Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Guest Review - - Lady Jenny's Christmas Portrait

Lady Jenny's Christmas Portrait
By Grace Burrowes
Sourcebooks
Release Date: September 24, 2013

  




I always love having each year's new crop of Christmas-themed romances appear.  Grace Burrowes' contribution for 2013 is the story of the last Windham daughter, Lady Genevieve, Jenny to her friends and family.  The next-to-youngest and the last unmarried daughter, Jenny has begun to feel she has no life of her own.  Her family doesn't understand or appreciate her devotion to painting and her status as maiden aunt leaves her restless and unhappy.  She especially detests shuttling from one happily married sibling's household to another because her parents won't leave her home with only the thirty-some servants to safeguard her virtue.

While staying with her sister Sophie, Baroness Sindal (and the heroine of Burrowes' 2011 Christmas romance, Lady Sophie's Christmas Wish), Jenny meets portraitist Elijah Harrison, who has come to paint Sophie and Sindal's two sons.  Jenny and Elijah have a unique prior acquaintance. She disguised herself as a man to take drawing lessons in a class for which he posed nude.  When they meet, she isn't aware he knows what she did.

An earl who doesn't use his title, Elijah quickly finds himself enchanted by Jenny.  They share a love of painting and a sense of dislocation within their families as well as a strong, instant, mutual attraction.  Jenny is equally enchanted but resists any thought of a true relationship.   She is resolved to go to Paris to study art and, though she doesn't realize it, exorcise her personal ghosts.

Burrowes has a gift for creating obstacles that arise from her characters' earlier lives.  The obstacles here don't seem as dark, or possibly as threatening, as those in some of her books, but I found that appropriate for a holiday story. 

I also enjoyed seeing the Windham siblings gather for the holidays.  Many of the things I enjoyed, seeing them with their spouses after their happy endings, knowing their families are growing, also happen to be things that twist the knife of Jenny's unhappiness with her life.

I'm sorry to come to the end of the Windham saga, but I think it's fair to say Burrowes has closed it out with solid hit.

 ~ Nancy Northcott
www.nancynorthcott.com

A former attorney who never outgrew her love of comic books, science fiction and fantasy, Nancy left the legal profession to pursue her dreams of creating her own action adventure stories.  Check out her terrific contemporary romances set within a fantasy world in present-day Georgia.  I highly recommend them! ~PJ



Are you reading the Windham saga?  Which family series have you had a hard time bidding farewell?  Have you started your Christmas romance reading yet?  Any recommendations?






23 comments:

  1. I haven't read this one yet, Nancy, but it's on my Kindle waiting for me to find the time. Your review makes me want to do so right away. I've read and enjoyed the rest of the series.

    I'm of two minds about series endings. I do hate to see a series I love end, but I hate even more seeing a once-beloved series drag on past its prime. Jo Beverley (Malloren World) and Robyn Carr (Grace Valley/Virgin River/ Thunder Point) seem to have discovered the solution: end the series proper but stay in the same world so that favorite characters can appear in new books.

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    1. I know what you mean, Janga. There are some long-running series out there that should have ended five (or more) books ago while others seem to get better and better.

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    2. Hi, Janga--I'm glad the reviews spurred you. *g* I've enjoyed this entire series, too. I agree with you about series going on too long. When the stories start feeling like a stretch, it's time to do something else. I think Grace was smart in changing the focus a bit for each set of her Windham books. Elijah in Lady Jenny's Christmas Portrait comes from a large family, so I'm wondering if we'll start seeing them turn up.

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  2. I haven't started any Christmas romances yet but I do love to read them.

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    1. I love them too, Quilt Lady. I've read two so far and am looking forward to many more.

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    2. Me, too, Quilt Lady. I have a collection on my shelves and am starting a virtual one. I have a separate category on my iPad for Christmas stories, but the series completist in me insists on keeping the Windhams with the rest of their series.

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  3. Thanks for the review, Nancy! I've been looking forward to this one.

    I'm currently reading The Wicked Deeds of Daniel Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley. I don't want to ever have to say good-bye to this family!

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    1. PJ, thanks for having me! And thank you for the lovely bio and plug at the end of the review. I'm so glad you're enjoying the Light Mages.

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  4. I do enjoy them, so always looking for recommendations for great selections.

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    1. Me, too, Sharlene. I love discovering an author with a backlist!

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  5. I haven't read any of them yet... I did start my Christmas reading got the arc of Brenda Novak's book and just finished THE TROUBLE WITH CHRISTMAS both were good...

    Donna

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    1. That's good to know, deerdoe69. I love finding new Christmas stories.

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  6. I am reading Lady Eve's Indiscretion and have enjoyed all the books in this series! I haven't started Christmas reads as yet and I'm sure I'd love this one!

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    1. Catslady, I really think you will. I haven't started any of the other holiday stories either, but I'm picking them up for December reading.

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  7. Family series, well Bridgertons come to mind immediately. But the Windhams were amazing. This book is filled with such great writing, dialogue and repartee between two very likable but confused leading characters. I enjoyed the lovely holiday descriptions, the family gathering all of it. Wonderfully sweet book. Grab a cup of hot chocolate, sit by the fire as the night gets longer and cooler and have a lovely read.

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    1. Hope, I agree about the Windhams. I usually save holiday stories, but I had to read this one right away.

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  8. I really want to read this book, but I need to read the others in the series, first! Time to break out the library card again! I can't even tell you how many series I am in the middle of!

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  9. I am going to start the Windham series. I truly loved the Cynster family and super excited for the next generations part in the series next year!!! Oh, and there's the Redmond and Eversea family in the Pennyroyal Green series. Also starting the Bridgertons because I'm currently reading the Smythe-Smith family.

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    1. I read the 3 Cynster sisters & the Smythe-Smith books, too. I really want to go back & read both of those entire series.

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    2. Oh, the Bridgertons are wonderful! One of my all-time favorite families. :)

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  10. I've got the Windham series in my TBR pile so I can't wait to read them. As for Christmas books, I just finished Katie Lane's Hunk for the Holidays last week, absolutely fantastic. It kills me that I have to wait until next Christmas for book 2 of the series and then another year for book 3!!! *dies a slow, waiting death* lol

    As for series, the Bridgertons are absolutely at the top of my list. The Hathaways from Lisa Kleypas, the Boscastles from Jillian Hunter, the Cynsters, the Redmonds and Everseas.....oh my gosh, so many series families I just adore!

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  11. Great review, Nancy! I love reading Christmas stories, but haven't had time to read any so far this year. I hope to do so soon!

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  12. I have a couple of the books in the series, but they are buried in my TBR mountain.

    I have not yet started my Christmas reading. I have Halloween reading to do first. I have a box of Christmas book I plan to read this year, some new and many old favorites. I have a stack of Christmas anthologies which I reread (at least my favorite stories) when I can. I never seem to get to even all my new ones.

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