Customer Reviews

Regency Christmas Courtship (Signet Regency Romance)

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

 

 

I've been disappointed with the last couple of Signet Christmas Regency Anthologies but this year's offering was more in keeping with past standards.

Barbara Metzger led the way. A young, impoverished woman, Margaret Todd, works as a companion to a selfish elderly lady. As Christmas approaches she endeavours to shelter her two orphaned nieces in the empty house of Viscount Wolfram next door. The two nieces, believing that their aunt and the viscount would make an ideal pair of new parents, consult George E Phelber's "A Gentleman's Guide to Courtship" for guidance on how to get them together. If I've not missed the joke, George Felber is Edith Layton's husband!!

In Edith Layton's story, a magical puppy becomes the means of bringing together an impoverished governess and an haughty viscount. When the seven year old Marquess of Grenville comes to London to spend his holiday with the governess, the stray puppy he has acquired gradually becomes the deus ex machina in a gradually unfolding love match.

Andrea Picken's offering was my least favourite in this collection. She writes of a diplomat and a Russian heiress trapped in the snow in a road/cabin romance. Although others had sought to make a match between them, they were unaware of the identities of their intended one so blissfully fall in love. I found, however, I could not warm to the story or the characters and the whole thing was a little boring. I struggled to keep my mind on it.

Nancy Butler's contribution was the story of a bluestocking who has lived in London for some time. Finding it necessary to spend some time in the country, she meets up with a somewhat rough and ready Welshman and falls in love with him. Unfortunately, this story was also a bit contrived and I could not garner too much interest in the characters or their predicament.

The final offering was from Gayle Buck. I admit that despite reading widely in the Regency genre, I've never read anything by this author. I was very pleasantly surprised. Her story is about the marriage of two young people who don't really know each other very well and have, as a result, kept each other at arm's length in the formal way common at the time. This is a very well done picture of two people shedding inhibitions and confronting their feelings for each other in a very realistic and touching way. I thought this was better than the Layton or Metzger stories - something that surprised me enormously. I shall be looking out for more works by Gayle Buck.

All in all, this is a good read and I can recommend it.

I enjoyed all of the stories - except one, which I didn't even read. Edith Layton's story "The Dogstar" is the second of a series of stories about some very special puppies. The first was published several years ago in another Christmas Regency collection under the title "The Hounds of Heaven". The other four stories were good reads. Yes, the story about the Russian woman was a bit contrived, but it was fun!

As previously mentioned by other reviewers, I found the writing of Barbara Metzger and Edith Layton very enjoyable. I didn't like the plots of the stories written by Andrea Pickens or Nancy Butler; however, the most unrealistic/believable story written by Gayle Buck was a complete and total disappointment. Not only did her references to my lady and my lord in conversations between husband and wife sound more like they were speaking to servants, but there were a few mistakes with regard to social etiquette; an example: Lord Hallcroft crosses his legs during a visit with his Aunt in the presence of both his Aunt and his wife. Proper etiquette during that time did not permit a gentleman to cross his legs. Ms. Buck's attempt at being overly formal in the story also did not work for me . . . came across as boring.

This is the 17th such present we've been given by Signet-we can but hope it won't be the last one, now they've given up on monthly releases of the greatly appreciated Regency Romance novels. It's better than some in the series have been, but perhaps not up to the very high standards set by the early editions.

As always, Barbara Metzger combines mischief with mistletoe and merriment to weave a tale of love unexpected. A companion who suddenly finds herself as substitute mother for her two nieces gets all tangled up with the Viscount who lives next door. If he'd stayed in the country, he'd have missed out on the wonderful opportunity contrived by the two youngsters in "Wooing the Wolf".

Edith Layton spins her magic in "The Dogstar" when the love of a young boy for a dog captures a young couple in the resulting web. A governess and a viscount have difficulty in believing their eyes as the boy and the dog demonstrate the real meaning of Christmas.

Coincidence can happen, as aptly demonstrated by Andrea Pickens in "Lost and Found" when two travelers become lost in a snowstorm. Anna and Nicholas are dutifully heading for London-separately-when they're compelled to join forces in order to survive. Little did they guess that duty can sometimes be a pleasurable thing!

Nancy Butler always manages to pull a fast one on her characters and her readers. Thank goodness for this cleverness! "Christmas with Dora Davenport" proves that one can make a silk purse from a sow's ear, if one only has the right sow in the first place! Dora, who is really Elnora, really needs to find a husband who can support her, and who would like to live in London. Instead, she finds Gowan, a Welshman, who on the surface doesn't seem to be what she's looking for. But underneath? Well -

"Christmas Cheer" by Gayle Buck is probably more accurate than we think in these days of casual informality. Considering how little time a couple spent in each other's company before they were married, even a six-month wedding trip may not reveal a couple's personalities all that well. One such young bride-Gwen-learns that happiness may be found in the most unlikely places, when uncovered by her new husband, Lord Hallcroft.

This yearly collection has always been my present to myself-not to be opened and read until the last days before the Holiday. It never fails to fill me with Christmas cheer!

This book is a collection of 5 short christmas themed romance stories. There is no sex in the book. The first 4 storied are charming tales of innocent courtship. The fifth deals with a newly married couple and lacks the charm and flow that others have. Overall I would recomend this book.

****½ "Wooing the Wolf" by Barbara Metzger. Fun, cute.

Our heroine, a lady's companion, unexpectedly inherits her two nieces and temporarily moves with them into the house next door, which is owned by an absent viscount, whose servants assure her he won't mind. The viscount returns home unexpectedly and the nieces set about trying to matchmake between him and their aunt so they'll be able to stay in the house they like so much.


**** "The Dogstar" by Edith Layton. Another cute one.

Both the hero and heroine have promised to look after a little boy home from school for Christmas. She's a down on her luck governess, he's a viscount. The boy finds a puppy when he arrives in London, and the dog is more than it seems.


***½ "Lost and Found" by Andrea Pickens.

Both the hero and heroine have been recalled to London for Christmas, under orders from family--his father, her uncle--to make a politically expedient match. Both end up taking a wrong turn and being stranded in a snowstorm at the same inn. You can see where this is going, can't you? Still, it's not obnoxious in its cliches, so it gets an extra half star for that.


*** "Christmas with Dora Davenport" by Nancy Butler.

I usually really like Nancy Butler's writing, but this one was merely okay. Perhaps it's because both elements of the story--the hero who helps the heroine in her quest to snag another man, and the heroine who's secretly a writer--have been done to death. Not bad, just nothing new or exciting.


*½ "Christmas Cheer" by Gayle Buck. Oh, gak.

The characters in this one are newlyweds who can't be bothered to actually, you know, TALK to each other, so they each think the other doesn't love them. So the hero gets this brainstorm that he'll act even more indifferent toward the heroine and then secretly invite her family to visit for Christmas, thus proving his love for her. You might think this might make for an interesting story, with amusing misdirection, etc. You'd be wrong.

The stories by Barbara Metzger, Edith Layton, and Nancy Butler were all pretty good. I especially liked "The Dogstar" (Layton) and "Christmas with Dora Davenport" (Butler). I was quite disappointed with Gayle Buck's offering, "Christmas Cheer." Based on her status as an author, I would have expected more from Ms. Buck, but the whole premise of this story was unbelievable, and the writing was stilted.

I don't know why the earlier Signet regency Christmas anthologies seemed so much better (especially the first 5-7 years). Maybe because Signet now has a 'theme' for each book... perhaps that constricts the writers in some way. Overall, however, this year's "Christmas Courtship" book was pretty entertaining.

of the five regency Christmas stories, I personally enjoyed Barbara Metzgers, Edith Laytons, and Nancy Butlers. I thought they were all well written and easy to get into. I didn't finish Andrea Pickens or Gayle Bucks stories. The writting style of those two were just to formal and stilted for my taste. I would still highly recommend this wonderful Christmas romance anthology!
4 stars!

Even more than Valentine's Day, Christmas is a time for love, as celebrated in this collection of holiday stories by the stars of the Regency universe. The initial two stories employ the timeless device of having a child matchmake for two unlikely lovers as well as the concept of bringing together a member of the ton with a lady of the working class. Snow is the key to love in the third offering as two people promised to one another, though they've never met and don't want to marry each other, are trapped together in a snowbound cabin. Then, a bookish young lady finds the countryside holds just as much appeal as a library when she meets a wild Welshman on her trip to a rural area at Christmas time. Finally, a husband and wife move from married strangers to lovers just in time for Christmas. For the most part, classic devices are well used to make pleasant, albeit predictable tales. Not every tale is as sterling as others, but fans of the authors involved or of the genre will be pleased.

Amanda Killgore