2017:98
3 of 5 stars
Published 2013
This was another free or cheap Kindle Christmas themed book that I decided to read for the Goodreads CanadianContent December challenge. It contains four short stories/novellas centred on an elegant house in Grosvenor Square, London where Lady Lucy Winterston holds a Christmas Ball every year and every year, there’s a love match made. We dip into four Balls between 1803 and 1830, late Georgian England.
In one story, there’s a reunion between a middle aged woman and a younger man who helped her escape the French Revolution. Their re-acquaintance exposes their long hidden feelings for each other. An established gentleman falls for a woman who only cares to be friends. Can he sweep her off her feet? (of course he can! this is romance, remember!). Conversely, a young woman is only regarded as a friend so she endeavors to change in order to sweep him off *his* feet. A young woman who has dreams might find one of them coming true. And a long term friendship might just change into love.
Little romantic bites, a racy scene or two, quick reads. I like a little romance though don’t really care for a full novel of Georgian bodice ripping. It’s fun in a short story, however. Well written, believable dialogue and that’s an important thing because sometimes these sorts of stories can be cheesy. These stories were cheerful, not cheesy, predicable of course but fun, too. I liked that one of the characters was older. I thought I wouldn’t like that one woman thought she had to change to get her man but you take that in the time period in which it’s set and it was a transition from a gawky teenager to an elegant young woman which would have happened anyway even if there were no specific man behind it.
Three of the four authors are American with an Australian topping off the list.
Reader at Large 