Sweet Regencies





Reviewed by Charlotte



The book’s premise-

After a disappointing season in London, Sophie Davenport returns home without a marriage proposal. No sooner does she settle back into her country life than she learns her uncle has arranged for her to marry the local vicar’s son, a respectable and utterly forgettable man. He’s returning home immediately after the Christmas holiday and they will wed. She sets about making this last Christmas with just she and her mother memorable.

Jeremy Wyatt hatches a plan to help his friend Thomas and his love, Emma, escape to Gretna Green and marry before her father comes after them. What he’s really doing is avoiding heading to his parents’ home, where he is the son who is always making the wrong choices. But their carriage becomes hopelessly mired in the mud from the incessant rains so Jeremy sets off to find shelter for them at the first house he comes to.

Sophie welcomes the wet and weary travelers, and her mother agrees to house them temporarily until they can free the carriage. Sophie forms a bond not only with Emma, but with Jeremy. However despite the sparks they ignite in each other, they have to maintain their separate paths.

But love and mistletoe have a way of upsetting even the best-laid plans.

*****


My Review-

It was interesting to learn from Ms Lower’s profile at Amazon she has written a series of novels with American settings and themes, and how Regency Yuletide is her first English Regency romance. 

What I liked best about this sweet novella was the way the author threw London’s seasoned soirĂ©es out of the carriage window. Instead a bleak Cumbrian landscape is where the heroine’s story opens the door on her life. It was a nice change to meet a heroine who cringed in expectation of a forced second season of attendance at soirees in the City of London. And thank goodness Ms Lower avoided a popular and ludicrous plot of young suitors on wild chargers in Hyde Park in pursuit of rebellious heroines. Wise move Ms Lower to steer away from that old trope, and her version of an elopement plot has a refreshing twist to it as well. Poor Sophie is a country girl at heart, and destined as wife to the local vicar’s son. I say poor Sophie because I was rooting for excitement to explode into her life. And Sophie’s dismal prospects then turn for the better when a young man rocks up on her doorstep asking for help. Enter the hero Jeremy who has two companions stranded in a coach and its bogged down in mud and snow. Better still it’s Christmas and with a runaway couple heading for Gretna Green a cottage in the middle of nowhere is suddenly a godsend. And within a short while and seasonal charity Sophie’s little haven of tranquillity becomes a hotbed of lusty dreams, joyous cheer, and budding romance. Oh what a lovely time is had by all. But all good things must come to an end and it does. Poor Sophie is left pondering what if? And after a little heartache and soul searching that what if comes full circle and Sophie has her happy ending. I did like this story very much. It’s simple. It’s sweet. It’s a charming yuletide tale. Well done Ms Lower. Cumbria is a bleak place.










Reviewed by Fran.


It’s 1818 post-Waterloo, and Ivonne Wimpleton is not in the least enamoured by a would-be suitor, thus the scene is set for conflict, and dreadful anguish for her part. Whilst living in fear compromise against her will seems inevitable, Ivonne despairs her fate, despairs the logic of her parents and others for inviting a specific dastardly fellow to social gatherings. Likewise others feel obliged to attend, and amidst their number is one, such as she, who cannot bear his heart on his sleeve as he might have if circumstances were different. With the fates seemingly stacked against both, can one moment of honest confession aide each other in finding the happiness they wish could be theirs? And of course, the path to true love is often plagued with inner walls to scale and burning hoops to leap through, and no guarantee of success even when Lady Fate smiles and bestows the wherewithal to set things right for a loved one. This is a delightful sweet tale of romance in the face of all the odds of Sod’s Law stacked against a happy outcome.

Amazon





Reviewed by Francine.

This is a decidedly sweet Regency romance novella set post-Waterloo, in which the hero, Joscelin Lord Areley, is every bit a gallant man of honour, though falls somewhat confused when he unexpectedly encounters the widow of a fellow officer trudging a byway late one winter’s eve. The attractive waif like Eloise is a victim of the sad circumstance of war, her condition not the best of situations for a widow of no means. Whilst hope lingers in belief she has entitlement to part if not all her late husband’s estate and effects, her ultimate destination is the home of her husband’s brother, a duke, thus the scene is set for rejection, heartache, and dreadful humiliation. Of a kindly bent, Lord Areley provides assistance for Eloise as would her husband had roles been reversed, and had Areley acquired a wife and she likewise fallen to bad times.

But the charming nuance to this tale is the aged retired nursemaid to Lord Arely and Eloise’s late husband. But nothing is ever quite what it seems within romance stories, and a “Carpet of Snowdrops” is no different when the heroine recalls aspects from her past, in which compromise and companionship played a part in her present plight. Indeed, this is a rather charming sweet Regency read!