Historical romance

Book Review: Miss Amelia’s Mistletoe Marquess by Jenni Fletcher

| Rhoda Baxter
Miss Amelia's Mistletoe Marquess

Amelia/Millie Fairclough walks home in a blizzard and has to take shelter in a gatehouse. Where she encounters Cassius. The episode leaves her reputation tarnished, which is bad. Very bad.

Millie is trying to work out who she is. She has spent all her life working for her parents’ charitable foundation and is having trouble separating who she is from what is expected of her.
Cassius is still grieving for his cousin and his friend (not the same person) and trying to do right by his cousin’s widow whilst staying out of her way. He’s got some PTSD from the war.
They navigate their marriage of convenience with humour and tenderness. I especially liked the conclusion with the kittens. (Yes! There are kittens!)
A fun Christmas read.

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book review: a Christmas gone perfectly wrong by cecelia grant

| Rhoda Baxter

Book ReVIEW: A christmas gone perfectly wrong by cecelia grant

A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong (Blackshear Family, #0.5)

A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong by Cecilia Grant

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I bought this book because about a bazillion people recommended it on Twitter. I don’t often read historicals, but I figured why not?

It’s delightful, it really is. The heroine, Lucy, was home educated, so she’s not well versed in etiquette, which allows her freedom of sorts. Andrew is very buttoned up and a slave to protocol. When their coach crashes and they end up stranded, they have to pretend that they’re married for the sake of propriety.
There’s only one bed and it’s cold… (I didn’t realise this was a super popular trope, but I read two christmas romances with it in this month, so I guess it must be).

Lucy runs rings round poor Andrew and he relaxes so slowly. It’s so much fun.

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Review: The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare

| Rhoda Baxter

The Duchess Deal (Girl Meets Duke, #1)The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Tessa Dare is a new author to me, but a lot of people I respect recommeded her on Twitter, so I thought I’d try one of hers. I loved it.
Ash is scarred and makes wise cracks to hide his pain. He needs a wife to make sure he has an heir, but he’s not expecting any woman to fall for him because he thinks he’s too scarred. His staff are fiercely loyal to him and are doing their best to get their master to fall in love. I kept thinking of Beauty and the Beast – the Disney version.
Emma is proud but pragmatic. She knows that a seamstress and disgraced daughter of a parson isn’t likely to get an offer to marry a Duke, so she takes the opportunity when she’s offered it. She and Ash fall for each other, but take ages to admit it to each other.
I love the sense of humour and the interaction between the two. There were a couple of scenes (especially the one with the cat!) which made me laugh out loud.
I don’t read many historicals, so I have no idea about historical accuracy, but as a rom com, it’s brilliant.

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