So many things to dislike! It's 386 pages long, which I should have checked before I started. There's a gathering of the main characters from all the other books in the MacGregor series, which I haven't read. Hordes of uxorious husbands have long, pointless, arch conversations about family life. There are cute little children and small furry animals. There are plot threads that go nowhere and make no sense. I liked the hero, a self-made man widowed with two children, but the heroine behaved like an idiot. ( )

Started out good and different and ended up kind of blah and ordinary. The story and characters were different and their story was interesting. The heroine had been compromised and needed to get married and the kind but merchant class hero offered to marry her. It was so sweet and I loved their interactions together. Then they got to the house party with her family and the whole thing sort of fell apart. There was way too many scenes from POVs other than the main couple. There was even POV from the lame villain which was totally unnecessary. They spent almost no time together. Then they get married and the story became totally predictable with a blackmail plot that I saw coming a mile away including how the heroine would try to hide that. Why would she do that when she had already fessed up to everything that had happened to her way before they got married? The answer is she wouldn't there was no rational way that she would given how she had already been written. So arbitrary angst anyone? And really why did he need the villain to tell him that she had been a virgin and hadn't actually been raped by the villain? I know in real life you can't always tell but many times you can and this is fiction. If he couldn't tell she was a virgin then when the villain said what he did why didn't the hero at least think hmmm...why was there no evidence of said virginity? This should have at least been addressed. Really the ending felt rushed and underdone.

Not giving up on this author though. Generally like her stuff better than this one. ( )

Exactly what I want from one of my favorite authors at the holidays. Lady Joan Flynn has been compromised and needs a husband. Dante Hartwell needs an aristocratic wife to advance in society. Mix in a passel of MacGregors, children, dogs and Christmas festivities, and you get a lovely holiday romance. ( )

Book source ~ NetGalley

Lady Joan Flynn flees her family to avoid answering questions about a tricky situation she’s gotten herself into. Usually level-headed, she doesn’t think her flight through and almost ends up stranded at a train station. Enter Dante Hartwell. He offers her a lift, with his sister and his two children, in their train carriage and since she’s desperate and she has been introduced to him before, she accepts. That’s when the fun begins.

Joan is a great character. I love how her “thing” is clothes. She’s all about patterns, cloth, how dresses are put together, accents and colors, and she’s very good at what she does. But because she’s a Lady people don’t give her any credit for her work. But worse is the non-acknowledgement of her creativity. She’s hungry for any praise and that’s where she gets into trouble.

Dante is in trade and thus far below the station of Lady Joan who is the daughter of a Marquess. Dante rose up from nothing to own three mills through his marriage. With his wife dead he runs the mills and is profitable. However, in order to make improvements he needs investors. Wealthy investors. He went to Edinburgh to take a shot at landing a titled wealthy wife, but had no luck so was on his way to a Christmas house party that might prove more lucrative a venture when he runs into Lady Joan who is headed to the same party.

Dante is also a great character. He’s progressive, smart, decent, and treats people well. He loves his children and his sister, cares about his employees, and is not afraid of hard work. He has his flaws, as does Joan, but that only makes them more likeable. Even though a HEA is pretty much a given in these types of stories I still worried they would continue to keep things to themselves and thus sabotage their marriage before it really got started.

This is book 4 in a series and I didn’t realize that, but it can be read as a standalone even though other characters from earlier books are present. I didn’t feel as if I had missed their stories, but it does make me want to seek them out and get to know them better. It’s a bit rough in spots, but all-in-all this is a heartwarming Christmas love story with a villain to hate and enjoyable characters to cheer for. ( )

I loved this story so much!

This particular story had a hero to die for. I mean, this man was such a good man, an understanding, practical and logical sort. It’s not easy to find that kind in any period, let alone in Victorian England, but our heroine is one lucky woman and she knows it, so I’m not surprised that she fell for him.

When it comes to that familiar trope of marriage of convenience, we’ve probably read thousands of them, but Grace Burrowes turns this tale on its head by pairing two people from vastly different backgrounds and temperaments, yet both brutally honest and acceptable of each other within one train ride.

Dante with his children is catching a train to Ballater as he fails to find a wife among the beau monde society.

Lady Joan Flynn is desperate to flee to Balfour House because she feels that she had disgraced her family and is faced with a dilemma of how to fix this problem.

As Dante comes to her aid more than once during her trip to Scotland, they both come to realize that each is an answer to the other’s dilemma.

Grace Burrowes is my hero. No joke. She writes stories that are so relatable and could apply to any one of us, regardless of the time setting.

I loved everything about this story from the pace, plot and characterization. This was one sweet, tender and heartwarming Christmas read! Highly recommending it to all of you but especially to those that have never read this author. Time for you to start and may as well be this one.

Melanie for b2b

Complimentary copy provided by the publisher ( )