A Father For Christmas - Paula Tanner Girard

A COACH, A CASTLE AND A CATCH -- FOR THE LADY WHO ISN'T LOOKING FOR LOVE...

Widowed Lady Millicent Copley rejoiced at the invitation from the Copleys in Devonshire: Christmas at their magnificent castle on the faraway moors. A visit to the remote estate was sure to distract her mischievous six-year-old son, Rupert, from an impossible yuletide wish. But how to get to Devonshire? The distance was great, the roads were snowy, and a highwayman was kidnapping noblemen for ransom. Then a fellow guest, the Marquis of Wetherby, offered Millicent his coach and company. One of the most sought-after bachelors in London, the rakish Wetherby thought Millicent a perfect...mouse. Millicent though him a handsome...gadabout. And Master Rupert thought the Marquis the answer to his prayers. Now this determined young boy was about to put into action an outrageous scheme to help him get his wish: a new father just in time for Christmas!

Another Christmas read and another new author to me. This was a very light story with the hero and heroine being thrown together because the hero must accompany the heroine and her son to the Christmas party of a relative. On the way they get to know each other better and end up being kidnapped by an outlaw who has been holding noblemen for ransom.

While some of the scenes were actually very funny, like the time they spent with the outlaws or later in the farmer's cottage, I couldn't help feeling the heroine was too naive and too good to be true, she was almost annoying in how she kept seeing the best in everyone even in the rival for the hero's affections... a woman that was actually pretty decent to the heroine when she didn't have to... I'm guessing she will be the heroine of a future book.

The hero was also the usual kind, a rake decided to change his ways, and nothing really stood so I just enjoyed it for the fun romp that it was with being extraordinary.

Grade: 3.5/5