Customer Reviews

A Winter Wedding

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Winter holds special delights for lords and ladies. Laughter rings like sleighbells in the snow, and a courtship by candlelight can melt the coldest heart. And what follows the wooing? The wedding, of course!

In "The Fairy Tale Wedding" by Janice Bennett, a young bride's animated, on-the-shelf cousin is charged with bringing off the most gala wedding of the season. Until the groom's rich cousin arrives and turns a spinster's world upside-down.

FAIRY-TALE WEDDING was a delight. While the "bride" was spoiled, her antics were amusing and reflect norms for the period. The heroine's own behavior, in contrast, was endearing and charming. I also enjoyed the nuance of the scenes between the hero and heroine showing their growing feelnigs.

A MATCH FOR THE SEASON was a good story about unexpectedly finding love. The heroine initially was prepared for a marriage of convenience - only to be derailed when she falls in love with her almost fiance's cousin. Often the fiance would become the villian in this scenario, but the solution is far more entertaining that that.

THREE NIGHTS AT A COUNTRY INN was the weakest of the lot, but still enjoyable. When meddling relatives attempt to arrange a marriage for a strong willed couple that has never met, a farce of high comedic proportions quickly ensues.

From the back cover:

From cozy inns to sparkling London, snowflakes, and love, are in the air...

Winter holds special delights for lords and ladies. Laughter rings like sleighbells in the snow, and a courtship by candlelight can melt the coldest heart. And what follows the wooing? The wedding, of course!

In "The Fairy Tale Wedding" by Janice Bennett, a young bride's animated, on-the-shelf cousin is charged with bringing off the most gala wedding of the season. Until the groom's rich cousin arrives and turns a spinster's world upside-down.

The heroine of Carola Dunn's "A Match for the Season" has snared a Duke, but she hasn't lost her heart...until she meets the Duke's cousin. Now she's in a dilemma--how to wed the right gentleman without setting off a scandal.

A merry meeting sets a lively pace in Monique Ellis' "Three Nights at a Country Inn", where a snowstorm strands an independent miss, a stage-coach filled with children...and the rakish suitor she has refused to wed.

Here is an invitation to enjoy three tales of love st in a time when manners were courtly, romance was a luscious as ermine and lace, and schemes were hatched to bring about a winter wedding.

And my review:

I adore the Regency period, so usually read just about every romance set in the time period. Unfortunately, this collection was a bit of a disappointment. The biggest problem is that there are three novella-length stories crammed into 250 pages, and they suffer from the lack of space.

FAIRY-TALE WEDDING was okay, but the bride's extremely self-centered and childish behavior really spoiled the story for me. She was such a brat! I know that she wasn't the heroine, but she really grated on my nerves and made it hard to enjoy the rest of the story. Especially when no one did anything about it. I felt that more of the story was devoted to the bride's bad behavior than to the budding romance between hero and heroine. Two stars.

A MATCH FOR THE SEASON showed a lot of promise, but really suffered from the page restriction. The falling-in-love part was very rushed. The hero and heroine barely say two words to each other and BAM! they're in love. The characters were very briefly sketched, so I never really felt like I got to know them very well. I felt that this would have been a far better story if the author had been given more room to work, as the rest of it flowed pretty well. Three stars.

THREE NIGHTS AT A COUNTRY INN was a story that I never got into. It had a very choppy feel to it. The writing style was all over the place. I was never able to get absorbed into the story, because I had a hard time figuring out what was going on. It was just too much work, and I read romance for fun. Two stars.

I've read better Regencies. As with most anthologies, the stories suffer because they're just too short for any real character development or relationship growth. Not highly recommended. Try a full-length Regency instead.