carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life.

I thought that this was a decent short story. It didn't knock my socks off but it was entertaining enough. I have been trying to get myself in the mood for Christmas this year by doing a little bit of holiday reading. It was a given that I would need to fit a historical romance into my Christmas reading schedule. I hadn't read anything by Amelia Grey before so this story seemed like the perfect choice.

Everything that happened in this story seemed to happen fast. There was a bit of insta-love but in this case I am going to forgive that....mostly. I think that everything really had to move quickly due to the length of the story. I also tend to forgive insta-love in historical romances a little more quickly than I would in a contemporary romance. The difference is really the changes in how the world works. During this time period, decisions were made quickly and many times without the input of the individuals involved.

I did like the characters. Miss Christmas, Gwen, was fiesty. She doesn't hesitate to protect her younger sister. The Duke, Crispin, isn't the stuffy man that one might think of when they hear he is a Duke. He takes things in stride with a bit of humor. I thought the chemistry between the pair was tame at best. It did seem like they were building a foundation to build upon. The secondary characters, including Gwen's younger sisters, were a lot of fun. The way that the Duke interacted with them really helped establish his character.

The major problem with the story that I had was the one and only sex scene. I am still a little confused about it. It didn't make sense. One minute the Duke and Gwen are taking her sisters on an outing and the next minute a few kisses move quickly to a roll in the hay....or the field to be more precise. I just don't buy it. It felt completely out of her character that she would so easily lose her virginity without a lot of thought. This probably would have been a 4 star read for me without this scene.

I would recommend this to readers looking for a short Christmas story. This was the first chance that I have had to read Amelia Grey's work and I am definitely interested in reading one of her full length books after this story. I liked her overall writing style and I would be very interested in seeing more character development that would be possible in a longer story.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley for the purpose of providing an honest review.

Initial Thoughts
I thought that this was a decent short story. There was a bit of insta-love but with only a few pages there isn't a lot of time to do otherwise. I thought a few things seemed rushed and I would have loved to see the character's emotions instead of being told how they felt. I did enjoy the opening scene in the book quite a lot.