That last statement was from the female and I was so floored when I heard that I couldn't respond. They were like, "that seems realistic to me" and "she wanted it". I ran the "kissing" scene past my SO and a female friend and they saw nothing wrong with it. So it's not the author, she has good writing chops, it's just the plot and the Hero and the heroine left a SUPER bad taste in my mouth. That book was nothing short of adorable and I absolutely loved it. If you want a cute Christmas Regency read by this author, read "A Christmas Kiss" instead. So I will start here.ĭo NOT read this book. Please note, this is my My thanks to NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media for an eARC copy of this book to read and review. My thanks to NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media for an eARC copy of this book to read and review. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. The author did an excellent job of making me forgive Miranda and to cheerfully embrace their eventual HEA. This was a very good story filled with romantic tension, family warmth, and sense or redemption. The house belongs to Barnaby’s brother and Barnaby is also traveling there to join his family for Christmas….
Hired as a governess to oversee education of three boys, Miranda travels to Norfolk. “She had to find a way to support herself, there was no other choice.” Disastrous marriage, that thankfully ended with a death of her profligate, womanizing, lecherous husband, loss of her home to her husband’s heir and his smugly condescending wife – all of it was unbearable. The passing years were not so favorable for Miranda. When we meet Barnaby again, 11 years later, he is well respected thought-out bachelor, veteran of the Waterloo with a reputation in the Foreign Office to be “the only man there with backbone to stand up to the Prime Minister.” “He would enter the fray again, and the next time he would be better prepared. This single event, in some ways, has determined Barnaby’s future.
The short prolog sets the main conflict of the story: painfully shy, gawky nineteen-year-old Barnaby Trahern asked beautiful Miranda Pardew for a dance but she not only turned him down but publicly humiliated him. I was not impressed with A Christmas Kiss but liked this story. “He would enter the fray again, and the n I’m glad that the story was included in the same volume as A CHRISTMAS KISS. I’m glad that the story was included in the same volume as A CHRISTMAS KISS.