Joss Snow has had enough of Christmas pageantry, so for the last few years, she and her best friend Reese Pendergrass have skipped the holiday together. But this year, Reese is newly engaged and spending a traditional Christmas with her future in-laws. Joss, left to go on her Bah! Humbug cruise alone, ends up on a 12 Days of Christmas cruise instead and Reese's trip seems to take every bad turn possible. Will these two friends survive the holiday?

Technically this is written as 2 separate novellas, "Once Upon a Jingle Bell" and "It Came Upon a Midnight Deer," each following one of the two friends through their holidays. The story is mostly cohesive, though; it simply tells the 2 main characters' escapades one at a time. Each chapter starts with a line from a "12 Days of Christmas" parody invoking Murphy's Law, which I liked. And Murphy's Law comes in heavily, especially in the 2nd story. While normally the "everything that can go wrong will go wrong" trope annoys me, I enjoyed the book and even liked the 2nd novella more than the first.

One great thing about this book is that, even though it's a Christmas book, it's not as sappy as Christmas books so often are. On the other hand, it's billed as a Christian book, but the Christian content is incredibly light. And there's a lot of emphasis on physical looks in both relationships. If you're not looking for a faith-filled story, though, this is a nice light-on-the-syrup Christmas read with some romance and fun. ( )

Two very cute stories of holiday humor and romance. In the first, Joss, who does all she can to avoid Christmas, finds herself trapped on a very merry Christmas cruise and to her shock finds herself enjoying it. In the second, Reese, Joss's best friend, is meeting her fiance's family for the first time for a huge Christmas celebration. Joss's story is cute, the romance is nice, but the way she relaxes and makes a friend was the best part for me. Reese's story totally hit my embarrassment squick so take that as a warning if you share my squick. In the end, Joss, Reese, and everyone unite for a happily ever after.

(Provided by publisher) ( )

Merry Humbug Christmas by Sandra D. Bricker
This book is actually two stories about the holidays, Joss and Reese are best of friends also, glad each got their own story.
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Once Upon a Jingle Bell
Love holiday tales and this is going to be a good one. Each chapter starts out with 'on the .. day of Christmas Murphy's Law gave to me..'
Merry Christmas Snow was born on Christmas day but when she becomes 26 she gets a name change to Jocelyn Merry Snow. Her bff is named Reese after a candy bar and for the past 5 Christmas' they have spent the time together away from the holiday hoopla. This year Reese is engaged and so Joss will go on a bah humbug cruise by herself to the shores of Mexico.
She and Ryan and Charlotte run the Image Public Relations. together. Nothing goes right when she gets to the cruise line-they cancelled the first trip but booked her on the second ship-much bigger and it's Christmas themed. Without thinking she checked in and is depressed and orders room service. Connie who she had met earlier takes her under her wing and they go to have dinner decked out in Christmas garb.
She meets many on the trip and one family in particular=their company is trying to get their hotel and spa as clients.
Joss also hooks up with Patrick-he's so caring to watch over his mother. Love the events they have planned on the ship-they do sound fun, even for one who's anti-Christmas. They do spend a bit of time together on land doing exciting things together and they are able to talk to one another and discover they live really close to one another in CA.
The client overhears Joss talking and misunderstands what she is saying...it could make them go elsewhere to hire a different company..
The book follows a few others on the ship and it's very easy to keep them straight.
Misunderstandings has them all divided and you wonder if they will ever meet again.

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It Came Upon A Midnight Deer is also included.
This book concentrates on Reese and she was name after a Reese peanut butter cup. Her parents do not eat meat but her and Herscel have and they have finally told their parents after 20 years...
Reese is also Joss friend from the previous book.
This story also has the chapters with the 12 days of Christmas according to Murphy's law...
Damian had proposed to her and that's why she didn't go on the anti-Christmas cruise with Joss.
They are on their way to the family cabin at Sugarloaf Mountain and it's snowing and she's drilling him about the family members, names, ages, etc.
Problem is there are many obstacles keeping them from meeting the family...when they finally arrived she takes in the scene of the home-every room she ventures into is described in detail and you can just picture it all. She feels her life as a doctor is not going to be good enough for his family...
She does not feel like she fits in with any of the family members and she keeps apologizing to the deer...things just are not going as planned....anything that can go wrong does...
Lots of family members to keep track of and it's a bit confusing at times keeping them all straight. Love the scenes and descriptive details, so pretty of a picture it paints in ones mind.
I received this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest review ( )

Title: Merry Humbug Christmas, Two Tales of Holiday Romance
Author: Sandra D. Bricker
Pages: 297
Year: 2013
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
This book contains two novellas. The first story features Joss Snow and the second story focuses on her best friend Reese Pendergrass. Both young women have been celebrating Christmas, actually the lack thereof, together for the past five years. Joss has their annual trip all planned out when Reese throws her a curveball; Reese has gotten engaged and will be spending Christmas with her fiancé’s family. Joss decides she will go ahead and take the trip alone. Thus begins the nightmare cruise of her life, the 12 days of Christmas! She had originally signed up for the Bah Humbug cruise, but it got canceled and someone rebooked Joss on this cruise. Joss tries to get off the boat before it sails, but she is too late. She meets Connie, a widow spending her first Christmas alone and one who loves all things Christmas. Joss also is introduced to the handsome, Irish, architect Patrick. Joss also discovers a potential client for her public relations firm is on board with his family, so she decides to get involved with some Christmas activities that their interested in to foster a mutual relationship. Patrick seems too good to be true to Joss, but she falls for him anyway. Can their romance last past the cruise?
In the second story, Reese travels with her fiancé to meet them and spend the Christmas holiday getting to know them better. Her fiancé, Damian, is from a wealthy family and Reese was raised as a vegan by former hippies. She is very nervous about fitting in with Damian’s family. Well, just about everything that could go wrong does go wrong. She has mishap after mishap involving Damian’s family. She misses her best friend, Joss and wonders how she is enjoying her anti-Christmas vacation. Reese has always dreamed of the “perfect” traditional Christmas with oodles of wrapped presents under the tree, lots of meat and dairy products at dinner and a “normal” family. She really feels she just is a square peg trying to fit in a round hole. What does Damian see in her? After all this, will he still want to marry her?
There were some funny moments in both stories, but I felt that they couldn’t overcome the lack of plot in either story. Reese was just portrayed as too ditzy for me and too fashion conscious. She calls her fiancé, Damian, by a nickname…Damie, which I found annoying. While there was mention of going to church and other “religious” traditions, I really don’t think this should be geared toward a Christian audience. If I could, I would have rated this book 3.5 stars because of some of the humorous moments.
My rating is 3 stars.
Note: I received a complimentary copy for an honest review of this book. The opinions shared in this review are solely my responsibility. Other reviews can be read at http://seekingwithallyurheart.blogspot.com/ . Also follow me on Twitter @lcjohnson1988, FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/lisa.johnson.75457 ( )