Frost Fair Fiance

This is an excellent book and one of the most enjoyable Regency Romances I have recently read. I laughed aloud several times. I can only recommend it! If you can, you should try reading it while there is a snowstorm outside, if none is available, any cold weather will do.The novel is quite unique in that it is set during the Twelve Days of Christmas and a few weeks after that, but there is no single description of Christmas decorations. In addition, the family assembled for the holidays is both very charming and more realistically depicted than usual for this genre: Everybody tries for their best, but there are squabbles, and the children are naughty and develop colds, and their parents try to catch a few minutes of peace and quiet. As far as the characters are concerned, both Monty and Walter are among the more delightful Regency young men I have come across. The heroine, Elise, is convincingly depicted as a young girl who must come to make her own decisions, and her sister Olivia is a delightful, believable teenager.I would like to repeat the warning made by another reviewer below: If you can, avoid reading the plot synopsis at the back of the book. It gives away too much information and is partly misleading.

Elise, being a sensible young woman, agrees to marry her very proper next door neighbor to put her seriously ill papa at ease. She does not love him, but he is a good man and the match pleases her father, who has been worried about what would become of his two daughters if he should die. When everything is settled, Elise's father sends her and her younger sister, Olivia, to London to buy wedding clothes for Elise and to visit their aunt and cousins. Elise finds herself dazzled by a dashing young London gentlemen and, fancying herself in love with him, she writes to her father and fiance and calls off her engagement. But then Elise's suitor turns out to be not what he seems and Elise finds her heart leading her in an unexpected direction. Very unique book. Sequel to An Icy Affair.

Here's what I hope will be two helpful hints that might increase your reading pleasure: 1) don't read the plot synopsis at the back of the book as it gives far too much of the plot away; and 2) don't expect to read the everyday Regency-era romance novel either because "Frost Fair Fiance" reads more like Fanny Burney's "Evelina" in that it is an accounting of a young lady's sojourn in London and how her stay changes and affects her future.Miss Elsie MacGregor has agreed to marry her neighbour, Robert Westbrook. So what if he's a little older and a rather dour individual? At least her future is assured and she's managed to please her father. In fact her father is so happy about the match that he's decided that Elsie (and her younger sister, Olivia) should go to London so that Elsie can purchase her bridal clothes. The sisters will stay with their paternal aunt, Mrs. Ravinia Longfellow and her family. With their aunt as chaperon, the MacGregor sisters soon begin to enjoy dizzy round of shopping, balls and entertainments. And it doesn't take Elsie too long to realise that she may have been a little too hasty about her decision to marry a man she doesn't love and who she knows does not love her. Especially when the delightful Mr. James Gray is at hand to pay her handsome compliments. Has she fallen for the debanoir and polished James Gray? Why then does the irritating Walter Belvedere so fill her thoughts then?"Frost Fair Fiance" is a follow-up to "An Icy Affair" and was a rather pleasant read. I thought that Mona Gedney did a really good job showing us how Elsie comes to waiver in her decision to marry Robert Westbrook, and in developing Elsie's character as well. However I did have two little 'niggles' about the book -- 1) I felt somewhat at sea because the authour doesn't really explain why an attractive, intelligent and well to do young lady would decide to marry her neighbour without even considering a London Season. Perhaps this was explained in "An Icy Affair." But because I haven't read that book yet, Elsie's motivations left me feeling quite bewildered! And 2) I thought that the romance that developed between Elsie and the hero was rather hastily done. Suddenly it was there, and everything then proceeded to gallop towards the happily-ever-after ending at a really fast pace. Other than these two issues, I thought that "Frost Fair Fiance" was a rather good read, and one worth recommending for it's a-little-out-of-the-ordinary quality.