Mally

by Sandra Heath

A Christmas Match

A lovely orphan who was unfairly dismissed from her last place of employment, Megan Mortimer can't believe her luck when the notoriously eccentric Lady Evangeline Radcliffe hires her as a companion. Evangeline is well aware of the unjust accusations that ruined the unfortunate girl's reputation-but she fully intends to make this Christmas one Megan will remember forever. ...

Arriving at her home in Brighton with Megan in tow, Evangeline is surprised but delighted to find her distant cousin, Sir Greville Seton, already in residence. As the date of her annual holiday theater extravaganza draws near, Evangeline grows ever more determined to bring Megan and Greville together-despite the fact that Greville despises women who work as companions. But when this bitter bachelor embraces the spirit of the holiday season, his old grudges quickly give way to a joyful and precious new love. ...

Genres: Regency, Historical

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1980

About the author

Sandra Heath is the ever-popular author of numerous Regencies, historical romances, novellas, and short stories. Among other honors, she has won the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Awards for Best Regency Author and for Best Regency Romance. She lives in Gloucester, England, and can be contacted at sandraheath@bluey onder.co.uk.

Reviews

[Aneca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am, slowly, getting to the bottom of the TBR pile and this time I found another Sandra Heath book. I have loved a couple of her books and been less sure of other. This one, unfortunately, falls in the second category.


Mally is a young widow, she has a beau in Sir Christopher Carlyon but she doesn't seem much interested in him. At the moment she is more worried with her younger sister who has disappeared and she fears she went away to marry someone her family wouldn't approve of.


My main problem is that I never felt I actually knew Mally and what I did know of her wasn't very interesting. I couldn't understand why she kept Carlyon around if she didn't want him; it seemed kinder than leading him on. I didn't feel like I really got to know Carlyon, by the way, but he seemed a lot more involved with her than she was with him.


Then the mystery did get me a bit, or lot actually, confused. First Mally's sister had run away to marry, then it seemed something darker was afoot.. When she meets Vallender she first believes he may be the villain who took her sister or at least know what happened to her and when they all find themselves at his castle she can't help but being attracted to him despite everything.


I suppose the idea is to introduce a bit of a gothic feel in the story - mysterious man, mysterious castle but maybe because I wasn't really invested in Mally as a character it didn't really work for me.


Grade: 2/5

[Patrizia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una storia con ambientazione 'goticheggiante', anche se (forse anche grazie alla presenza di personaggi provenienti dall'altra sponda dell'Oceano), le conversazioni mi sono sembrate un po' troppo disinibite, e, in complesso, l'ambientazione 'vittoriana' lasciava a desiderare.
Ma è per me una nuova scrittrice e (con tutto il ciarpame che c'è in giro) non mi sento di punirla con una valutazione insufficiente. Tre stelle, quindi, anche se un po' tirate per il collo.