suzannalundale's review
4.0
A nice selection, including some plot lines from the less common string of players, which was welcome. Almack's is all well and good, but sometimes it's nice to pop in on an intimate gathering at a hunting lodge, or a London lending library run and patronized by people of modest means.
joanav's review
3.0
este livro é composto por vários contos natalícios, sendo que para mim o primeiro foi o melhor é merecia 4* mas os outros foram todos muito fraquinhos.
menrk's review
3.0
Just keeping my personal tradition of reading a select regency romance collection every year. A nice read to greet 2012's Christmas morning with. :)
bannisterb's review
2.0
Milan's This Wicked Gift was alright, but the other two were dull and reminded me of how picky I am with romance novels. They had promising plots or characters, but either devolved into babies-make-everyone-melt stories or I just didn't care enough. I liked that This Wicked Gift was a prequel to the Carhart series. I like how she sets up her series that way.
ccgwalt's review
4.0
This Wicked Gift by Courtney Milan
I didn't read the other two stories so this rating is for the Milan story alone. It's well written and has a different feel than most run-of-the-mill historical romances. I liked that it didn't involved a titled gentleman, but instead both main characters are involved in trade. Very entertaining.
I didn't read the other two stories so this rating is for the Milan story alone. It's well written and has a different feel than most run-of-the-mill historical romances. I liked that it didn't involved a titled gentleman, but instead both main characters are involved in trade. Very entertaining.
gemmalaszlo's review
3.0
Mary Balogh's A HANDFUL OF GOLD is a reprint, but one I hadn't read before. It's a story of a jaded rake and an innocent impoverished heroine who teaches him to love. While it's a theme I've read many times before, Balogh's talented writing made it enjoyable. Four stars.
Nicola Cornick's A SEASON FOR SUITORS was a good read, but felt a bit rushed because of the page restriction. I think I would have enjoyed seeing this one as a full-length novel. Three stars.
Courteny Milan's THIS WICKED GIFT was a DNF for me. The hero buy's the heroine's brother's IOU and uses it to blackmail the heroine into having sex with him. Ugh! I don't find a "hero" using coersion to get sex at all romantic.
Reread A Handful of Gold Dec 2019
Nicola Cornick's A SEASON FOR SUITORS was a good read, but felt a bit rushed because of the page restriction. I think I would have enjoyed seeing this one as a full-length novel. Three stars.
Courteny Milan's THIS WICKED GIFT was a DNF for me. The hero buy's the heroine's brother's IOU and uses it to blackmail the heroine into having sex with him. Ugh! I don't find a "hero" using coersion to get sex at all romantic.
Reread A Handful of Gold Dec 2019
annie26's review
4.0
A very pleasant read, not by any means an earth-shatteringly good book but very well put together.
bookwyrm_lark's review
3.0
The Heart of Christmas is a collection of three novellas or long stories, all taking place during the Christmas season.
I enjoyed “A Handful of Gold” (Mary Balogh) well enough but it isn’t one of her strongest stories; it’s a little too cliched, and I found it difficult to suspend belief in several spots. Verity Ewing is secretly working as an opera dancer. When Julian Dare, Viscount Folingsby, suggests a week at a friend’s hunting lodge over Christmas, she agrees only because of her sister’s desperate need for expensive medical care. For his part, Julian doesn’t realize Verity is actually a gently-reared young lady. Things take a surprising turn first when he realizes she’s never been a mistress before, and again when a vicar and his family are forced to take shelter with them on Christmas Eve. Balogh handles Julian’s redemption well, but the obliviousness of the vicar and his wife to the irregularity of the situation (in particular the speech and behavior of Julian’s friend’s mistress) really stretches credulity.
Nicola Cornick’s “The Season for Suitors” was stronger; I would have liked to see it developed into a novel, because the characters were quite well-developed for a short story. Clara asks her brother’s friend Sebastian for help in learning to guard against rakes and fortune hunters. But her request and his eventual agreement are complicated by the fact that she was (and remains) in love with him, and he turned her down a year and a half ago. Cornick negotiates the resultant tensions with skill, leaving the reader almost unsure whether the conflict will be resolved in the end.
I’m rather on the fence about “This Wicked Gift” (Courtney Milan.) On the one hand, huzzah for a story that focuses on a hero and heroine who are essentially lower-middle-class — educated, but barely scraping by financially. And huzzah for letting that fact affect both their outlook and their decisions. On the other hand, I was a bit uncomfortable with the hero’s actions in essentially letting the heroine prostitute herself to him. To be fair, in the end, so was he, and she didn’t see it that way herself. (It’s hard to be clear without spoilers, but her decision has more to do with her feelings than any financial obligation.)
Only Balogh’s story really feels like a Christmas romance, though the other two certainly take place around that time. I think it’s because Cornick and Milan’s stories could have taken place anytime, while the Christmas setting of Balogh’s story is important to the plot as well as to the characters’ development.
Bottom line: The Heart of Christmas is fine if you’re looking for a few short historical romances, but look elsewhere for real Christmas spirit — and for examples of Balogh’s best writing.
Review originally published on The Bookwyrm's Hoard.
I enjoyed “A Handful of Gold” (Mary Balogh) well enough but it isn’t one of her strongest stories; it’s a little too cliched, and I found it difficult to suspend belief in several spots. Verity Ewing is secretly working as an opera dancer. When Julian Dare, Viscount Folingsby, suggests a week at a friend’s hunting lodge over Christmas, she agrees only because of her sister’s desperate need for expensive medical care. For his part, Julian doesn’t realize Verity is actually a gently-reared young lady. Things take a surprising turn first when he realizes she’s never been a mistress before, and again when a vicar and his family are forced to take shelter with them on Christmas Eve. Balogh handles Julian’s redemption well, but the obliviousness of the vicar and his wife to the irregularity of the situation (in particular the speech and behavior of Julian’s friend’s mistress) really stretches credulity.
Nicola Cornick’s “The Season for Suitors” was stronger; I would have liked to see it developed into a novel, because the characters were quite well-developed for a short story. Clara asks her brother’s friend Sebastian for help in learning to guard against rakes and fortune hunters. But her request and his eventual agreement are complicated by the fact that she was (and remains) in love with him, and he turned her down a year and a half ago. Cornick negotiates the resultant tensions with skill, leaving the reader almost unsure whether the conflict will be resolved in the end.
I’m rather on the fence about “This Wicked Gift” (Courtney Milan.) On the one hand, huzzah for a story that focuses on a hero and heroine who are essentially lower-middle-class — educated, but barely scraping by financially. And huzzah for letting that fact affect both their outlook and their decisions. On the other hand, I was a bit uncomfortable with the hero’s actions in essentially letting the heroine prostitute herself to him. To be fair, in the end, so was he, and she didn’t see it that way herself. (It’s hard to be clear without spoilers, but her decision has more to do with her feelings than any financial obligation.)
Only Balogh’s story really feels like a Christmas romance, though the other two certainly take place around that time. I think it’s because Cornick and Milan’s stories could have taken place anytime, while the Christmas setting of Balogh’s story is important to the plot as well as to the characters’ development.
Bottom line: The Heart of Christmas is fine if you’re looking for a few short historical romances, but look elsewhere for real Christmas spirit — and for examples of Balogh’s best writing.
Review originally published on The Bookwyrm's Hoard.
bananatricky's review against another edition
3.0
A Handful of Gold - a rake decides to invite an opera dancer away for Christmas before he is forced to make an offer for a suitable bride. What he doesn't realise is that the dancer in question is a lady of quality desperate to obtain money to help her sick sister. His plans go sadly awry and he realises that there is more to his dancer than meets the eye. A pleasant, slightly mawkish story in which a vicar and a Christmas birth feature. 3 stars.
The Season for Suitors - Clara is a young and beautiful heiress besieged by fortune-hunters. She turns to Seb, the man who rejected her proposal two years ago for advice in how to fend them off. Seb refuses. He really loves her but is scared to love anyone after a tragedy involving his younger brother. An unsatisfactory story, didn't warm to either Seb or Clara and had little interest in the HEA.
This Wicked Gift - the reason I got the book. Yet again Ms Milan confounds expectations. A story about William White (a peripheral character in the Carhart's books). Lavinia is scrimping and saving, trying to look after her family and their lending library and put something aside for Christmas. Then her brother "borrows" the money to invest in a get-rich-quick scheme which blows up in his face. William White overhears and determines to make it better. William is a bitter man, he has been swindled by his father's friend out of a fortune and believes himself to be damned. So he rescues Lavinia's brother but his motives are far from pure. Definitely the least sentimental of the three stories but it was a bit depressing - for a Christmas anthology.
The Season for Suitors - Clara is a young and beautiful heiress besieged by fortune-hunters. She turns to Seb, the man who rejected her proposal two years ago for advice in how to fend them off. Seb refuses. He really loves her but is scared to love anyone after a tragedy involving his younger brother. An unsatisfactory story, didn't warm to either Seb or Clara and had little interest in the HEA.
This Wicked Gift - the reason I got the book. Yet again Ms Milan confounds expectations. A story about William White (a peripheral character in the Carhart's books). Lavinia is scrimping and saving, trying to look after her family and their lending library and put something aside for Christmas. Then her brother "borrows" the money to invest in a get-rich-quick scheme which blows up in his face. William White overhears and determines to make it better. William is a bitter man, he has been swindled by his father's friend out of a fortune and believes himself to be damned. So he rescues Lavinia's brother but his motives are far from pure. Definitely the least sentimental of the three stories but it was a bit depressing - for a Christmas anthology.
librarydanielle's review
2.0
i enjoyed handful of gold. it was a light sweet story that was a little sarcastic, but enjoyable.
a season for suitors was OK, but not as well done in my opinion. I just didn't enjoy it as much.
this wicked gift was sadly the worst of the trio. I was excited to have a story of working class people rather than the usual titles and money, but the execution just wasn't there for me.
a season for suitors was OK, but not as well done in my opinion. I just didn't enjoy it as much.
this wicked gift was sadly the worst of the trio. I was excited to have a story of working class people rather than the usual titles and money, but the execution just wasn't there for me.