Best-selling author Brenda Novak has done charity auctions for ten years to raise money for diabetes research. Novak has raised more than two million dollars for diabetes research through her auction since founding it in honor of her son Thad, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of five. In 2014, instead of an online auction, a boxed set curated by Brenda Novak's Online Auction for Diabetes Research (titled A SWEET LIFE) raised almost $100,000 net to the charity in just one month. This year they are back with a second boxed set. This heart-warming, limited edition collection features ten BRAND NEW contemporary romances by New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors, along with a bonus eleventh story from Novak herself. You can make a difference while you read! All proceeds from the sale of SWEET TALK will be donated to the Diabetes Research Institute via Brenda Novak's Online Auction for Diabetes Research.

I got this boxed set specifically to read the short story by one of my favorite authors, Molly O'Keefe. She easily makes my hotly-contested list of top ten favorite authors. However, I am not of fan of her short story for this anthology, Christmas Eve: A Love Story. Lovers Trina and Dean are childhood friends who become intermittent lovers over many years. The story is rather depressing to me. O'Keefe normally has angst-laden tales that capture my interest and my heart, but this story simply feels too down to me, without the lovely pay-off of convincing true love to make me sigh happily at the end.

However, I did discover a new-to-me author in Rosalind James, who writes Just in Time. This story captivates me, and makes the whole boxed set worthwhile. JUST IN TIME features a hot and noble New Zealand rugby player, Will Tawera, who comes to the U.S. to be a kicker for an NFL in Las Vegas. He meets Faith Goodwin, the assistant to a fashion photographer for whom Will does some modeling photos. Will kicks up his heels a little and ends up modeling for some photos that are used for a fiction writing site, showing him looking dark, dangerous, and Maori. These risqué photos put Will in a great deal of hot water, and Faith travels to New Zealand to meet back up with him and be his pretend girlfriend, in order to preserve his reputation and his spot on the New Zealand All Blacks rugby field. To their mutual surprise, this pretend relationship leads to a real love, although they have a lot of complications to navigate on their way to their Happily Ever After. This is a sweet and touching romance with very likeable characters. Each character feels like the girl or the guy next door, and I rooted so hard for their navigation through all their misunderstandings and hardships. I'm thrilled to have read this box set just for this story alone, which makes it well worth the purchase price.

There is truly something for everyone in this boxed set. Interlude by Linda Lael Miller is a sweet and tame tale. Ask Me Again by Gina Maxwell has some lovely sexual antics, although the groveling at the end felt cut short to me. Jackson by Violet Good is a sports romance featuring sports network reporters and a wealth of feelings to be explored. There is a good mix of sexually explicit tales and sweet stories, with a romance to meet everyone's wishes. With eleven stories, several of which are full length books, this is a great and wide-ranging collection which supports a worthwhile cause. Why not use your purchasing power for social good while getting some great reading material?