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Book Review of Opposites Attract: The Icing on the Cake / The Short, Hot Summer / Pride and Prejudice / The Princess and the Adventurer

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The novella compilation is a difficult genre for an author. The story has to develop the characters and romance enough that they're believable in a much shorter length of time.
While a reader could accuse "Opposites Attract" of being "too light" and perhaps a bit unbelievable, this is a charming and entertaining collection by authors that all handle the novella genre well.

Kurland's "Icing" is probably the weakest story in the bunch, despite the fact that Kurland is the headlining author here. The characters are very appealing, and I really enjoyed the role reversal, but I didn't find their romance particularly believable.

I didn't find the romance in Bevarly's "Summer" believable, either, but as usual Bevarly's humorous, distinctive stream-of-consciousness writing style and incredibly charming characters make up for the lack of a deep romantic development.

Carmichael's "Pride" was the best of the bunch. The characters were believable, as was their romance, and the dogs definitely rounded out the whole thing. Carmichael has a real gift for adding in appealing secondary characters, be they ghosts ("A Ghost for Maggie") or dogs ("Finding Mr. Right").

Minger's "Princess" is also good, with some pathos and humor thrown into the mix, along with believable characters and a nice adventure plot.

"Opposites Attract" is not deep lasting literature, but it -is- fun and entertaining, and, in the end, I think that's what we ask of romantic novella anthologies.