A Sinful Regency Christmas

A Sinful Regency Christmas

by Amanda McCabe, Marguerite Kaye, Christine Merrill

It was a thrilling and thoroughly sinful Regency Christmas! Five short, sexy, seasonal stories.

One Wicked Christmas by Amanda McCabe
Lady Cassandra Osborne is ready to take a lover to her bed - and she'll be at the same Christmas house party as Sir Ian Chandler, her late husband's rakish best friend…

Virgin Unwrapped by Christine Merrill
Robert Breton's touch fills Anne Clairemont with a delicious, scandalous heat - but can Robert's mistletoe kisses seduce her into breaking her planned engagement?

An Illicit Indiscretion by Bronwyn Scott
Dashiell Steen, heir to an earldom, craves one final adventure before settling down - and finds it with a vivacious beauty escaping from a manor window!

A Rake for Christmas by Ann Lethbridge
Lady Eugenie Hardwick is being driven wild with need by the sounds of unrestrained passion coming from notorious Lord Richard Townsend's bedroom!

Spellbound & Seduced by Marguerite Kaye
Cursed to be widowed on her wedding anniversary, Jura Mcnair chose not to marry, but, with handsome Lawrence Connaught, she feels the lure of forbidden desire…

Genres: Historical Romance, Christmas, Anthologies, Romance

336 pages, Paperback

First published October 18, 2012

About the author

aka Laurel McKee (Amanda Carmack)

Amanda wrote her first romance at the age of sixteen--a vast historical epic starring all her friends as the characters, written secretly during algebra class (and her parents wondered why math was not her strongest subject...)

She's never since used algebra, but her books have been nominated for many awards, including the RITA Award, the Romantic Times BOOKReviews Reviewers' Choice Award, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion. She lives in Oklahoma with a menagerie of two cats, a Pug, and a very bossy miniature Poodle, along with far too many books.

When not writing or reading, she loves taking dance classes, collecting cheesy travel souvenirs, and watching the Food Network--even though she doesn't cook.

Reviews

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given a copy of this book on condition that I write an honest review.

This is obviously - given its title - a collection of Christmas novellas set in the Regency period. There are a total of five stories contained in this book. I should also point out that all of the stories have previously been available as Historical Undone! ebooks. *Spoilers ahead*

Story 1: One Wicked Christmas by Amanda McCabe
I really enjoyed this story, as it was a well written, sexy tale and suited the novella format. I also warmed to the hero and heroine and their story was also rather sweet, but not saccharine.
It has as its heroine Lady Cassandra Osborne, a widow who is secretly in love with the hero, Sir Ian Chandler a friend of her late husband. Daringly attending the wicked Christmas house party of one of her friends Cassie finally has the chance to act upon those feelings and seduce Ian.

Story 2: Virgin Unwrapped by Christine Merrill
I normally really enjoy Christine’s stories, but I’m afraid I found this story very disjointed and didn’t like either the hero or heroine and wasn’t bothered if they ended up together. It didn’t really have a Christmas feel, or a Regency one for that matter for me.

The heroine is the rather oddly puritanical figure of Anne Clairemont and the hero Robert Breton, a figure I felt we didn’t really get to know. Anne is engaged to be married to save her family fortunes, and Robert is a temptation who finds it incredibly easy to seduce her out of it. Almost forcefully.

Story 3: An Illicit Indiscretion by Bronwyn Scott
Another rather sweet story though incredibly sensual, featuring the heir to an Earldom and a young lady who both feel that they will need to marry for duty, but have rather a surprising meeting when the young lady escapes from a window from the house he is visiting and they go on an adventure together.

The heroine is Elisabeth Becket and the hero Dashiell Steen. I particularly loved the fact that the heroine had such unusual interests, and the hero helped her pursue them.

Story 4: A Rake for Christmas by Ann Lethbridge
This is a very sensual story, but quite amusing and poignant too, which is a great mix.

The slighty scandalous Lady Eugenie Hardwick’s neighbour, a rake, Lord Richard Townsend is driving her crazy with the sounds of passion she can hear through the wall of their rented accommodation!

But one Christmas night they meet in person...

Story 5: Spellbound and Seduced by Marguerite Kaye
I really enjoyed this tale, as it was particularly intimate and magical as the hero and heroine are isolated throughout most of the story in a very snowy Scotland in a cottage in the middle of nowhere. It is quite different from the others also, as the heroine is a witch, and believes that she is cursed for her husband to die, and is scared to love anyone. The hero knows nothing of this, but has come to claim the castle that is connected to the terrible curse on the heroine’s family from centuries ago.

Jura Mcnair is also a rather different heroine as she is not a titled lady, but a healer of sorts. The hero, Lawrence Connaught is looking to make a change in his life after growing tired of the life he has been leading in London.

I really enjoyed this collection and felt that even though there were five stories contained in the book, they were still long enough to be satisfying. Please note that all the stories have a high level of sensuality/sensual scenes.

At the time that I read this I also read Gift-Wrapped Governesses, and if I had to chose only one from the two, I would definitely chose this book.

[Tash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewed for Confessions From Romaholics

To see review at Confessions

I wished I hadn’t read this straight away. Maybe I had high expectations for the historical books that Harlequin produces. This anthology has it gems and then there are ones that left me scratching my head asking if they added the Christmas bit to the story so they could include it in the collection. Also there is the different length of the stories, some short, others a decent length and there is one that has something on the order of nine chapters. Now, more words or less does not mean a bad thing necessarily, but it did in this instance.

The first story is One Wicked Christmas by Amanda McCabe. It has five chapters and fifty five pages and it’s a little gem. McCabe manages to write and convey a story that you would expect in a novel-length book. Widow Lady Cassandra Obsborne has decided she wants a lover so she can move on and she desires a certain man. Her husband was okay but she wants someone exciting, namely his best friend, the rakish Sir Ian Chandler who she thinks has rejected her. Therefore, her friend Melisande suggests that she take another member of the ton who has been seeking her out and come to her Christmas Party which is known for being on the naughty side. You know where this is leading, Ian is invited too as Melisande is a friend of his, too, and she wants to set him up with a woman who has set her eyes on him. But Ian wants only Cassandra and decides to take things into his own hands and give Cassandra what she wants.

It’s pretty obvious where the story is going but it is enjoyable and one of the highlights in this anthology.

4 couples



A Virgin Untouched, um … what were they thinking when they came up with this title? The book is roughly 50 pages and 5 chapters. It a nice short story but just a straightforward plot that proved enjoyable but lacks the extra spark to make it memorable. Anne Clairemont knows her duty. She needs to get engaged to Joseph Stratford so that her family can gain the house through marriage. She has the title, he has the money and it seems the perfect arrangement. However, Annie is falling in love with his best friend, Robert Breton, who does not have the money and possessions that the family wants. Nevertheless, this Christmas holiday Robert is going to make his move as he can’t wait any longer and Annie is a tempting distraction who believes that Joseph doesn’t deserve her. Annie wants the house back in the family so she agrees with a prompting from her family to get married to Joseph. But he is never around and Robert is always there and she doesn’t understand the reason.

Will their brains win over their hearts this Christmas? You need to read it find out.

4 couples



In the third story, An Illicit Indiscretion, Dashiell Steen went from a minor nobility to being heir to an earldom resulting in matchmaking mamas wanting him at their parties. He is at the Earl of Greybourne party where he grows bored and seeks some fresh air. When the stars align and he sees Elizabeth, the daughter of the earl, climbing down a pole to witness Halley’s Comet, he is intrigued and he decides to help her, both of them unaware of who the other is. They spend the night at a fellow astronomer’s house where she hopes to see the comet but instead finds something more. This is the longest story in the book and was something different. Dashiell wants love but is being dictated to by duty. Elizabeth wants her freedom. She has had four seasons already and she would rather spend her days as an astronomer and so when Dashiell appears and seems interested, she starts lowering her carefully erected barriers. He seems interested in her work which is something she found her other suitors not to be. I love this story and this was the crème de la collection.

5 couples



The last two stories in the book really have little to do with Christmas, one featuring only the spirit of Christmas and the other featuring Christmas only towards the end. A Rake for Christmas is about two neighbours who are alone for Christmas and who argue about the noise coming from Lord Richard’s bedroom. Eugenie was sent to the countryside after her reputation was wrecked and she lives as a spinster thinking that she will never marry. So when she walks into Richard’s to give him a letter, she lets everything go and has a wicked night with him. Richard realises that the spinster he think is strict and dowdy is actually a young beautiful woman who is haunted by her choices. Will this rake be tamed for Christmas? The answer is played in a way that makes me question some of the story, as in the part that they were friends because of the letters they wrote to each other to deal with their problems and therefore makes it acceptable for them to fall in to bed.

2 couples (more like 2 and half)

Spellbound and Seduced is so out of the theme with the rest of this collection. There is a paranormal element in this story. The heroine, Jura, is cursed and has the gift of healing which has been the downfall for the women in her family. Lawrence Connaught is on his way to his new home when he has an accident and Jura finds him. The story is solid but it wasn’t for me. Jura is a strong woman but she harps about being not able to marry because of the curse. This was a skim-through read for me and is probably one of the shorter stories that needs a longer length to make it convincing .

2 couples

Overall I give this collection 3 couples.

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spellbound and Seduced - Marguerite Kaye - 3/5 - A witch back in 1622 Scotland curses her family when they burn her at the stake. All the women in her family will know one year with their husbands before he dies until a perfect, pure love breaks the curse. This falls to Lawrence and Jura. Jura is a witch in 1822 Scotland and Lawrence has just inherited the land and castle and is the new laird. He gets snowed in at her cottage and they discover a great deal of love despite all of jura's efforts not to succumb to it (the emotional part, she's pretty okay with the physical).

The characters seem pretty okay for a novella, no problem there. I think my problem came down to the curse and the fact that the characters don't really have to do anything or prove the perfection of their love to break it. They just fall in love and trust that the curse is broken...that's it. Which makes me wonder why someone else's love couldn't have done it. Was it always just meant to devastate 200 years worth of women and then stop with these two? I felt like it needed a bit more effort on the characters' parts.

An Illicit Indiscretion - Bronwyn Scott - 4/5 - Dashiell is an Earl's heir, bored with live and looking for anything to shake up his staid, conventional lifestyle. So when he Elisabeth falls on him after climbing out of her window, he's intrigued. Even more so when he accompanies her to an observatory where he witnesses her passion for astronomy, for life and for him. This was a pretty cute story, with a plucky heroine and a sincere hero. I wasn't 100% sold on the accuracy of Elisabeth taking off for two nights and absolutely no one learning of her "ruination" but somewhat easy enough to overlook. I also kind of wish there'd been a bit more of a drawn out confrontation with Elisabeth's parents and in which Dashiell confesses his love. My favorite of the anthology.

A Rake for Christmas - Ann Lethbridge - 2.5/5 - Eugenie, having been "ruined" years before, is left living in isolation and loneliness, trying to deny the passions that got her into so much trouble. But her neighbor Richard, is a manwhore and their bedrooms share a wall - so of course the noises of his nighttime activities keep her awake at night, burning with lust. One night Eugenie gets an urgent message for him by mistake and she takes it over to him, only to find her resistance going up in flames. This was kind of hot, with the voyeuristic/exhibitionist thing going on, but this was way too short to develop a trusting relationship between the characters, especially in light of Richard's experiences. And his turn around from cynical womanizer to being enamored with Eugenie was a bit sudden. Sadly the end was rather unsatisfying and very open-ended with them ending sort of on a friendship leaning towards a court-ship . We also don't get much detail about Eugenie's past, which is sorely needed.

One Wicked Christmas - Amanda McCabe - 3/5 - Another instance where a really sweet story is rather underdone because of its length. Cassie is a widow who is ready to take a lover and she wants Ian, her and her husband's best friend. But he's been avoiding her since their passionate kiss. So she'll move on with someone else at her friend's party. But when she goes to that person's room, she finds Ian instead and ends up sleeping with him. There probably should have been some conflict afterwards...at least that' what it felt like should happen. But there wasn't really. Especially in light of the fact that Cassie had planned on sleeping with another guy. That and the ending felt like it needed to be drawn out more.

Virgin Unwrapped - Christine Merrill - 2/5 - This actually is a sequel to a Regency Christmas Carol, which, if you're to understand half the things that are going on with Joseph and Barbara, you really have to read it first. In fact, found a great deal of my understanding of the main couple's relationship stem from what I remember of that book. For example at the end, Anne tells her parents that it is best she marry Robert and they should trust her. What does that mean? Well, in the previous story Joseph gave Robert the house that Anne's family wanted, so by marrying him, she gets it...which the reader would have no clue about if they hadn't read it . I was also disappointed in the moral character of Robert. He knows that he's seducing his best friend's betrothed, but he doesn't see that as wrong until she's actually married to him. He relies on Anne's not-saying-no, instead of her saying yes. He's perfectly content to ruin her life, without any understanding of her decisions or her situation. He bothered me.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of five stories.

In “One Wicked Christmas” the widowed Lady Cassandra Osborne seeks to take a lover, when the man she really wants is Sir Ian Chandler, the best friend of her deceased husband. I thought this was quite a nice story. The space did not allow for much back story of the previous friendship between the couple but this story was a good introduction to the volume. 3 marks out of 5.

“Virgin Unwrapped” was my least favourite of the stories. I don’t usually like stories where people cheat on their best friends/fiancés even though the marriage is an arranged one and the jilted bridegroom found his own love (I presume with Barbara Lampett although I must have missed the confirmation of this.) I did not particularly like the hero in this one. 3 out of 5 (just).

I admit to being a huge fan of romances which feature women climbing out of windows dressed in men’s clothing. Hurrah for “An Illicit Indiscretion” which features just that. Even better is that the heroine has another excuse (at least in part) for her escapade. As well as the I-don’t want-to-meet-another-boring-peer-my-family-wants-me-to-marry excuse Elisabeth Becket is also engaged in research on Halley’s Comet (without her family’s consent). Hurrah for a more intelligent woman in romantic fiction. 4-5 out of 5.

It is quite nice to read a Mills and Boon historical that features a heroine who is not pure and unsullied. Lady Eugenie Hardwick has suffered the shame of an exposed pre-marital sexual relationship and has been living in quiet retirement since. Quiet - except for the sounds of passion floating through the paper-thin walls of her house from the various sexual exploits of the notorious rake living next door. I don’t particularly like the plot-device of the “Rake” in historical fiction. However I really enjoyed “A Rake for Christmas”. (Shouldn’t there have been a Mrs Norris-type character watching dragon-style over the shamed heroine’s conduct though)? I don’t think I have read anything by Ann Lethbridge in the past but may well do so in the future. This was the story I was least looking forward to reading from the description on the back of the book but she has pulled it off. 4-5 out of 5.

I also don’t particularly like witches appearing in my fiction either. However Marguerite Kaye has written what is rather a magical short story. It does not read like a regency story but rather has a timeless quality to it. Sometimes I like to read a story that has little grounding in reality. I finished this volume with a smile on my face. 4 out of 5.

Overall the stories were interesting and fitted together well. I will be reading this book again nearer Christmas.

I received a copy of the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

[Cherish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED reading christmas regency novels around the Christmas season and this one was indeed another great book. Each story left me enchanted and also in tears. (This was 'Virgin Unwrapped' by Christine Merrill. While reading this on the way to the library on Tuesday, tears fell from my eyes. I felt so Much compassion for Robert. He truly loved Anne.)

I loved Amanda Mc Cabe's One Wicked Christmas: It was a fitting to see Cassie's past memory in the story. It set my pace rolling. Also the devious plan that Ian created to get her was quite interesting too.

Brownwyn Scott's An Illicit Indiscretion was pretty awesome too. I love the Idea that Elizabeth had a particular interest that attracted Dashiell. Also I admired him for the fact that he was willing to take a chance in a last adventure. That was brilliant.

Ann Lethbridge's A Rake for Christmas was awesome too. I adored the way how Richard Townsend was written as a greek statue. I visualised that so vividly. That description made him look very attractive. I was glad that he figue out that it was her and was astounded by her beauty and not the old crone he visualised. LOOOL! ^_^

The last story which was Spellbound and Seduced by Marguerite Kaye I read at least twice. I adored the plot so much.

A very great read Indeed!

[Deborah · Rating 1 out of 5]

A collection of previously released, Regency Christmas tales designed to get the reader in the festive mood. Sadly, not what I was expecting at all. There are two stories in the book worth reading;An Illicit Indiscretion by Brownyn Scott and A Rake For Christmas by Ann Lethbridge. Sadly, the other tales missed their mark. To read the full review, please visit my blog http://honeybeereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good short Regency Christmas stories. I liked most of them except for one. I really wouldn't think they were "sinful" as in their title, certainly not like the erotic titles that are available now. However, a pleasant read.
Overall: 3.75* (rounded up to 4*)

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

"One Wicked Christmas" by Amanda McCabe - ok
"Virgin Unwrapped" by Christine Merrill - good
"An Illicit Indiscration" by Bronwyn Scott - good
"A Rake for Christmas" by Ann Lethbridge - ok/good
"Spellbound & Seduced" by Marguerite Kaye - good