Customer Reviews

Under The Kissing Bough (Zebra Regency Romance)

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I was really drawn in by the premise here, and I thought the first paragraph was really fantastic - the heroine, Eleanor, glimpses the man her parents have decided she will marry from across a drawing room and he's so devastatingly handsome that she - a mere wallflower - decides she cannot marry him, because she could never make him happy. But she doesn't want to disappoint her parents, so she can't refuse him either. She does make a daring demand: she'll write down something she wants on a blank card, and whatever she writes he must provide. If he can't, there will be no marriage. Her new fiancee, Geoffrey, agrees to her caveat and the engagement is settled.

Pretty neat, right? But the rest of the book is dull as dirt. They go to some parties, they go shopping, and because they're well-mannered people with no strong urge to do otherwise, they follow all the rules. So they rarely get to talk alone, and when they're in groups Eleanor is always silent. So even when they're together they don't interact very much, and we get a lot of filler instead of actual interplay between the hero and heroine: details about furniture or clothing or interruption from the huge ensemble cast of brothers, sisters, and parents.

What's worse, when they do interact, Geoffrey is pretty rude to Eleanor. At the beginning, it's because he's self-absorbed and angry. He doesn't really want to get married, but his father's going to die and seeing at least one of his sons wed is, apparently, his dying wish. Geoffrey is still in love with another woman who spurned his advances, so he just picks Eleanor at random from a family his father approves of and warns her straight off that their arranged marriage will be businesslike, without love or even affection. He thinks about how mean he'll be to her, and how miserable he'll make her, and decides that being a countess is probably adequate recompense for all the suffering he'll cause.

As he starts to like her, Geoffrey's behavior becomes downright bizarre. I mean, a wounded, selfish aristocrat is a believable character. But as Geoff starts to feel concern for Eleanor he shows it by...neglecting basic courtesies, avoiding her in social settings and causing her public humiliation (when she's already profoundly nervous about the disapproval of her peers), and a whole host of other nasty, hurtful things. But Geoff doesn't seem to realize that he's being nasty or hurtful, which is hard to believe because he's a smart guy who masters most other social situations.

All of this adds up to a love connection that I didn't believe in. The hero and heroine hardly see one another, and when they do their interactions are strained and usually end badly. I saw flashes of potential here and there, but for every single moment of simple decency there were several awkward, painful ones. This isn't love/hate, or witty bantering, or a battle of wills. It's just a couple of miserable people stuck in a miserable situation, who hardly have the will to make the best of things. The turnaround, when it comes, is too little, too late - about ten pages from the end of the book. By that time, I'd already given up.

Predictable in many ways as Regency novels are, I still found the main characters compelling. Both try to fight their growing attraction for each other. Although not really spending much time together, the little things they find out make them fall in love. Throw in a little unrequited love, growing passion & some jealousy and I felt the tale was splendid! What is Eleanor going to request of Geoffrey? How can this work out? I had to finish it to find out the answers. I hope Shannon Donnelly will continue with novels about the remaining siblings!

I did manage to finish this but only just - as a lover of regency Christmas stories, I always am willing to give them a chance. Sadly, this one did not live up to expectations. It was not so much that the story was inadequate as that the writer seemed to be trying too hard to make us engage with her characters. Sorry to say that Geoffrey (one of my least favourite male forenames!) was boring, did not spark any attraction to me as the reader and Eleanor and her band of E-sisters (wasn't that cute - all the females in her family had a forename starting with E - yuck!) were too 21st century in their actions and thus annoying in the extreme. I always think it curious how American writers of English-set Christmas regencies over-do it on the Christmas traditions, particularly the mistletoe or kissing bough - and there's always lots of snow! A white Chrismas here in England is pretty rare so it's kind of amusing to read these stories set in such idealised settings.

Getting back to the story, I felt that a man like Geoffrey who allowed himself to believe he is some sort of ogre because a passionless woman shrank from a kiss was a bit juvenile. And why did we not get an explanation as to why the regrettable Cynthia married such a jerk as the totally incomprehensible rector?

Oh well, another contribution for the charity shop.

Geoffrey Westerby, Lord Staines, needs to get married as soon as possible: his father is dying and the old man's sole wish is to see his eldest son safely settled before he dies. And while Geoffrey is determined to set his father's mind at ease by presenting him with a daughter-in-law, finding a sensible woman who will make a good countess, and be willing to settle for a marriage based on respect and some affection but not love, is not that easy at all. Having been rejected by the woman that he loves, Geoffrey has decided to turn his back on the notion of a marriage based on love, and has decided to settle for a comfortable one instead. And so, he decides to ask for the hand in marriage of Eleanor Glover, the daughter of one of his father's friends. And when he sees the shy and demure and rather plain Eleanor, Geoffrey congratulates himself that he has settled on exactly the 'right' kind of wife.

Eleanor however, is not the person that Geoffrey thinks she is -- yes, she is shy and demure, but alas, she is not a very sensible woman, for kind hearted Eleanor has fallen in love with the very handsome but sad Geoffrey Westerly. Deciding to hide her love for Geoffrey, Eleanor agrees to marry him, hoping that her love will be enough for the both of them. However that is before she realises that Geoffrey is actually suffering from a broken heart. And then Geoffrey's father decides that Eleanor will not make Geoffrey a good enough wife, and decides to interfere. With such overwhelming odds against her, will shy, plain and kind hearted Eleanor be able to hold out and make this marriage work? Or will an interfering old man prove too much for her? In the meantime, Geoffrey is beginning to realise that his wife-to-be is not the colourless woman he thought she was. He begins to first appreciate her kindness; this slowly develops into a need to protect and cherish her. Could Eleanor be the cure for his shattered heart?

"Under the Kissing Bough" is a wonderfully warm and tender love story about how a plain and shy young lady is able to capture the affections of her husband-to-be because of her kind and loving heart. It made for wonderful reading to see Geoffrey slowly realise what a gem Eleanor truly was, and how lucky he was to have found her. And it was satisfying to see Eleanor (finally) win Geoffrey's love and esteem. Both characters are well portrayed; and I liked the pace at which Shannon Donnelly allowed for the romance to develop between them. The different obstacles she threw at the couple (Geoffrey's infatuation with another woman, interfering relatives, Eleanor's unconventionality, etc) added zest to this otherwise run-of-the-mill plot, and made this a much more exciting and compelling romance novel. "Under the Kissing Bough" was a really first-class Regency romance, and just the thing for a recommended holiday read!

I really do not like these sort of regency books, the gorgeous rake and the plain, shy almost spinster. Ms. Donelly write the romance of staggeringly handsome Geoffrey, Lord Staines, a future Earl, and plain, shy but oh so sweet Eleanor Glover. She is one of 4 sisters and of course, they are all most attractive than she is. Lord Stains had his heart broken by a blond beauty. His father wants him to marry before he dies (claims he is dying) and must marry at Christmas. Geoff agrees and decided upon sensible, plain Eleanor. He figures she won't demand love. A sensible woman for a sensible, arranged marriage. Only Eleanor falls in love with him. Ah, why? And why would he fall in love with her? Does anyone else notice how many regencies are about homely, nice women who end up with the gorgeous hunk? Again, this is the same tried and somewhat boring story. Eleanor can barely look into his face and hold a conversation and he falls in love with her? Suddenly she becomes beautiful? Yes, he does come upon her telling children a story and she shines. Please....Geoff was in love with another woman. I don't have a hard time beleiving he would fall in love with Eleanor because the story gave no indication them getting the chance to get to know each other. There is no witty dialogue between them, no sparing, not shared interests. His brothers are trying to keep them apart, to spend as little time before the marriage as possible. The story just does not work for me. Also, why is it in regency romances that the plain spinsters recognize lust and acknowledge it while the beauties don't even know the parts of a man or how children are conceived? Boring story.