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A Christmas Wedding Wager
Just one kiss under the mistletoe could change her whole life!Lovely Miss Emma Harrison has long turned her back on the frivolities of the Marriage Mart and dedicated herself to helping her father. But this Christmas everything changes-the unforgettable Jack Stanton is back! No longer the charity boy determined to make good, he has become one of the richest men in England. Driven to succeed and used to getting anything he wants, Jack makes it clear that he wants Emma. And as the Yuletide festivities throw Emma into his company, she can't help but wonder if she made the right choice seven years ago….
377 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2007
5 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Michelle Styles
127 books198 followersBorn and raised near San Francisco Califorinia, Michelle Styles currently lives a few miles south of Hadrian's Wall with her husband, three children and menagerie of pets. An avid reader, she became hooked on historical romance when she discovered Georgette Heyer, Anya Seton and Victoria Holt in her school's library. Michelle enjoys writing stories in a wide range of time periods including Roman, Viking, Regency and early Victorian. Her website can be found at www.michellestyles.co.uk
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 22, 2009
There was a lot of natural circumstantial and character tension that this book could have built upon. The historical and physical settings were well done and layed a solid foundation. But, instead of using the background and the natural tension to create the conflict, the author went back to the old infuriating technique in romance novels of having the characters make a bunch of assumptions about the other characters thoughts and feelings and then never talking about how they actually feel. A big pet peeve for me is inconsistencies in characters in a romance novel and this novel's characters didn't know if they were coming or going. One minute he loves her the next his eyes are glittering and cold and the next he's kissing her again without anything much transpiring to create the shifts. Also, the ending was so ridiculous, even for Victorian times, that I lost my suspension of disbelief.
Read for the setting and the background of railroads and Christmas in Victorian times, don't expect much in the way of satisfying plot or characterizations.
Read for the setting and the background of railroads and Christmas in Victorian times, don't expect much in the way of satisfying plot or characterizations.
May 11, 2013
I found the book to be a bit predictable and lightweight to begin with. There didn't seem to be much depth to the characters to beging with although the book got better towards the end. The story was set in Victorian Newcastle but I'm not sure that the setting worked. This could easily have been written in more modern times and wouldn't have changed the outcome. I'm used to reading period dramas and getting more of a feel for the life and times from the story. This book fell very short in this respect.
Overall it is a decent story although overall I felt is was lacking in some way.
Overall it is a decent story although overall I felt is was lacking in some way.
September 10, 2009
I'm not entirely sure why I bothered to finish this. The characters had an irritating penchant for rediscovering conclusions they'd already come to, and an equally irritating tendency toward discarding their reasonable trust in one another whenever the plot required it of them. I rather liked the hero and heroine; I just wish they'd behaved more sensibly...and less as though they were afflicted by some terrible prion disease.
July 4, 2014
Making the change from writing nonfiction to romance meant reading much more than I imagined. I've read a stand-by romance from 2007, A Christmas Wedding Wager, three times in the last year because Ms. Styles does at least three things well here. I keep learning from it.
One is crafting a Victorian woman's attitudes into her heroine. In graduate school I studied Victorian history and lit. Professional women (Mary Ann Evans/George Eliot or Mrs. Trollope, Anthony's mother, for example)held complicated passions, and the dutiful daughter-engineer is definitely of that sisterhood. Women in those days were self-effacing, often disguising their talents, without rancor.
Two: writing within a low-heat framework, yet making kisses and romance exciting. The second half of the book is about passion aroused and finally fulfilled. I learned a great deal about how to write these from her narratives and dialogue. The ability to build sexusl tension into lust, twice, picking up the story exactly after fulfillment is masterly.
I think it's much easier simply to write sex scenes where fulfillment takes place. This writing restraint takes real discipline and knowledge of one's craft.
Three: having characters develop the setting. Ms. Styles doesn't normally rely on her characters' dialogue to enhance the Victorian scenes. To show that it's horribly cold and wet, the heroine's clothes show us; that she's a determined woman about her pleasures, we 'see' her earrings knocking against her jaw. (We also 'see' her clothes and jewelry this way, without tedious details and catalogues.)
Four: a simple plot carries emotional punch and a good story. There are fewer than 5 characters in this novel!
One is crafting a Victorian woman's attitudes into her heroine. In graduate school I studied Victorian history and lit. Professional women (Mary Ann Evans/George Eliot or Mrs. Trollope, Anthony's mother, for example)held complicated passions, and the dutiful daughter-engineer is definitely of that sisterhood. Women in those days were self-effacing, often disguising their talents, without rancor.
Two: writing within a low-heat framework, yet making kisses and romance exciting. The second half of the book is about passion aroused and finally fulfilled. I learned a great deal about how to write these from her narratives and dialogue. The ability to build sexusl tension into lust, twice, picking up the story exactly after fulfillment is masterly.
I think it's much easier simply to write sex scenes where fulfillment takes place. This writing restraint takes real discipline and knowledge of one's craft.
Three: having characters develop the setting. Ms. Styles doesn't normally rely on her characters' dialogue to enhance the Victorian scenes. To show that it's horribly cold and wet, the heroine's clothes show us; that she's a determined woman about her pleasures, we 'see' her earrings knocking against her jaw. (We also 'see' her clothes and jewelry this way, without tedious details and catalogues.)
Four: a simple plot carries emotional punch and a good story. There are fewer than 5 characters in this novel!
January 20, 2010
It's already January but I am still working on one of my Christmas Challenges so I have at least a couple of Christmas reads planned for this month.
I think I put this one on my TBR pile after reading the review in some blog and the occupation of the characters intrigued me. The hero is an engineer and the heroine has taught herself engineering and his now helping her father build a bridge. There is past history between them, seven years before the hero, Jack was the heroine's father protégée and they were in love but due to Emma's mother interference they never actually talked about their feelings and Jack left. Now he is back, rich and seeking to buy Emma's father company.
This was the type of story that relied on a big misunderstanding. The hero thought the heroine never answered his letter when, in fact, she never received it, and more misunderstandings follow because they are now very different people from what they were but especially Emma keeps assuming she knows what Jack is about and is usually not good. That was annoying and I felt like sitting them both down and making them speak.
There's also a secondary mystery about what is really behind Emma's father illness. I guessed what it might be fairly early and her father was another character that I disliked because he could have been a lot more honest with her.
The saving grace is that, in the end, they at least acknowledge that they are very different persons from what they were seven years ago and that they love what they are today, I just had some problems believing they do. In the end I thought that it could have been a much more rewarding story than what it was.
Grade: 3/5
I think I put this one on my TBR pile after reading the review in some blog and the occupation of the characters intrigued me. The hero is an engineer and the heroine has taught herself engineering and his now helping her father build a bridge. There is past history between them, seven years before the hero, Jack was the heroine's father protégée and they were in love but due to Emma's mother interference they never actually talked about their feelings and Jack left. Now he is back, rich and seeking to buy Emma's father company.
This was the type of story that relied on a big misunderstanding. The hero thought the heroine never answered his letter when, in fact, she never received it, and more misunderstandings follow because they are now very different people from what they were but especially Emma keeps assuming she knows what Jack is about and is usually not good. That was annoying and I felt like sitting them both down and making them speak.
There's also a secondary mystery about what is really behind Emma's father illness. I guessed what it might be fairly early and her father was another character that I disliked because he could have been a lot more honest with her.
The saving grace is that, in the end, they at least acknowledge that they are very different persons from what they were seven years ago and that they love what they are today, I just had some problems believing they do. In the end I thought that it could have been a much more rewarding story than what it was.
Grade: 3/5
December 3, 2016
What I wanted: a nice, cozy historical Christmas romance. What I got: a bland tale with the most unlikeable parade of characters I've ever seen. Really, there is no one in the book, with the possible exception of Davy, the loveable Tiny Tim-like character (complete with requisite crutch...) who has the glimmer of a redeeming quality. And the two protagonists? From the first chapter, these two, who we are told have shared a "past," spend all their time assuming the worst in each other's motives and actions. They never tell each other the whole truth, and sometimes even outright lie. No one ever asks a question that is answered either satisfactorily or even at all. We are told time and again that these are good, intelligent people, but both stumble through the book lying, doubting, and misunderstanding each other.
The most boring, dispassionate, and dumb love story ever committed to paper. As far as I'm concerned, these two losers can have each other.
The most boring, dispassionate, and dumb love story ever committed to paper. As far as I'm concerned, these two losers can have each other.
February 12, 2009
Love the characters and the setting. A little slow in the beginning, but I ended up loving the book.
October 21, 2009
I am with Cara's comment... I feel the same way as I read it. I enjoyed this book.
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May 31, 2017This was a new author for me, and I took it along on a train ride as I worried the book I was already reading wouldn't last the trip. As this was about (among other things) building a bridge, it was perhaps a good choice (even if my journey didn't take me over any impressive bridges). What I found irritating was how the heroine kept jumping to false conclusions, constantly believing both the worst of others and her own unquestionable rightness. Likewise, I found it annoying, the way the hero persisted in concealing information - sometimes to "protect" the heroine - when a word to the wise could have averted much danger. The exciting finale, although relatively predictable, was quite good, with the evil bad guy (even if it was fairly foolish of the hero to confront the villain single-handedly).
An interesting read which certainly kept my interest on the trip. It came in as an RABCK, so I'm always grateful for the opportunity to discover new authors.
An interesting read which certainly kept my interest on the trip. It came in as an RABCK, so I'm always grateful for the opportunity to discover new authors.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews