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A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong by Cecilia Grant
Christmas is in Andrew Blackshear’s plans. He intends to buy his sister a hunting falcon because she is getting married and he wants her to remember to preserve her individual identity throughout the marriage. Christmas is also on Lucy Sharp’s agenda. Her aunt and uncle will be hosting a home party where she will spend the holiday. It will be Lucy’s first experience with life away from falconry, and she wants to find a husband. Prim and proper Andrew is immediately drawn to the daring Lucy, but their ambitions drastically differ. How could their plans possibly go horribly wrong?
A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong is a sweet holiday tale that takes the Regency romance subgenre too seriously. The typical scenario is that a man-ho with large biceps and no feelings seeks a wife who won’t interfere with his liaisons. Virgin and man-ho are counting the stars and dreaming about love and happily ever afters. Man-velvet ho’s handgun runs out of ammunition in the presence of any naked form except the virgin, whose feelings he has suddenly come to value much and who he is trying to trick into marriage. “A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong” defies the rules.
Andrew is a virgin who won’t even think about having sex before getting married. Although he may admire the female body, he believes that masturbation betrays his potential spouse. His father, who did his duty and got his wife pregnant till she eventually passed away in the delivery bed, brought him up in a troubled household. Andrew is worried about his sister because he observes his mother not recovering from being pregnant.
As the eldest son, he is also genuinely considering his own future. At the age of 25, he believes that his desire for a strong bride to bear him an heir will be many years in the future. Readers are not likely to immediately connect with Andrew. The character is rigid and closed off. Andrew is too concerned with propriety and never being seen to do the wrong thing.
Society worries Lucy less now. They can’t judge what they don’t know, in her opinion. To the chagrin of her adoring aunt and uncle, Lucy was raised by a father who loves her sincerely and has complete faith in her. Despite how much she admires her father, she is aware that the moment has come to leave the safety of the nest and start hunting for a compatible companion as she travels on her next exciting journey. Lucy is convincingly clever, resourceful, and endowed with a personality that reads as positive, as opposed to the innocent young child typically portrayed in Regency novels.
During the holiday break, I was travelling from Florida to Tennessee when I read it in the van during a rainy day. The string of misfortunes that befall Andrew and Lucy are all about how the main characters will eventually get connected. Everyone they encounter is kind and eager to support one another. Even though I adore villains, a bad guy would have been horribly out of place in this Christmas tale.
While there is a certain allure to snap-together components, Grant creates a relationship between her primary characters that is grounded in reality and personality. As they spend more time together, Andrew and Lucy become more seductive. The novella’s conclusion is both unexpected and satisfying.
About The Book
It should have been simple…
With one more errand to go—the purchase of a hunting falcon for his soon-to-be-married sister—Andrew Blackshear has Christmas completely under control. He has no time to dawdle, no time for nonsense, and certainly no time to drive the falconer’s vexing, impulsive, lush-lipped, midnight-haired daughter to a house party before heading home. So why the devil did he agree to do just that?
It couldn’t be more deliciously mixed-up…
Lucy Sharp has been waiting all her too-quiet life for an adventure, and she means to make the most of this one. She’s going to enjoy the house party as no one has ever enjoyed a house party before, and in the meanwhile she’s going to enjoy every minute in the company of amusingly stern, formidably proper, outrageously handsome Mr. Blackshear. Let him disapprove of her all he likes—it’s not as though they’ll see each other again after today.
…or will they? When a carriage mishap and a snowstorm strand the pair miles short of their destination, the journey detours suddenly into scandal. Can the properest of men and the most provoking of women find a way to work together and save their Christmas from disaster?
A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong is a long novella/short novel of about 62,000 words. It’s a prequel to the already-available Blackshear Family series. The e-book includes an excerpt of about 5600 words from A Lady Awakened; the novella itself ends at about the 90% mark on your e-reader.
Blackshear Family series
0. A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong
1. A Lady Awakened
2. A Gentleman Undone
3. A Woman Entangled
The Review
A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong
9 Score
This novella is a prequel to the three novels and has as its protagonist Andrew, the oldest Blackshear brother. Andrew has featured only tangentially in the novels, but the idea one forms of him from the books is that he is responsible, stalwart, loyal to family, kind but very proper and not super fun to hang with. This novella gives us some insight into Andrew and a better understanding of his personality. Lucy lives a rather insular life with her father and is looking forward to a Christmas house party she's been invited to. Unfortunately, her coachman is injured and cannot take her, so it's up to a very reluctant Andrew (it's much too improper for her to be with a stranger for so long in a carriage) to transport her to her party on his way home to celebrate Christmas with his family.
PROS
- Delightful And Fun.
- Well Written Christmas Novella.
- Utterly Charming.
- Positive Feminist Romance.
CONS
- Awful.
- Strange Characters.
- Boring & Dull.
- Potential Unrealized.
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