A little unusual anthology - four different authors with four different short stories, all themed around an agency where the female owner has determined to save other female victims from the bad guys, in situations where the regular police can't handle the job. All four stories tie back to the agency, find a way to work in Christmas/Santa, and are scorching hot romantic suspense stories.

SNOWBALL'S CHANCE - Cherry Adair
Kendall Metcalf has been the only survivor of a crazy but smart serial killer, who's escaped prison and is en route to finish the job. She's snowed in on site at a big house/party site, when Joe Zorn arrives to protect her. Kendall is a sexy and spunky heroine, and Joe is wonderfully sexy, but the whole thread about him previously having been married to the woman whose house Kendall is in, seemed kind of bizarre and unnecessary.

SANTA SLAVE - Leanne Banks
Hilary Winfree believes a college student she's been mentoring has been kidnapped by a sex slave ring, so arranges to get herself "hired" by them as well. Rick "Chameleon" Santana arrives to buy/rescue Hilary, and ends up being talked into trying to find/rescue Christine, the college student, as well.

BIG, BAD SANTA - Pamela Britton
Dr. Kaitlyn Logan, a vet, has recently applied for grants for her pet project, an implanted microchip for endangered birds that could be used to direct them towards safe areas and away from dangerous ones. Some of the bad guys have gotten wind of this, realizing a) it could work, and b) it could be used as a military weapon. As her clinic is being tear-gassed, Chase Owens rides to the rescue, literally, on a Harley. Loved the sequence where she is having a wet dream about him and he is observing her.

KILLER CHRISTMAS - Kelsey Roberts
Meghan Beckham, a poor little rich girl CEO of a Palm Beach department store has survived a car accident that killed her brother, but now it looks like someone is out to get her. Or Santa Claus, since those employed by the store to fill that role have been ending up dead. Jack Palmer arrives to serve as her bodyguard, and she's not an easy client.

All the stories are very good, very well-written, and hotter than a Christmas fireplace. My main beef is that by the fourth story, the meme of "Oh, no, I *mustn't* get physically involved with the woman I'm guarding, it would be so unprofessional and could put her in greater danger," and then he fills her stocking anyway, over and over again, gets a little old.
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The title of this book may be a little deceptive. These short stories area romantic suspense set during the Christmas holidays.
The first story is by Cherry Adair. This was a tense suspense story about a woman that managed to escape a serial killer, but now the killer has escaped and is headed straight for her.
The SC in this one is steamy.
The second story is by Leanne Banks. This story tackled a big issue- Sex Slavery. The SC in this one was toned down a bit, but I thought that was appropiate due to the subject matter being discussed.
The third story was by Pamela Britton. This was the weakest story, in my opinion. A vet has an invention that could be used by terrorist and they are out to kidnap and kill her for it. The "hero" in this one didn't do it for me. Medium sensuality.
The last story involved the CEO of a clothing store. Two of their Santas had been killed but it was the CEO that was the target.
This one had a strong minded career lady and a Alpha Male type clash. I thought the story was good, but the romance was a bit forced. Medium to steamy SC
These stories were not warm and fuzzy holiday fare. I liked reading something that didn't fit the mold.
I would give it a B+ ( )

Call me what you want, but I've always loved Christmas anthologies. One of my favorite holidays-commercialism included!-I love Christmas and the spirit of love, happiness, and goodwill that it stands for. Getting to read a Christmas anthology like RED HOT SANTA, by four of my favorite authors, is icing on my holiday cake!

Cherry Adair serves up a white-hot suspense sizzler with SNOWBALL'S CHANCE, the story of a woman who once escaped a serial killer-but might not be so lucky this time around. Kendall Metcalf has made a name for herself as a party planner and has even had a few write-ups in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Along with her business partner, Rebecca Metzner, their focus has been on a big holiday party planned for a big-wig out in the wilds of Montana. Planned, that is, until Rebecca realizes that the madman who almost killed Kendall, Dwight Treadwell, has escaped from prison and is no doubt set on revenge against the woman who didn't die and in fact got him locked away. So she hires Joe Zorn to ditch his skiing vacation and travel, in a blinding snowstorm, to the ranch where Kendall is staying. Ms. Adair's story had me laughing out loud with Kendall's "Ho, Ho, Ho Y'All" shirt, shivering with fear when the psychotic Treadwell showed up, and sighing with delight over the sexual chemistry between bodyguard Joe and Kendall.

SANTA SLAVE by Leanne Banks centers around Hilary Winfree, a graduate student and teaching assistant who is worried about the college student she's been mentoring. Christine, a beautiful girl who'd never been away from home, had found an ad offering young girls free travel around the world and thousands of dollars in compensation to teach foreign businessmen American customs and manners. Although Hilary had warned Christine that the offer sounded too good to be true, Christine went anyway-and now that she's missing, Hilary takes it upon herself to accept the same position. Unfortunately, she learns all too quickly that these "businessmen" are dealing in human trafficking. Fortunately, someone else is worried about Hilary, and Rick "Chameleon" Santana is on the job. Posing as a prospective "buyer", Rick infiltrates the sordid building where Hilary and a number of other young women are being held, and attempts to buy her way to freedom. Although scary in it's subject matter, SANTA SLAVE deals with the all-too-real problems that face many young women in third-world countries, and the feelings that develop between Hilary and Rick, along with their desire to rescue Christine, make for an interesting story.

Pamela Britton's story, BIG, BAD SANTA, is an absolute delight! Dr. Kaitlyn Logan runs an animal shelter, and has been working for years on a pet project that involves developing a "migratory chip"-an implanted microchip in birds that can be used to actually direct them in a certain direction. Unfortunately, as soon as she writes Senator Prescott with her information and asks for government funding, all sorts of bad events are set in motion. Basically, the chip that she invented to send electronic pulses to a bird's brain and direct it's flight pattern could, if it fell into the wrong hands, be used as the world's first avian weapon-the birds could be outfitted with cameras to spy on the enemy, or even as a biological weapon. Kaitlyn hadn't thought of that, but she wises up pretty quickly when a man named Chase Owens shows up at her shelter, ushers her past a man trying to shoot her, orders her onto his Harley, and whisks her away to safety. He informs Kait that he's been watching her and her place of business for over a week, ever since she wrote the Senator. Now that terrorists are coming out of the woodwork to get their hands on Kait's technology, the only thing keeping her out of harms way is the mysterious stranger on a motorcycle-the same stranger that's causing her to forget all about microchips and instead sending pulses of heat throughout her own body.

Kelsey Roberts brings us KILLER CHRISTMAS, and what a killer it is. Meghan Beckham, the new CEO of Beckhams Department Store in Palm Beach, is a little dismayed to learn that her store's Santas are dropping like flies-literally. One Santa died of a supposed heart attack during his break one day, and the next day the replacement Santa is dead, too-this time, though, the knife sticking out of his once jolly belly points to murder. As does the fact that the dead Santa is propped up on full display in the store's front window. When Jack Palmer shows up to serve as her personal bodyguard, Meghan has a few choice words to say about how it's going to effect her business-but the heat running between the two of them is something else entirely. As Jack vows to keep Meghan safe, and Meghan pledges that no more Santas will die on her watch, the two of them are determined to find out just who is behind the death of Santa Clause, and who wants to see Beckhams close so badly.

If you read no other Christmas anthology this year, make sure you pick up a copy of RED HOT SANTA. You won't be disappointed, but you also won't want to see the stories come to an end! ( )

A fun quartet of stories set around Christmas with a rescue element. The framing story is a special agency who keep people who are in danger safe.
The first story by Cherry Adair, Snowball's Chance, is a return of a serial killer story. Kendall survived a serial killer and testified against him, now she's trying to get a life, but he's escaped.

Santa Slave by Leanne Banks is the story of white slavers and Hilary who goes to rescue her friend. There was some interesting potential to stretch this one out and draw out the slavery aspect... but a good story for the available length.

Big Bad Santa is about a research scientist whose work has potential as a weapon. In the wrong hands she could be used against the US. Her rescuer is quite no-nonsense. Sparks fly.

Killer Christmas by Kelsey Roberts is about a murder in a department store, Meghan Beckham the new CEO is having problems and her bodyguard is hot.

The weakest story was the last one, pure mind candy in this series but fun. A few of them left me wanting more! ( )