Yuletide Match - Margaret Westhaven

No Place for a Lady

Caroline Percival was born and raised a lady--but family financial disaster forced her to take the unsuitable position of governess in the hellish household of the odious Brangley clan, and the coming of Christmas made her position especially impossible. Even this low rung on the social ladder was threatened by the amorous intent of the lascivious Lord Marchton. Caroline was willing to pay the price to repel this offensive rogue--but his half brother, Mr. Guy Constant, posed a far greater danger to her defiant pride. Where Marchton used his title and brute strength, Constant used wealth, good looks, and charm. And while Marchton had the power to make her lose her post, Guy Constant had the presence to make her lose her head and her heart...

---

Although of good birth, our heroine Miss Caroline Percival has been forced to work for her living after her father died and left her penniless. At the start of the book, she works as a governess and suffers the advances of Lord Marchton a visitor of the Brangleys whom she works for. In true regency novel fashion, she is of course blamed by Mrs Brangley for the incident and is fired. That was an inauspicious beginning for me as I really don’t like the martyr heroine type. However the book rapidly improved after this with a change of plot and setting. Our heroine goes to Bath to stay with her mother while looking for work. There she meets by accident Mr Guy Constant who happens to be the guardian of a little girl, Harriet, who was staying with the Brangleys, and to whom Caroline was genuinely attached. Mr Constant also happens to be the odious Lord Marchton’s elder half-brother. Seeing her in Bath after the incident with his brother, Mr Constant assumes she is after all a lady of loose morals, following him to Bath to extract money from him, in return for her silence about Marchton’s behaviour. So their first meeting in Bath does not go well. However he soon finds out that Caroline is in Bath to stay with her mother, and realises he accused her unjustly.

With the initial misunderstanding resolved quite quickly, Guy and Caroline’s relationship progresses and blossoms without further mishaps. I quite liked the fact that there were no contrived obstacles, misunderstandings and difficulties. So there is no much drama and emotional upheavals in this book. Guy and Caroline get to know each other better in Bath, and are both involved in taking care of little Harriet, who is an engaging little girl, not at all spoilt or annoying (another plus of this book).

All in all a very enjoyable read, with very likeable characters, light, refreshing and sweet. But if you want lots of drama, tormented characters, anguish and pain, then maybe the book is not for you. Otherwise, I heartily recommend it.

Grade 3.5/5

Tokens of Love - Anthology

This is an anthology with a Valentine's Day theme. I've read many with a Christmas theme but this was my first with this theme. The short stories are:

Mary Balogh, "The Substitute Guest."
A young lady is invited to a house party during St Valentine's. It's actually a rendez vous for lovers to meet but when one of the women declines the invitation a vicar's sister is invited in her place and wins the heart of the gentleman selected to court her for the weekend.
It was a nice story the hero was a bit bland, either we needed a stronger hero or a bigger story. 4

Margaret Westhaven, "Saint Valentine's Eve."
A second chance at love story when lovers separated 10 years before meet again. It's set in India which his different and the heroine was a young girl shipped to Calcutta for find a husband (I was curious to know if indeed this was common). A pleasant story but nothing to make it stand out. 4

Carol Proctor, "The London Swell."
Hero travels to the country to court and propose the girl he wants to marry. There he meets an eccentric young girl who mistakes him for someone else and speaks about how she is going to marry the London gentleman that is due to arrive. Not badly written but the heroine was too childish. 3.5

Sheila Walsh, "Dear Delight."
Another second chance at love. The hero and the heroine were separated 10 years before when her father rejected his suit and he left without telling her why so she things he abandoned her. They meet again at a christening of one of her nephews but there's a woman determined to separate them again. It was nice and the strong point for me was that the author cleared the misunderstanding pretty early. 4

Sandra Heath, "February Falsehoods."
And the anthology ends with another second chance at love. This time the heroine has jilted the hero after finding out he had a mistress and her friend and her beau (the hero's friend) try to bring them together again. Not bad but nothing memorable. 4

Grade: 4/5 with the Balogh and the Walsh being the favourites. Although nothing really stands out this is the kind of anthology I save for a rainy day, a comfort read.

The Lady in Question - Margaret Westhaven

Dangerous Deceptions

Beautiful Lady Antonia Worthington did not shrink from playing a cat-and-mouse game with the law to save her village from ruin. But when the law came to be embodied in the devastatingly handsome, shockingly libertine Sir Owen Longfort, the stakes were raised perilously high.

Antonia had to deceive Sir Owen about her secret life. And she had to hide from him the storm he stirred in her heart. For it would mean ruin if this grimly determined government agent unmasked her as an outlaw instead of a lady — and even worse if this irresistible rake discovered she was a woman in love ...

---

I quite enjoyed this book. It had a somewhat unusual plot, a likeable hero and heroine, and two fun secondary romances. All in all, not bad!

However what stood out for me in this book and made it quite memorable is the take-in that is the back cover blurb! (If you skipped reading it, just scroll a bit upwards and do so now, so you can understand what I am talking about). It clearly says that the heroine, Lady Antonia, is an outlaw. And Sir Owen is a government agent. So here we have our conflict between hero and heroine, an essential part of any romance plot. And within the first couple of pages we learn that Sir Owen is investigating smuggling activities in the area, and a group of smugglers in particular: Those lead by a lady, known as ‘The Lady’ in the area. Her identity is a mystery, and Sir Owen is full of admiration and fascination for the elusive and courageous ‘Lady’. So the reader now also knows that the illegal activities the heroine is involved in (as the back blurb says) is smuggling.

So far so good. You can imagine my surprise, when just a few pages in the book we find out that the heroine is not the Lady !! Yes, you read that right. She is not! The Lady is her sister. Lady Antonia lives a virtuous and law abiding life, and has nothing to do with smuggling or smugglers. (She knows her sister is the Lady of course). What a take in ! :) I guess when summarising the plot in the back cover, it did not sound very exciting to say the heroine is well just an ordinary lady, but she has a very out of the ordinary, exciting and fascinating sister who is the leader of a group of smugglers. So when the facts do not fit what the person who wrote the back blurb had in mind, they just changed the facts! :) I know the plot summaries in the back cover are not very enlightening and some times the exaggerate some things, other details are vague etc, but never had I encountered an outright lie before! :)

Despite, or maybe because, of my surprise at this turn of events, I quite enjoyed this book. It had the added bonus of this unexpected plot twist right in the beginning (un-intended by the author, of course :). And I quite liked Lady Antonia, who was charming and likeable in her own way, and was not at all overshadowed by her more dashing sister.

While on that night stake-out to spy on the smugglers, Sir Owen gets hits on the head by a smuggler, and the smugglers transport the injured man to Antonia’s home, so she can have him returned to his inn. Sir Owen briefly opens his eyes, sees Antonia, and logically assumes she is the Lady. So when he next sees her he quizzes her, trying to elicit a confession. Antonia realises he thinks she is the Lady, but she can not say "It is not me, it is my sister", so she plays along, not admitting that she is the Lady, but allowing Sir Owen to continue to think she is.

There is also a secondary romance between the real Lady, and an injured French spy. And one between Sir Owen sister, Eliza, and the younger son of a duke who prefers to work as a groom to earn his living, rather than live the life of an idle gentleman. Eliza, being an eccentric and having strange ideas about social equality and complete disregard for titles is fascinated, and so was I. My democratic/egalitarian notions were gratified by these two eccentrics (for their time), and I very much enjoyed their story as well.

All in all I thought this was a very enjoyable book.

Grade 3.5/5

Four In Hand - Margaret Westhaven

Lady Jane Averham had been married once - and once was quite enough. Her late, unlamented husband left her with wealth, position, and two daughters to raise. He left her as well with a delight in freedom after the constraints of wedlock. All that was missing from her life was love - and the handsome, ardent Archibald MacGowen was on hand to fill that need. Unfortunately this marvelous man wanted her as a wife as well as a woman ... and somehow Jane had to find a way to keep the primrose path from leading her to the altar!

I was quite interested in this little story set in Vienna during the Congress and that featured a widow heroine who didn't want to remarry not to be under a man's thumb again. There's also the fact the heroine is older than the hero!

I must say that I found it very interesting and well written. The heroine, Lady Jane has two daugthers with the older one in her first season and is chaperoning two other girls. The brother of one of those girls visits her house and they are both immediately attracted to each and soon start an affair. I found it original that it's the hero who pursues the heroine, he wants to marry her after they became lovers which seems a bit odd to her considered how society marriages work and she doesn't want to marry him as she as fallen in love with him and doesn't want to suffer when he evetually gets tired of her.

I thought both their behaviours were interesting and believable. The hero, Archie is a diplomat and I liked that the author portrayed Vienna is such an important period for the world replete with diplomats, spys and several national interests on the table. Jane's daughters and charges are also involved in several adventures and some get their happy ending too.

My only complaint is that all seemed a bit too rational to me and never really felt for them. I enjoyed it, appreciated how good it was but I didn't love it...

Grade: 4/5