A
Christmas to Remember
By
Lisa Kleypas, Lorraine Heath,
Megan
Frampton, and Vivienne Lorret
Publisher:
Avon
Release
Date: September 26, 2017
Reviewed by Janga
The
season for Christmas romances has begun, and Avon’s anthology of reissued novellas
by a quartet of genre stars is one that will delight readers who prefer their
Christmas tales with a historical setting.
Lisa
Kleypas’s Rita-winning I Will, first
published in 2001 in the anthology Wish
List, leads off. The Earl of
Rochester is dying, and he has threatened to leave his unentailed fortune away
from his only legitimate son, Andrew, Lord Drake, unless the young man reforms
his dissolute lifestyle. Andrew, who has used that lifestyle as a weapon
against his father, is forced to conceive a plan that will convince the old
earl that his heir has traded riotous living for respectability and
responsibility. He needs the cooperation of Miss Caroline Hargreaves, a model
of rectitude, to complete his plan. Andrew promises to pay Caroline’s younger
brother’s gambling debts and to free him from Andrew’s ruinous influence if she
agrees to a fake courtship. Hostility yields to attraction and then love as the
two spend time together. Predictable? Perhaps, but it is a joyous read
nonetheless. A bluestocking heroine who saves the hero and a hero who is
redeemed make this a cherished favorite for me.
This novella is part of Kleypas’s Capital Theatre series, and fans of
that series will be pleased to see that Andrew’s illegitimate half-brother, Logan
Scott and his wife Madeline (Because
You’re Mine) make an appearance. This one is an unqualified five-star read
for me.
Romance
Dish regulars know that I love a good reunited lovers tale, and Lorraine Heath
gives that trope an interesting twist in Deck
the Halls with Love, a 2012 novella with strong links to Lord of Temptation, the second novel in
Heath’s Lost Lords of Pembrook series. In that book, Alistair Wakefield, the
Marquess of Chetwyn, frees his almost-bride Lady Anne Hayworth to marry her
true love, Lord Tristan Easton. In the novella, Chetwyn is fighting for a second
chance with Lady Meredith Hargreaves, the woman he loved before and after his
betrothal to Lady Anne. But Lady Meredith’s marriage to another is to take
place the day after Christmas, and Chetwyn must do the seemingly
impossible—persuade Lady Meredith, who was heartbroken when he abruptly ended
their promising courtship to enter a duty-bound relationship, to stop her
wedding and trust her heart to him. A snowstorm provides the opportunity for a
double Christmas miracle—the unlikable Chetwyn of Lord of Temptation proves his nobility and true love wins the day
when Meredith exercises her gift of choice. Heath is among the best in the
genre when she hits the mark, and she hits it unerringly here. I especially
love all the “gifts” that add deeper meaning to this Christmas romance. I give
this one 4.5 stars.
Megan
Frampton’s No Groom at the Inn, part
of her Dukes Behaving Badly series despite the absence of dukes, is an
entertaining read with enough heart to save it from mere cleverness. Lady
Sophronia Bettesford, only child of the Earl of Lunsford, was left impoverished
by the death of her loving but improvident father. All she has to look forward
to is a future as an unpaid servant in a cousin’s home where she will be in
charge of six children and twenty-seven chickens. Mr. James Archer is a young
man possessed of a fortune and in need of a faux fiancée. Committed to a life
of travel, adventure, and beautiful women whose place in his life is strictly
temporary, James panics when he learns of his mother’s plans for him at a
holiday house party filled with marriageable maidens. He tells his mother he is
deeply in love and engaged. He offers Sophronia a cottage where she and her
devoted maid can live free of obnoxious relatives if she agrees to be his
make-believe fiancée. What follows is a story filled with fun, lots of clever
wordplay, and Frampton’s trademark humor. Sophronia is a dear, and James,
although sometimes arrogant, can be forgiven much because he loves his mother
and appreciates Sophronia even before he falls in love with her. The novella,
originally published in 2015, didn’t quite reach the level of the novels in
this series, but it was sweet and amusing. I award it four stars and five
smiles. I loved the chapter prefaces!
Vivienne
Lorret’s The Duke’s Christmas Wish,
which first appeared in the 2015 anthology All
I Want for Christmas Is a Duke, is the only one of the four novellas that I
had never read. It was also my first encounter with this author, so I am not
sure how it fits into her Season’s Original series, although publication info
tells me that it does. It is another Christmas house party story. In this case,
the house party is hosted by Northcliff
Bromley, Duke of Vale, who is using it to prove the soundness of his Marriage
Formula, a logical system based on the premise that money, bloodlines, and
common interests are the best grounds for a successful marriage. Miss Ivy
Sutherland, whom the duke notes is of “no consequence” since she is merely the
daughter of a country gentleman and possessed of none of the required assets,
nevertheless challenges the duke’s assumptions because he cannot ignore her
intelligence, her impulsivity (a marked contrast to his careful thought), or
her ability to entrench herself in his mind.
This story has an abundance of charm, and I liked it enough to add other
books in the series to my wish list. It is another four-star read.
A Christmas to Remember is a
rare anthology without a weak story in the bunch. I highly recommend it for
historical romance readers who may have missed the novellas the first time. If
you are a rereader like me, you will still find this a winning Christmas read. I
think I’ve read Kleypas’s I Will
every Christmas since it was first released, and I find it enchanting every
time.
