Book review : The Duke Who Hates Christmas by Bianca Blythe

The Duke Who Hates Christmas
Holidays for Spinsters Book 1
by Bianca Blythe
My rating: 3.7 of 5 stars

A very nice Christmas regency romance novella, quite light and funny.

The plot of the back cover had intrigued me, I wanted to read something romantic, but that wasn't a heartbreaking love story and the book did what it promised: a short, easy read that put me in a good mood.

___THE PLOT___ England is at war with France and fears that Napoleon wants to invade the coasts of the United Kingdom to the north, in Scottish territory.

Caspian is a duke who asserted himself in war but suffered rather serious wounds in his leg and for this reason, despite his desire, he will not be sent back to fight, but rather to a castle in Scotland to teach rookies and older men to fight newly enlisted.
What he doesn't know is that he will find himself in the way of a group of young spinsters (by choice, but they won't be so insensitive to male charm).

The leader of the spinsters is Miranda, who he had already met while she was running away from an arranged and loveless marriage.
A series of mischief and moments of attraction and unexpected kisses will follow, there will be some problems caused by her nasty uncle and aunt. Nice happy ending guaranteed.

___MY OPINION ___ I liked the story, I include it among those that I will gladly reread in the future, but it is obvious that if it had been a novel and not simply a short story, it would have been better because we would have had longer descriptions of the romantic moments.
The supporting characters would have had more opportunity to interact and other events would have been added and developed, which would have made the story more compelling and complete.

This is of course not a criticism, it's just an observation... there are very few short stories that manage to hit the reader's heart in every aspect in just a few pages.

However, I liked all the characters (except the bad aunt and uncle and I'm happy that in the end they got what they deserved) and in just a few pages I managed to become fond of both Caspian and Miranda.
I also loved the setting: a castle in Scotland and it made me want to visit it again!

---> This story is the first of a series of 3, the other 2 concern characters known in the first book and I really think I will soon read the other 2 installments too.

( Thanks for reading my review, please forgive me for any errors in the text, English is not my native language )

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Book review : What Happens At Christmas by Victoria Alexander

What Happens At Christmas
by Victoria Alexander
Millworth Manor Series Book 1

My rating: ★★★★★

wowwww ! Brilliant !

___ THE PLOT ___
Camille, Lady Lydingham, requests the pleasure of your company at a festive house party in the English countryside, as she endeavors to coax a marriage proposal from Prince Nikolai Pruzinsky of Greater Avalonia. Given the nature of the hostess’s eccentric relatives ,they will be played by a troupe of actors hired to impersonate a proper Victorian family. What a clever way to fool the prince! And gate-crashing, distractingly handsome first loves like Grayson Elliott are most unwelcome.

But nothing about Camille’s charade goes as planned. Tonight, at Millworth Manor, games will be played, motives will be revealed, the masks will come off, and hearts will be lost—and won—in the most romantic, magical season of all.

___ WHAT I THINK ABOUT ___
It has been so amusing and compelling, it was just like to watch a funny period set comedy-romance movie!
I loved this story from the first page to the last one, each character was so captivating and the dialogues were so perfectly written I was even able to imagine the expressions on characters faces and the tones of their voices.
The funny thing is that this is not my usual kind of reading, I usually read cozy mysteries, classic and golden age mysteries or sometimes, when I need something old classics for children.
I don't usually like love stories, I'm not a romance reader...I was just checking among books including the word "Christmas" in the title.
At one point I was attracted by the cover of this one, I read the plot and it sounded so interesting and intriguing at once that I couldn't resit to check more about it. So I read some of the reviews published, all so good that the risk was to be disappointed by reading it ( you know... when one has too much expetations... ) instead the book and the author were a real pleasant discovery to me.
I really needed a light and funny read and even if I will keep on reading mostly mysteries ( always my favs ), I'll definitely read other books in "Millworth Manor Series" and also others by this author.

I think it would be a brilliant comedy-romance to be played on the stage or to realize as big screen movie. I would definitely go to theather to watch it and I would watch it more than once on TV.

Last, but not least, this humorous novel also talk about forgiveness and how often each of us thinks we are the injured party by looking at things only from our own perspective, while we all should try more often to walk in other people's shoes.

I give 5 stars and I daresay it has been my best reading in 2022 ( I read it the week before Christmas ). Definitely highly recommended if you're looking for fun and a nice clean romance :-)

This novel is the 1st in a series, but is readable as a standalone.

NOTE : I'm an Italian old girl who use to read and now writing this post in a foreign language: please forgive me for all errors you may find in my text :-)

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