An emotionally satisfying holiday romance full of love and redemption.
A stagecoach crash forces a woman to seek shelter with her brother’s friend at Christmas.
Caroline Anderson is a master beer maker traveling home after an unsuccessful attempt to sell barrels of her most popular ale, Widow’s Brew, to a London tavern. Caroline is 30 and has been living in Little Puddleton at the Benevolent Home for the Maintenance and Support of Spinsters, Widows, and Abandoned Women and their Unfortunate Children ever since a disastrous stint as a nursemaid at 17. After the stagecoach crashes, Caro and the other passengers—a woman and her children, a married couple, a pair of young bucks, a reverend, and a lecherous single man—seek refuge at a country house that turns out to belong to her brother’s childhood friend Nicholas St. John, Lord Oakland. Nick and his own group of motley friends are planning to spend the holidays in a drunken, debauched orgy. The disparate group are unlikely Christmas companions, but MacKenzie’s (What Ales the Earl, 2018, etc.) character work is impeccable, and the results make for a sweet, charming holiday fable. As in all snowbound romances, the real action is internal and about personal growth. Caro’s experiences and those of her friends at the Home have taught her to be wary and fearful of men; meanwhile Nick grapples with his own painful memories of the cruel uncle who raised him after his parents’ deaths. Being in close proximity forces Nick and Caro to each face their fears. They gradually learn to trust each other, first as friends and then as lovers. Although there are no actual ghosts, the echoes of A Christmas Carol are clear: Only by reckoning with the past and present can Caro and Nick have a future together.
An emotionally satisfying holiday romance full of love and redemption.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4201-4672-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Zebra/Kensington
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
McFarlane has created a very funny, very romantic story with deep emotional impact.
A jilted British attorney gets more than she bargained for when she agrees to a fauxmance with the office playboy.
Laurie Watkinson has a corporate law job she loves, dear friends, and Dan, her dependable live-in boyfriend who works in the same firm. When Dan sits her down one evening, Laurie expects anything but to hear him say he's moving out; and then to hear soon after that he has a new girlfriend. Hoping for a bit of revenge, newly single Laurie agrees to pose as “Phony Goddess” to “Greek God” Jamie Carter, her new colleague and a known “soulless womanizer.” Jamie is gorgeous and charming but needs to appear settled to secure a promotion, and he thinks earning the affection of Laurie, the firm’s “golden girl,” is the surest route. Jamie and Laurie are attracted to one another, make each other laugh, and, they learn, have childhood trauma in common. Jamie is a classic playboy felled by love who’s written endearingly and convincingly: “I scoffed at the idea anyone could make you see your life through new eyes and I’m so, so glad to be wrong.” Laurie’s intelligence and acerbic wit—especially as they relate to navigating English society as a woman of color—are strengths that can obscure uncomfortable feelings. Thanks to a selfish, absentee father, an unconventional mother, and, she now realizes, a partner who never encouraged her to grow as a person, Laurie puts her own desires last. Giving the novel an expanded palette beyond the romance, Laurie’s friendship with Jamie is just one of several changes in behavior and attitude that help her to regain a sense of her own agency and importance. McFarlane’s gift is writing romantic comedy that depicts a recognizable world—in this case, the culturally diverse world of young professionals in Manchester, England—without dimming the luster of shining moments of humor, love, and connection.
McFarlane has created a very funny, very romantic story with deep emotional impact.Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-295850-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
A solid Regency romance and promising start to a new series.
A runaway bride meets a runaway lord.
Winnifred Humphries can’t bring herself to marry the awful man her father has selected for her, so she leaves him at the altar and climbs into a carriage with a man she believes to be her friend Jane’s cousin. But, as Winn discovers too late, he’s not Jane’s cousin; he’s actually Lord Asher Holt, whom her friends accidentally kidnapped and robbed in the name of research the week before. Asher just wants his money back so he can finally get away from his greedy father, but the situation spirals, and both of them need to leave London as quickly as possible. Though they expect to be parted after just a few days, when they reach Winn’s aunt’s house, the intimacy of their travel ignites a fierce chemistry, and it’s strong enough that they are easily able to pose as a married couple. After they finally admit that they don’t want to be parted, a series of misunderstandings and maliciousness on Asher’s father’s part threaten to part them permanently—unless Asher can get one more chance to talk to Winn. The first book in Lorret’s The Mating Habits of Scoundrels trilogy is convoluted at times, but readers will be pleased to see that Asher is less of a scoundrel than he initially appears. Given that Winn and her friends are ostensibly writing a book about scoundrels—hence the accidental kidnapping—this is unfortunate for their purposes, but that’s a fairly minor subplot anyway. A more charming subplot, a possible second-chance romance between Winn’s parents, adds a pleasing depth to the story, reminiscent of Eloisa James. Readers will also be grateful for the constant rain showers of England, which create several steamy opportunities for Winn and Asher to get out of their clothing to dry off and get close to stay warm. Though there aren’t many surprises in the story, Lorret (The Rogue To Ruin, 2019, etc.) does execute a historical romance well, and readers will look forward to learning more about Winn’s friends Jane and Ellie in future installments.
A solid Regency romance and promising start to a new series.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-297659-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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