Charmed at Christmas is the first in the continuing series of Castle Keyvnor Christmas books. I love the way that 12 authors have come together to create 4 fun books with overlapping characters and locations all focusing on falling in love at Christmas. In this book, 3 of my favorite authors do the holiday justice.
Deb Marlowe continues her theme of pixies and fairies that she started in the first series with Lord Locryn and the Pixie’s Kiss. Not even an accidental curse by a pixie’s kiss or a meddling Cornish chough can keep Locryn and Gwen from finding each other after meeting 8 years earlier. This story works in both the human story and the pixie story and both find the Happily Ever After that they deserve.
Erica Monroe presents a much darker and sadder story in The Determined Duchess. Felicity Fields has lost the one person who she loved and who loved her unconditionally when her aunt dies. She feels alone in the world and thinks that her only solution is to try to create a Philosopher’s Stone to bring her aunt back to life. When her cousin Nicholas (now a Duke) shows up offering/ threatening to bring her to London for a season, she is terrified. They had spent summers together as children but she hadn’t seen him in 6 years. Nicholas’s attraction to her helps him understand her solitary life and instead of chiding her for her experiments he attempts to understand and help her. This story was filled with so much sadness that it makes the ending even happier.
The final story in this collection is A Duke By Any Other Name by Claire Delacroix. In this story, Claire tells the delightful tale of a handsome Scottish Duke who disguises himself as a fop to find a jewel thief who had ruined his sister’s reputation. Alexander, the Duke of Inverfyre travels to the Castle Keyvnor area with a plan to catch a thief. Little did he know that he would meet a woman who would see through his disguise and help him catch the thief. She also managed to catch a husband. The descriptions of the Duke and his outfits and padded belly were hilarious. The attraction between Alexander and Daphne was immediate and the Happily Ever After was well worth the read.
I received an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review. ( )