The Mistletoe Countess
Book 1 of 3: Freddie and Grace Mysteries
by Pepper Basham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I liked it so much, but it's a little bit difficult to tag this book:
it begins in the typical way of a
#regency-romance, even if as you read it you realize that we are at the end of the nineteenth century, i. e. the Gilded Age (car, telephone and electric light not yet installed in all parts of the house), it continues as a
#cozy-mystery, then it goes on like a daring
#Dysney-adventure-film (or something like Indiana Jones movies, i.e. where funny jokes are inserted between scenes of action and real dramatic danger), to then end as a episode of
#DowntonAbbey.
There are some aspects that didn't fully satisfy me because they were exaggerated in one way or another (I'll explain better later),
but overall I liked it, it involved me and even if initially I couldn't get in tune with the characters as I read along, I became fond of them.
More I liked very much the literary references, there are many !
____ THE PLOT____
Grace, a girl whose great passion is fiction books, goes with her father and sister to meet the latter's future husband.
It is an arranged marriage as it occurred during the Gilded Age: an American heiress marries a penniless nobleman, one party brings a dowry and the other brings a coveted noble title.
As often happens in romances, the youngest sister, with an extravagant character and a manner contrary to all etiquette, accidentally meets Frederick, her future brother-in-law and is already making him laugh inwardly at her particular way of being.
An accidental kiss and they already like each other even if they don't immediately understand it, furthermore the sister, perfect only in appearance, hides secrets that will change the course of events.
The book slowly turns into a cozy mystery thanks to other secrets of him and his family, kept well hidden to avoid scandals... there is no real detective investigation, but the curiosity of a young girl with a fervent imagination , will lead to a reality that is darker than imaginable.
However, this is
a book about a second chance and a bright new beginning, so a happy ending is guaranteed.
____ MY IMPRESSION__ Although this mix of genres may seem confusing, the author was able to transition from one genre to the other without trauma.
Usually elements of a mystery-romance are well mixed together, here I had the impression not exactly of having a mix, but of moving from one theme to another, without however having a clear separation between one and the other, but introducing the new aspects of the novel in a gentle and gradual way.
The romantic aspect remains throughout the book, but as situations evolve it is normal for different phases to go through and therefore the characters' approach to events also changes.
What the author failed to be truly coherent in, in my opinion, is the
WAY OF BEING of the 2 MAIN CHARACTERS:
1) GRACE, the heroine of the novel is initially presented with speeches and gestures that make her seem like a fourteen year old.
She is naive, has no experience and lives in a world of her own, populated by characters from fiction that she reads with great voracity and passion.
It turns out that she is 19 years old, but despite the inexperience and bigotry of those times, she is not at all embarrassed after a very intense surprise kiss... she seems like an extremely casual woman even in situations that would be embarrassing for other more adults, so It's a bit of a contradiction.
After having shown this modern attitude, when she finds herself married, she doesn't have the slightest idea of what happens between a man and a woman when they sleep together... here the author once again uses exaggerated naivety, the girl sleeps for several nights together with her husband without consummating the marriage and without knowing that there is more to it than kisses!
However, in dangerous situations, without having any life experience, she is never intimidated, she acts and thinks like a detective thanks to the fiction she reads and carries out various rescues with action scenes worthy of Indiana Jones... So the readings taught her how to cope in extreme cases of danger, but they didn't tell her that sex exists in addition to kisses? Meh! Too many contradictions.
Yet despite this I liked the character, both for his good heart and for his resourcefulness in making decisions and reacting to events and people.
2) As for FREDERICK, I'll be more brief, he could have been a nice, fascinating character, but he has no backbone, too often the author makes him reticent in listening to the truth or wanting to discover it.
Too often the author makes him a stubborn person who prefers to hide his head in the sand like ostriches so as not to want to look closely at the real problem...he prefers to pretend that everything is normal and there are no anomalies, which are evident to Grace and others .
I like a heroine who is enterprising and who knows how to save herself... but sometimes it is necessary that even the hero of the moment acts without thinking twice and runs to the rescue of his beloved.
I would have liked Fredrick, despite his internal wounds, to find a way at least halfway through the book to take charge of the situation, but instead everything is always driven by Grace.
I forgive Frederick only because at least he always knew how to defend his wife against the oppression and insults of his infamous mother and
overall I liked this love story and I managed to enjoy the novel despite these small doubts about the two characters.
3)This is a #Christian fiction, I didn't choose it for this reason, but prayers and faith in God don't bother me, mostly they are prayers as happens to all of us, to address to the Lord, mentally, in moments of difficulty where we feel insecure and in need of reassurance.
What becomes annoying is the repetitiveness of the same continuous speeches in these prayers... halfway through the book I got tired and easily avoided them since they are written in italics.
This is something you will find in all Christian novels (I happened to read some of them, all beautiful and full of adventure and romance, but with these prayers thought up by the characters and always repetitive because they are almost all the same).
So if you're not a religious fanatic, they might bore you, but I repeat: you can easily skip those lines, because they are written in italics. Or you can read them and draw inspiration from them to face the most difficult moments of your life with more confidence.
4)The TITLE told me that this was a novel with a Christmas setting, unfortunately saying that the protagonist decorates the house with wreaths and holly doesn't make the novel Christmassy.
The only Christmas moment is in the end, when everyone opens their presents at the servants' ball and we can breathe a beautiful, relaxed festive atmosphere of great friendship.
The 4 points above are the reasons why I only gave 4 stars and not 5, but apart from this the reading was pleasant and fun, smooth and engaging in all its phases.
----> This is the first one in a mystery-romance series but you can read it also as a standalone, we have a fully satisfying ending !
NOTE : sorry for any form or grammar error in my text, English is not my native tongue :-)
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