REVIEW: Holiday Duet: Two Previously Published Regency Novellas by Grace Burrowes
Dear Ms. Burrowes,
After I reviewed “Worth More Than Rubies” last year, several readers urged me to check out your other books. Hearing that Max Haddonfield is a lover of cats, I searched until I found his story which is now being sold along with another previous published novella. Now that it’s time to swing into holiday themed stories, I pulled it out.
Kisses and Catnip (from Love and Other Perils)
Max Haddonfield is a man of science with a soft spot for stray cats. When he donates one of his foundlings to a library to protect the books from hungry mice, he never dreams that Lady Antonia Mainwaring will reward his generosity by stealing his heart!
I loved the opening scene for this one. Lady Antonia, who is an Earl’s daughter with her own fortune, is startled when it appears that a cat is accusingly saying that the library in which she volunteers has mice. No, it isn’t the talk talking but rather a tall man bending down who offers the library the services of a cat. Max even takes Antonia to where he’s found evidence of mice and warns of the cost to the books should the rodents stay.
Soon Lucifer (whom two little old lady patrons begin calling Lucky, instead) is making himself at home and fattening up. Max is a bit sneaky and tries to find homes for his homeless cats before they are too fattened up by himself and the street urchin Max has helping him. Dagger is forlorn as each cat leaves for a home but it will take Max a while to truly figure out why.
Max and Antonia are of the ton but not really a part of it. Both are outcasts of sorts. Antonia is nice looking but not pretty, tall enough to notice that the few men who ask her to dance stare at her endowments and are probably most interested in her money. She loves books, has a loyal household staff, and turned down an offer from an Earl (who is actually a good chap) because she doesn’t want a loveless marriage though she realizes, as she stares down spinsterdom, that maybe she doesn’t want that either.
Max is a fourth son, rather intelligent, but not rich by any means. He also talks to his cats. Due to his family, some women are willing to search him out as marriage material but his sisters have given him hints as to how to avoid being trapped as well as the tips they know for dealing with overbearing men which Max used on his own boisterous brothers. Max also offers this info to Antonia and is impressed with her immediate grasp of the finger trick.
Little does Max know that Antonia’s main problem is a cousin – of sorts – who is pressing her to marry him. Little does Antonia know that Max is being pressed to marry a rich heiress in trouble. They both don’t realize that their problems have something in common.
Yay, for Max who is trying to scientifically discover a way to help those who toil in kitchens baking things and who rescues cats. Yay for Antonia who loves books and worries about the sisters of the man trying to foist himself on her. She also thoroughly enjoys an afternoon spent on a library couch with Max. Usually I dislike historical women who decide to have one night of passion on the spur of the moment but Antonia has thought about this for a while and knows what she wants to experience.
There is a bit of miscommunication that muddles things enough to cause, not quite a third act breakup, but rather a misunderstanding. I worry a little about one woman who seems happy to stick herself with a rotter but she knows what she’s getting. I also wonder if Max and Antonia’s marriage could have taken place in the library but honestly don’t care as the cats are there, too. B+
Lady Mistletoe’s Holiday Helper (from Yuletide Wishes)
Lord Marcus Bannerfield is former military and all business. He has no patience with frivolity, but when he becomes guardian to two orphaned nieces, even he knows somebody had better decorate his household for the yuletide holidays. Lady Margaret Entwhistle’s business offers that exact service, but she doesn’t expect his lordship to pay for her efforts with kisses!
Sigh, poor Lady Margaret Entwhistle has been let down by almost every man in her life from her stiff-rumped brother (and his prig of a wife) who introduced her to the handsome cad who cajoled Meg to anticipate their vows then left for the Army so that their daughter was born a bastard, to her father (the Earl!) who – fearful that the cad wouldn’t marry his daughter – didn’t do his duty about seeing to her marriage portion, and then her father-in-law who isn’t present at all – but does send a Christmas pudding.
Now reduced to earning a living rather than have her daughter thrashed in the nursery at her brother’s country estate while sister-in-law mouths religious platitudes, Lady Meg runs a business providing exquisite home fashion decorating. Today she’d be running an empire on HGTV but then she delivers what she promises with the help of homeless urchins.
Lord Marcus Bannerfield has to have his London home damn decked out before his orphaned nieces arrive and Lady Meg seems the woman to do the job. Contract presented and signed by both, Meg and her daughter end up stranded there by the snow. Knowing each other for (maybe) two days, they’re soon exchanging confidences that I wouldn’t do today on that short a time frame. Then more snow strands Meg, daughter Charlotte, the urchins, Aunt Penny (who is a delight) who Marcus has fetched in order to see to the proprieties, along with the nieces who arrive early and with soused governesses who then decamp. Oh, and Marcus’ married sister wants him to play (and pay) host for her open house so she can pick him a bride after her rumors about Lady Meg’s prices implode that woman’s business.
Honestly, the longer this novella went on, the less I believed it or liked some of the people in it. Did Regency England believe in Father Christmas, elves, the North Pole in relation to Christmas, and have tabletop trees? I wouldn’t have been surprised to have Lady Meg looking for an outdoor electrical outlet to plug in the electric light display. I was surprised that Lady Meg was eager to enjoy some afternoon delight with Marcus in his office. Now I don’t blame a woman for enjoying herself but Meg already tried that and got burned so indulging with a man who is not even your fiancé seems a tad risky.
The end is somewhat redeemed by Marcus’ father, by Marcus jerking a knot in a few people who desperately needed it, by joyous Charlotte, Aunt Penny (still a delight) and a proposal scene that is straight out of a rom-com movie script. Put aside most all expectations for authenticity and just go with this one. B-/C+
~Jayne
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