Customer Reviews

A Christmas Promise (Zebra Historical Romance)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This year I bought a couple of Christmas books to get me in the spirit. I read this first because it looked most interesting. A Christmas Promise didn't disappoint.

Juliana knew her father was trying to manipulate her into marriage with Ian. She'd known Ian since childhood, so she knew him well enough to realize Ian was manipulating her to the altar too. Some women might find this pursuit romantic and think she's stubborn for not giving in much sooner. I disagree. The truth was, Juliana didn't trust Ian or her own feelings, and she knew Ian had a habit of lying to her to get what he wanted. Why trust a man like that?

This is a complicated relationship that Shelley Bradley plays out convincingly. If it had happened any faster or in any other way, I wouldn't have believed it. The story was handled with skill, and I'll be looking forward to this author's next book.

I have to agree with one of the reviewers that this book dragged too long based on just couple of lies. I also thought the heroine was an unlikable character--She was stubborn and impetuous. Although she valued her freedom and independence highly, hated anyone (even her father and her long-time neighbor Ian) to "manipulate" her life, disregarding whether it was out of their love for her or not. Unfortunately, most of her willful decisions turned out to be with terrible consequences. This non-sensible female really did not deserve Ian's steadfast love in my eye, I felt it was a very lop-sided courtship. But I did like the hero and his romantic determination of wooing his intended.

Ian Pierce and Juliana Linford had been childhood friends but Ian's feelings for Juliana became much stronger as they grew older. When Juliana desires to marry someone else against her father's wishes, the men in her life scheme to stop the marriage. Furious, Juliana weds and moves away to India with her
new husband.

Five years later, still devotely in love with Juliana, Ian discovers she is now a widow. Juliana's father's health is precarious so with his approval, Ian sets out to bring Juliana home to be with her family in time for the holidays.

However some things never change, Ian is still very much in love and desperately wishes to wed Juliana. And Juliana is still headstrong and determined not to let her father, or Ian, control her life by forcing her to wed someone she herself has not chosen.

Set in the Victorian era, this book is truly intriguing. And despite the fact that the heroine was very stubborn, I could not help but enjoy this story as the chemistry between the hero and heroine was intense. Also I loved the hero, he was so true to his heart I swooned just thinking about him. Sigh!

While this book had interesting characters, it didn't have enough plot to support this length book. Having a few lies keep the hero and heroine apart for the entire book tires well before the end.

Lady Juliana Linford has lost her husband, but she swears she won't return to her father's control, nor to the man her father had intended to be her husband. Admittedly, her own choice of a husband might not have been much of a success, but at least it was her choice.

Lord Ian Pierce has loved Juliana since they were children together. When he learns of her husband's death, he travels to India to meet her and bring her home to England. Along the way on the months-long journey, he intends to win her love and her hand in marriage. If he has to tell a few lies to get there, it's a price he's willing to pay.

When Juliana agrees not to reject Ian's offer until Christmas, he believes he has time to act. Yet everything he does results in her becoming more angry with him. Can't she see that he really does know what is best for her? Certainly the choices she has made for herself have been complete disasters. Certainly she can't deny the sexual attraction that sizzles beneath even their slightest touch.

Author Shelley Bradley writes compellingly of early Victorian England (the 1850s) where manners and elegance remain important, yet where women can now dream of independence and of making their own decision. Ian is an interesting character because he really does seem to know what is best for Juliana, yet who can't avoid angering her even when he does what she wants most. Although Juliana's manipulative father is on stage for only a small number of pages, he is a finely drawn figure that one can almost imagine getting to know better.