Publication Date: December 4, 2014
Andrew Blackshear has a Christmas plan. His sister is getting married and he plans to buy her a hunting falcon as he wants her to remember to maintain her separate identity in the marriage. Lucy Sharp also has a Christmas plan. She’s going to spend the holiday at a house party hosted by her aunt and uncle. It will be Lucy’s first taste of life outside of the falconry and she’s hoping to find a husband. When prim and proper Andrew meets adventurous Lucy, he’s instantly attracted but their plans diverge dramatically. How will their plans go perfectly wrong?
[easyazon_link identifier=”B00QMEK3GE” locale=”US” tag=”rabidreaders-20″]A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong[/easyazon_link] is a charming holiday story with a undue take on the Regency romance genre. The usual formula is that man-ho with powerful biceps and no emotions is looking for a wife that won’t get in the way of his liaisons. Man-ho meets virgin counting stars and dreaming of love and happily ever-afters. There’s conflict and suddenly man-ho’s velvet revolver is out of bullets, in the presence of any naked form, but that of the virgin whose feelings he suddenly holds in high regard and he manipulates her into marriage somehow. The formula is broken in “A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong.”
Andrew is a virgin who will not contemplate sex outside of marriage. He can appreciate the female form but sees masturbation as a betrayal of his future partner. He grew up in a dysfunctional home with a father who did his duty and impregnated his wife until she eventually died in the delivery bed. Seeing his mother not having a life out of pregnancy, Andrew is concerned for his sister. He’s also realistically looking at his own future as an eldest son. He will someday need a sturdy wife to give him an heir but at the age of 25, he sees that as being in his distant future. Andrew is not a character with whom readers are likely to gel at first. The character is rigid and closed off. Andrew is too concerned with propriety and never being seen to do the wrong thing.
Lucy is less worried about society. As far as she’s concerned, they can’t judge what they don’t know. Lucy grew up in a home with a father who loves her dearly and trusts her implicitly, much to the objection of an aunt and uncle that dote on her. As much as she admires her father, she knows that it’s time to leave the comfort of the nest and to go looking for a suitable partner on the road to life’s next adventure. Rather than the naïve young innocent usually seen in Regency fiction, Lucy is convincingly intelligent, resourceful and imbued with a spirit that reads as optimistic.
At 119 pages, [easyazon_link identifier=”B00QMEK3GE” locale=”US” tag=”rabidreaders-20″]“A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong”[/easyazon_link] is a delightfully quick read. I read it in the car on a rainy day over the holiday vacation on my way to Tennessee from Florida. The series of events that befall Andrew and Lucy are all about an eventual connection between the main players. Everyone they meet is good and looking to help each other. As much as I love a baddie, one would have been dreadfully out of place in this holiday novella. While there is a certain attraction based on snap together parts, Grant builds a connection between her main players that is realistic and based personality. Andrew and Lucy’s idle allure grow as they spend time together. The end of the novella is both surprising and satisfying.
If you’re looking for a great holiday read and love Regency romance like I do, [easyazon_link identifier=”B00QMEK3GE” locale=”US” tag=”rabidreaders-20″]“A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong”[/easyazon_link] is the perfectly right story for you.
Read an excerpt and pick up A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong by Cecilia Grant by Cecilia Grant today on:
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For more information about Jasmine Schwartz, visit her website. You can connect with her on Goodreads.