Regency Christmas Courtship

I enjoyed all of the stories - except one, which I didn't even read. Edith Layton's story "The Dogstar" is the second of a series of stories about some very special puppies. The first was published several years ago in another Christmas Regency collection under the title "The Hounds of Heaven". The other four stories were good reads. Yes, the story about the Russian woman was a bit contrived, but it was fun!

This is the 17th such present we've been given by Signet-we can but hope it won't be the last one, now they've given up on monthly releases of the greatly appreciated Regency Romance novels. It's better than some in the series have been, but perhaps not up to the very high standards set by the early editions. As always, Barbara Metzger combines mischief with mistletoe and merriment to weave a tale of love unexpected. A companion who suddenly finds herself as substitute mother for her two nieces gets all tangled up with the Viscount who lives next door. If he'd stayed in the country, he'd have missed out on the wonderful opportunity contrived by the two youngsters in "Wooing the Wolf". Edith Layton spins her magic in "The Dogstar" when the love of a young boy for a dog captures a young couple in the resulting web. A governess and a viscount have difficulty in believing their eyes as the boy and the dog demonstrate the real meaning of Christmas. Coincidence can happen, as aptly demonstrated by Andrea Pickens in "Lost and Found" when two travelers become lost in a snowstorm. Anna and Nicholas are dutifully heading for London-separately-when they're compelled to join forces in order to survive. Little did they guess that duty can sometimes be a pleasurable thing! Nancy Butler always manages to pull a fast one on her characters and her readers. Thank goodness for this cleverness! "Christmas with Dora Davenport" proves that one can make a silk purse from a sow's ear, if one only has the right sow in the first place! Dora, who is really Elnora, really needs to find a husband who can support her, and who would like to live in London. Instead, she finds Gowan, a Welshman, who on the surface doesn't seem to be what she's looking for. But underneath? Well - "Christmas Cheer" by Gayle Buck is probably more accurate than we think in these days of casual informality. Considering how little time a couple spent in each other's company before they were married, even a six-month wedding trip may not reveal a couple's personalities all that well. One such young bride-Gwen-learns that happiness may be found in the most unlikely places, when uncovered by her new husband, Lord Hallcroft. This yearly collection has always been my present to myself-not to be opened and read until the last days before the Holiday. It never fails to fill me with Christmas cheer!

of the five regency Christmas stories, I personally enjoyed Barbara Metzgers, Edith Laytons, and Nancy Butlers. I thought they were all well written and easy to get into. I didn't finish Andrea Pickens or Gayle Bucks stories. The writting style of those two were just to formal and stilted for my taste. I would still highly recommend this wonderful Christmas romance anthology! 4 stars!

I've been disappointed with the last couple of Signet Christmas Regency Anthologies but this year's offering was more in keeping with past standards. Barbara Metzger led the way. A young, impoverished woman, Margaret Todd, works as a companion to a selfish elderly lady. As Christmas approaches she endeavours to shelter her two orphaned nieces in the empty house of Viscount Wolfram next door. The two nieces, believing that their aunt and the viscount would make an ideal pair of new parents, consult George E Phelber's "A Gentleman's Guide to Courtship" for guidance on how to get them together. If I've not missed the joke, George Felber is Edith Layton's husband!! In Edith Layton's story, a magical puppy becomes the means of bringing together an impoverished governess and an haughty viscount. When the seven year old Marquess of Grenville comes to London to spend his holiday with the governess, the stray puppy he has acquired gradually becomes the deus ex machina in a gradually unfolding love match. Andrea Picken's offering was my least favourite in this collection. She writes of a diplomat and a Russian heiress trapped in the snow in a road/cabin romance. Although others had sought to make a match between them, they were unaware of the identities of their intended one so blissfully fall in love. I found, however, I could not warm to the story or the characters and the whole thing was a little boring. I struggled to keep my mind on it. Nancy Butler's contribution was the story of a bluestocking who has lived in London for some time. Finding it necessary to spend some time in the country, she meets up with a somewhat rough and ready Welshman and falls in love with him. Unfortunately, this story was also a bit contrived and I could not garner too much interest in the characters or their predicament. The final offering was from Gayle Buck. I admit that despite reading widely in the Regency genre, I've never read anything by this author. I was very pleasantly surprised. Her story is about the marriage of two young people who don't really know each other very well and have, as a result, kept each other at arm's length in the formal way common at the time. This is a very well done picture of two people shedding inhibitions and confronting their feelings for each other in a very realistic and touching way. I thought this was better than the Layton or Metzger stories - something that surprised me enormously. I shall be looking out for more works by Gayle Buck. All in all, this is a good read and I can recommend it.