A Regency Christmas Eve - Anthology

Celebrate the most joyous of seasons with these original stories of holiday romance from five of today's most beloved award-winning Regency authors. Each tale is set on Christmas Eve, capturing the season's true spirit of charity and goodwill, proving time and again why love is the greatest gift of all. This special collection is a perfect present for friends and lovers who find themselves looking forward to the holiday with delicious anticipation, wondering what awaits them under the tree--and under the mistletoe .…

Little Miracles – Barbara Metzger
My favourite story in the anthology this one is about two rodents trying to save a very poor church by sharing the secret only they remember and bringing love and happiness to the vicar and the local lord. I thought the mice were a cute device, the story seems to lack some balance though as they only appear in the beginning and the end.
Grade: 4/5

Marriage Stakes - Allison Lane
Miss Sophie Landess is returning home with her widowed and very pregnant sister when they have a carriage accident and are saved by the Earl of Westlake and soon Sophie finds herself helping him finding the right bride after they are invited to stay at his home during the holiday season. I thought it was odd that Sophie went spying for him and I never really felt the attraction between them.
Grade: 3/5

The Gift of the Spoons – Nancy Butler
A man, desperate to save his son, goes in search of a healer he has heard about but finds her daughter instead. The enmity between the two is immediate but she eventually agrees to go and see his son leading to healing the rift between father and son and the developing of warmer feelings between the two. It was too brief for real development and I was unconvinced by their relationship.
Grade: 2/5

The Reckless Miss Ripley – Diane Farr
A road romance in which the hero finds himself helping Miss Claudia Ripley reaching Bath safely. Miss Ripley is a bit too trusting, naive and sometimes silly for my tastes and after him being so exasperated with her I couldn’t understand how his feelings changed so much. It was actually supposed to be a humorous story but I failed to be entertained by it with humour being such a personal thing.
Grade: 2/5

The Christmas Thief – Edith Layton
The hero, a former captain in the army, believes to have lost all his fortune due to an embezzler and tries his best to arrange a happy Christmas for his niece, even if the means stealing a doll or pawning his hat and boots. He also frees his fiancée from their commitment due to his financial situation but in the end it was all a misunderstanding and all is resolved in the end. The hero is a really nice character but the misunderstanding annoyed me.
Grade: 3/5

Anthology grade: 3/5

Fair Game - Diane Farr

Shocking Barter

Clarissa is a young woman of unearthly beauty -- and unfortunate parentage. Ostracized by the family of her deceased nobleman father, the refined innocent is left to the devices of her estranged mother, an infamous harlot known as La Gianetta. Even worse, the unscrupulous -- and hardly maternal -- La Gianetta owes a large debt to a powerful, wealthy womanizer. And she can think of only one possession the demanding gentleman might find of satisfactory value.

Handsome Trevor Whitlatch is quite content that his lovely new acquisition is in every way her mother's daughter -- despite the girl's oddly respectable persona. But a tangle with a hat pin and a most peculiar sojourn in the country are about to teach him that the apple can fall quite far from the tree. And when Clarissa discovers there's more to a man than her teachers at the Bathurst Ladies' Academy let on, everyone's fair game...

What an interesting and original story! Farr picks up a Cit and a courtesan’s daughter and gives them a relationship that felt totally novel to me.

One of the best things in this story is definitely how well she describes her characters and their actions, she makes us understand them and like some of their qualities to the point that we accept their errors too.

Trevor Whitlatch is a Cit, not of noble birth he has made himself a fortune in trade. A few years ago he saved a famous courtesan from a dangerous situation and she repaid him by stealing some jewels he had. But he has finally caught up with her and demands retribution. Unwilling to pay him money the woman decides to offer him a girl, who he understands is to be is mistress.

The problem is that although the girl leaves with him she has no intention of becoming his mistress and soon tries to explain to him that she is in fact a proper young lady- Having been brought up in a school for young ladies at the expense of her unknown father she was turned away when the school was bought by other people and had to go to her mother – the courtesan – for help.

Trevor has some, not to say much, difficulty in believing her story. He thinks she is out to get more money from him and even after she protests her innocence – and runs away only to return to where she was – he is determined that she will be the payment he is entitled to.

They leave for one of his homes in the country and that’s when Clarissa finally starts to convince Trevor that she is not what he believes and does not welcome his protection. The time they spent together was wonderfully written, the characterization of both of them was superbly done and we start to see Trevor’s problems of conscience with what he is asking from Clarissa. He tries to prove to her that what she really wants are nice clothes and jewels and that he can give her that if she becomes his mistress, while Clarissa believes she only wants a respectable life and children to be happy.

In fact they both have to realise, as their feelings develop, that Clarissa can be the woman that Trevor loves and wants to marry and for Clarissa that respectability is not enough. Trevor really only realises that almost in extremis but their journey to love makes for a delightful read. Both the dialogues and the characters are superbly written.

Grade: 4.5/5

Once Upon A Christmas - Diane Farr

Home for the Holidays

After a tragic loss, Celia Delacourt faces the
daunting prospect of a lonely life as a governess ... or worse. Then her distant cousin, the Duchess of Delacourt, arrives on her doorstep, inviting her to spend Christmas on the family estate. Celia suspects that the reserved noblewoman has an ulterior motive up her expensive sleeve, but nonetheless decides that spending the holidays in a palace will surely surpass spending them in the poorhouse....

Jack Delacourt knows his mother is plotting something when he receives a strange-sounding Christmas invitation that he recognizes as a thinly veiled matchmaking ploy. But if his mother plans to bully him into betrothal with a stranger, Jack is equally prepared with a plan of his own. He meets his cousin Celia with every intention of putting her off. But Celia is not at all what he expected--and they may be about to share the most wonderful Christmas gift of all....

I had already read another book by Diane Farr when I came across this one. The other book was The Fortune Hunter and I really enjoyed it so I couldn't resist picking this one up.

And it was a really nice and occasionaly fun story. Celia Delacourt has lost her entire family when she is brought to the attention of some wealthy relatives and taken in by the Duchess of Arnsford. The Duchess has an ulterior motive as Celia soon finds out. She wants Celia to marry Lord Lynden, her son, and decides to train her accordingly.

When Jack, Lord Lynden, arrives he suspects his mother has found a new girl for him to pay court to and decides on an very excentric atitude to put her off. This leads to a series of misunderstandings that have Celia believing Jack is mad and that his family just makes him worse. Despite this the two enjoy each other company and soon Jack realises Celia is not the fortune hunter he believed she was.

It was really a very nice story and it was quite fun to see how the Duchess plots to have all she wants happen and how that actually comes about in a different way. It was a nice touch for us to be in on the Duchess's secret, it made her more human. I also really enjoyed the secondary romance and the propect that Elizabeth might find some happiness.

Grade: 4.5/5