper by Mia Sosa, and To Us, You Are Perfect by Alexis Daria and Adriana Herrera. But truly, I enjoyed every romance in this anthology; they each varied in steam, some with full scenes and some with just a kiss. I wanted full books of just about every story here.

The writing was lush and it felt incredibly cohesive, which was very impressive for so many different writers. Since the stories all intertwine and end together at the Nochebuena celebration, the authors did a wonderful job bringing a different style to each story, but the same energy and direction.

If you’ve had this on your TBR or read the ebook last year, I definitely recommend that you pick up the audiobook. It’s an incredible bang for your buck and an incredible listen!

Perfection!

Honestly one of my favorite holiday books ever. I was so happy to re-read it in audio. The narration is fantastic!

Sweet and steamy holiday stories

This is a great collection of short stories. Sweet and a little steamy. Love the representation. Great narration. (It’s rare that short stories or anthologies get 5 stars from me. 4 stars = high praise and highly recommend!)

Better than expected

Ok I’ve been introduced to different types of relationships and I love it! The stories were everything! HEA’s during the holidays are my jams. Didn’t always vibe with the narrator but overall it was such a great listen by some of my favorite authors.