Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Book Review: Once Upon a Christmas by Nancy Lawrence

Once Upon A Christmas
A sparkling Christmas romance set in Regency England.

Miss Nerissa Raleigh isn't interested in finding a husband, but she's in desperate need of a hero! She has written a Gothic romance and it's her dearest Christmas wish to see her book published. If she can support herself as an authoress, she'll be saved from having to make a loveless marriage as her sisters have before her. But the publisher won't buy her book until she makes the story's hero more dashing, daring, and fearless. Nerissa needs a real-life example, a patterncard of a hero. But where can she find such a man in the beau monde?

She finds him driving his curricle in a neck-or-nothing fashion through the streets of London. Handsome Breck Davenant is a wealthy, undisputed leader of fashion and a confirmed bachelor. Breck has no intention of serving as the model for Nerissa's romance nor is he willing to listen to her absurd notions of heroes and love. When Nerissa assures him she's interested only in his hero-like qualities and not at all in him as a man, he's appalled . . . and intrigued.

Before long, Breck is driving his curricle at hair-raising speeds through London with Nerissa by his side. In a Yule season filled with festivities, Breck's amusement over Nerissa's romantic notions slowly turns to love. He wants her for his wife, but first he'll have to prove himself a real hero by capturing her heart. http://www.amazon.com/Once-Upon-A-Christmas-ebook/dp/B003PDN7EK

I'm always looking for a good, clean regency novel. This time of year, I especially enjoy a Christmas themed one. Overall, I enjoyed this romance and thought that the characters were developed well and changed over the story. At first I thought that Nerissa was too naive, which I thought the author used to explain some of the rules of society. She grew on me throughout the book however, and I kind of liked that she was so young and oblivious. Though I have to say, I get it already! Breck is a hero. I didn't need to be hit over the head with it. I liked Breck, and looked forward to his interactions with Nerissa. I also enjoyed his sister and wished she'd made more appearances in the story. This author needs to learn not to head hop though. The POV changed rapidly from one paragraph to another and it was very distracting. There were some typos but nothing that bothered me too much, and some flaunting of society's rules that I thought unfortunate and improbable, but nothing like I've seen in other stories. In general a good story. For my own blog, where I can do what I want, I'll give it 3.5 stars, but on Amazon, I'll round it up to 4 to encourage the author to keep writing.

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