Review: SEASONS OF LOVE Collection by Liwen Y. Ho (Stories 1-4)

The More the Merrier (Story #1) – Alyssa Wu was spending yet another holiday looking for Mr. Right. Always so intense about her work (she’s a blog writer for a health company,) she just wants someone as compatible to her. Then comes the deal: In exchange for being Santa’s Little Helper, her neighbor/friend, Barry, will be her pretend boyfriend at her parent’s 60^th anniversary party.

After one hospital event in an elf costume, Alyssa has decided that she’s in love with Barry. Wow, that fast, huh? And how convenient that Barry has always liked her.

The two play a good role for each other. Writing was pretty good, too.

An okay Xmas love story.

Rating: 3 stars

A Spoonful of Spice (Story #2) – Team Lead, Josh, is being forced to train the new IT girl. Drag! She’s the only girl in a team full of guys, so, naturally, she’s the center of attention. She even captures Josh’s attention, even he’s sworn off women for his technical career.

Life of a techie is not that thrilling, so some of the details were kind of dull. But I sure did admire a girl that could get into the field and prove the boys wrong. Although Josh and Cindy had a lot in common, I really didn’t see them as a couple. They were okay friends.
Honestly, I thought this story involved cooking, judging by the title, but the “spice” ended up being Cindy, which was short for Cinnamon. Kinda cute. Okay romance and good writing.

Rating: 3 stars

Of Buds and Blossoms (Story #3) – The couples from the previous stories make a cameo appearance as—yep, you guessed it—happily engaged couples. Gee, how typical!

I couldn’t really get into this particular story because there were too many people. In fact, it kind of crowded the story.

Rating: 2 stars

On Waves of Wanderlust (Story #4) – On a break from her long-time boyfriend, Macy tags along on a Mexican cruise as a third wheel to the happily engaged couple (the couple from Story#3). That’s where she meets the handsome and adventurous Jake. Before she knows, Macy is in the middle of a matchmaking scheme by the happily engaged couple. Oh joy. And, oh, how she practically jumped from the hills when she learns that Jake comes from a family of nuts. Apparently, the men in his family all proposed to their mates on the 1^st and 2^nd dates, because they just knew it was love at first sight. I certainly don’t believe in love at first sight and Macy was skeptical of it as well because, after all, that’s what she thought she had with Chase.

Although Jake was nuts on love, he was still nice and just looking for someone with “wanderlust”—the yearn to travel and experience the world (something I can relate to.) In an effort to break Macy of her cynicism on love, Jake was determined to make Macy see how much fun she can have traveling—with him. There was certainly a nice twist when Chase unexpectedly shows up, complicating the matters. And I loved the gift of the travel journal. I tell ya, that Jake knows how to please a fellow wanderluster.

Best story ever in the series! It was more real and authentic.
Rating: 4 stars