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A review by jackiehorne
A Christmas Courting by Jen Geigle Johnson, Chalon Linton, Heidi Kimball, Jennifer Moore
3.0
Four Regency-period novellas, all set during the December holiday season. The first, "Love and Joy Come to You" by Jennifer Moore, was my favorite, focusing on the difficulties of reconciling grief with celebration. Graham Montagu, Lord Covington, hopes that his mother will not fall into melancholy over the family members they have lost, as she tends to do during Christmas.But he's not at all pleased by how his mother has decided to cheer herself up: by inviting a family of four recently orphaned young people to stay at the estate over the holidays. But the three children and their pets make everything more cheerful, as does their eldest sister, Cassie Weatherby, whom Graham finds occupying more and more of his thoughts despite knowing his mother is playing matchmaker. Helping each other help their respective family members not to despair, and sharing their own ways of coping with loss, brings the two together.
In Chalon Linton's "A Christmas Courting," Keturah has to watch as the young man whom she's long loved comes to stay in London, purportedly to court a bride. Why, though, is he spending so much time at Keturah's house? The pleasure here is in knowing far more than the rather clueless Keturah does, a pleasure in which I didn't take much joy in indulging.
Alice, the heroine of Jen Geigle Johnson's "Mistletoe Memories," has long known she would marry Patrick, a duke. And when she is compromised by another man while Patrick is away in India, she believes that Patrick will come and rescue her. But he doesn't; only being jilted saves her from a horrible marriage. And Patrick isn't at all happy with her newly scandalous reputation. Bad writing, lots of well-intentioned but rather empty references to wanting to help the working classes through reform, and annoying protagonists made this a no-go for me.
In the final story, Heidi Kimball's "Second-Chance Christmas," Frances Lockhart encounters the man whose proposal she refused four months earlier, the "best friend" toward who she only feels "sisterly affection." But when visitors, including a pretty young lady, come to visit Gerard's family for the holidays, Frances suddenly realizes that she might not have understood her own feelings as clearly as she thought.
Very innocent heroines and only a little kissing make this a collection for those who prefer their holiday historicals sweet as plum pudding.
In Chalon Linton's "A Christmas Courting," Keturah has to watch as the young man whom she's long loved comes to stay in London, purportedly to court a bride. Why, though, is he spending so much time at Keturah's house? The pleasure here is in knowing far more than the rather clueless Keturah does, a pleasure in which I didn't take much joy in indulging.
Alice, the heroine of Jen Geigle Johnson's "Mistletoe Memories," has long known she would marry Patrick, a duke. And when she is compromised by another man while Patrick is away in India, she believes that Patrick will come and rescue her. But he doesn't; only being jilted saves her from a horrible marriage. And Patrick isn't at all happy with her newly scandalous reputation. Bad writing, lots of well-intentioned but rather empty references to wanting to help the working classes through reform, and annoying protagonists made this a no-go for me.
In the final story, Heidi Kimball's "Second-Chance Christmas," Frances Lockhart encounters the man whose proposal she refused four months earlier, the "best friend" toward who she only feels "sisterly affection." But when visitors, including a pretty young lady, come to visit Gerard's family for the holidays, Frances suddenly realizes that she might not have understood her own feelings as clearly as she thought.
Very innocent heroines and only a little kissing make this a collection for those who prefer their holiday historicals sweet as plum pudding.