October 15, 2013
Home for the holidays usually meant "off to the country estate" for Regency-era aristocrats, and although one of these novellas takes place mostly aboard ship, all the stories offer a welcome change from the typical London-set tales. A country vicar hires as his schoolmistress an impoverished young lady who is treated as a second-class citizen by her noble relations and finds his soul mate in Rolls's "Christmas Cinderella"; an impulsive, stolen kiss helps a young woman realize which brother she loves in Bronwyn Scott's tenderly romantic "Finding Forever at Christmas": and a young widow sailing home to England at Yuletide saves a mysterious Scotsman from drowning and is swept up in a treacherous plot in Margaret McPhee's witty and engaging "The Captain's Christmas Angel." VERDICT This spirited trio of Regency novellas are recommended for all those Regency collections that quite likely need refreshing; not a loser in the bunch.
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