Review: What Happens Under the Mistletoe
“The Heiress and the Hothead” by Sabrina Jeffries – A brilliantly written yuletide love story between an outspoken American heiress mill owner, Amanda Keane and radical Lord Stephen Corry who spends his time writing hard nose articles about injustice and reform. I loved how the author setup the main characters and worked the reader through their difference of opinions while creating a beautiful love story.
One of the parts I enjoyed was the center point of the mistletoe tradition and how both Amanda and Stephen used it’s presence in the house to their advantage throughout the book. This book is not just a fluffy love story. It shows some of the dangers of the mills and how it effected peoples lives but it also shows that not everyone who was a miller was cruel and inattentive to their workers safety.
Both main characters are fully developed and make fun sparing partners keeping the reader smiling as they read.
I give this 4 STARS and know everyone will enjoy reading this romantic read.
“Twelve Kisses” by Karen Hawkins – Delightful story about two people who use to be in love and they meet again after 10 years. This story is filled with lots of tension and the author does a superb job of using this tension to keep the reader involved in who did what and why. Several of the characters in the book added excitement to the story. One of my favorite was the Grand Duchess Natasha Nikolaevna. Her eccentric personality really gave this story an additional spark. Her grandson Nikolai, the Crown Prince of Oxenburg help to give additional support to Marcus’s character.
Marcus definitely sets the pace in this story by his treatment to Kenna and his feelings about their past. His growth throughout the story was one of the parts of the story I enjoyed the most.
There are many facets to Kenna and I love her approach to getting Marcus to help her in her endeavors regarding her father.
I give this 4 stars for how the author expands the story behind the lost love between Marcus and Kenna.
“By Any Other Name” by Candace Camp – The meeting between Rylla and Gregory is priceless and I had to chuckle at how they both dealt with it. This story has an unusual plot for a historical romance and I fully enjoyed the authors writing. There are some areas in the book that I felt could of been developed a little more. I give this 3 STARS for the plot.
“Sweetest Regret” by Meredith Duran – A quick romantic read during the bustle of the holidays this Christmas Novella centered around the mistletoe, a country party, stolen documents and an old lost love is just want the romantic needs to take away the stress. There are a lot of examples of Christmas traditions woven into this book that makes the story an enjoyable and instructive read.
Speaking of Christmas traditions one has to chuckle at how Lucas uses the mistletoe to get his way with Georgina. It was also entertaining to see how Georgina outsmarts Lucas regarding his taking advantage of this mistletoe custom.
Having no idea about the true mistletoe custom I looked it up. According to Slate “It wasn’t until the 18th or 19th centuries, though, that the British started hanging mistletoe as part of Christmas celebrations. Charles Dickens paints a scene of mass sub-mistletoe kissing: Young women “screamed and struggled, and ran into corners, and did everything but leave the room, until … they all at once found it useless to resist any longer and submitted to be kissed with a good grace.” In this context, mistletoe was supposed to bring luck to two people who kissed underneath it and bad luck to those who didn’t. Some say proper etiquette is to pick a berry off for every kiss and stop when all the berries are gone.”
Lucas’s character is romantic and though he is hurt by their past he moves forward with his life to become higher up in the government. I truly enjoyed his relentless pursuit of Georgina and the truth that they finally uncovered but if you want to know if they have an HEA you will have to read the book.
The reader will enjoy this read because it deals with tradition, lost love, lies, redemption and forgiveness.
I give it 4 STARS for being delightful to read.
Visit my blog for more reviews: Sportochick’s Musings