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A review by dianed
Dashing All the Way: A Christmas Anthology by Elizabeth Essex, Celeste Bradley, Heather Snow, Eva Devon
4.0
This anthology includes stories from 4 authors, 2 I am very familiar with and 2 somewhat new to me. All the stories have strong, intelligent, and brave heroines.
A Rake for Christmas by Eva Devon explores a common storyline. A smart but quiet wallflower finds a rake to teach her to be desirable. Of course it all backfires when the one who comes to desire her the most is the very rake who swore he would never marry. Ms Devon’s characters and conversations are delightful and though you know where the story is going you enjoy watching it unfold along the way.
In Up On the rooftops by Elizabeth Essex, Cally a feisty widow helps Toby Mctavish, former cat burglar and war hero, to clear his name when someone begins using his methods to begin robbing the ton. Immediately from the first, Cally is in charge of the direction of their relationship – first as co-conspiritors and then as lovers. Elizabeth Essex does an amazing job of creating two great characters who are sharp and witty as well as lovable. They make getting to their Happily Ever After even better.
Heather Snow is a new author to me but her story The Very Debonair Lady Claire was a delight to read. When Claire’s twin brother dies, Claire takes his place in Abchurch, where spies decode and decipher messages as part of the wr effort. Claire is determined to find her brother’s killer. When her uncle, the head of the department also dies, he is replaced by the one person she did not want to see, Andrew, the man she had fallen in love with years earlier. As Ms Snow writes, Claire is a strong, independent woman. She doesn’t need a man to save her and in fact she is the hero of the story. I love a story where the heroine can take care of herself and that makes her Happily Ever After even better.
Celeste Bradley is a new to me author. Her story, A Liar Under the Mistletoe tells the story of another strong woman, Amie Jackham who steals from the rich to feed her sisters. While attempting a heist, she is beaten to the safe by Lord Elliot Hughes who is a spy searching for documents. The two seem to have the same list of targets and so Amie comes under the scrutiny of the Liars Club (a group her father betrayed). Both Amie and Elliot are well written characters and you can’t help but want to see them get to a Happily Ever After. The other Liars were an interesting group of people and I feel the need to go back and find their stories.
A Rake for Christmas by Eva Devon explores a common storyline. A smart but quiet wallflower finds a rake to teach her to be desirable. Of course it all backfires when the one who comes to desire her the most is the very rake who swore he would never marry. Ms Devon’s characters and conversations are delightful and though you know where the story is going you enjoy watching it unfold along the way.
In Up On the rooftops by Elizabeth Essex, Cally a feisty widow helps Toby Mctavish, former cat burglar and war hero, to clear his name when someone begins using his methods to begin robbing the ton. Immediately from the first, Cally is in charge of the direction of their relationship – first as co-conspiritors and then as lovers. Elizabeth Essex does an amazing job of creating two great characters who are sharp and witty as well as lovable. They make getting to their Happily Ever After even better.
Heather Snow is a new author to me but her story The Very Debonair Lady Claire was a delight to read. When Claire’s twin brother dies, Claire takes his place in Abchurch, where spies decode and decipher messages as part of the wr effort. Claire is determined to find her brother’s killer. When her uncle, the head of the department also dies, he is replaced by the one person she did not want to see, Andrew, the man she had fallen in love with years earlier. As Ms Snow writes, Claire is a strong, independent woman. She doesn’t need a man to save her and in fact she is the hero of the story. I love a story where the heroine can take care of herself and that makes her Happily Ever After even better.
Celeste Bradley is a new to me author. Her story, A Liar Under the Mistletoe tells the story of another strong woman, Amie Jackham who steals from the rich to feed her sisters. While attempting a heist, she is beaten to the safe by Lord Elliot Hughes who is a spy searching for documents. The two seem to have the same list of targets and so Amie comes under the scrutiny of the Liars Club (a group her father betrayed). Both Amie and Elliot are well written characters and you can’t help but want to see them get to a Happily Ever After. The other Liars were an interesting group of people and I feel the need to go back and find their stories.