What a Lady Needs For Christmas. Grace Burrowes

What a Lady Needs For Christmas
Grace Burrowes
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Date: 7th October 2014
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 416
Genre: Historical romance
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

To escape a scandal, Lady Joan Flynn flees her family's estate in the Scottish Highlands. She needs a husband by Christmas, or the holidays will ring in nothing but ruin.

Practical, ambitious mill owner Dante Hartwell offers to marry Joan, because a wellborn wife is his best chance of gaining access to aristocratic investors.

As Christmas—and trouble—draw nearer, Dante and Joan's marriage of convenience blossoms into unexpected intimacy, for true love often hides beneath the most unassuming holiday wrapping...

What a Lady Needs for Christmas by Grace Burrowes is #4 in her MacGregors series.  However it can be easily read as a stand alone - although it may be a little difficult to get your mind around the minor characters.  The focus of this book is Lady Joan, a member of the aristocracy, and Dante Hartwell, more of the working classes.  

Lady Joan and Dante meet on a train and find eventually that they are meeting at the same place - Balfour.  Dante has two children, Charlie and Phillip and his sister Margaret.  As the Christmas season celebrations are prepared for, Dante and Joan have the opportunity to become more acquainted with each other and soon know many details about each other.  Joan has a love of drawing and designing women's clothes and it is this that has run her into a scandal that she is fleeing from.  Edward has managed to rob her of her designs while plying her with drinking and leaving her thinking that he has robbed her of her virginity as well.

Dante and Joan decide on marriage as the way to protect her from the scandal and plans are made for a quick marriage.  Then comes a twist when Edward turns nasty and begins to blackmail Joan.

There a number of twists and turns in the plot which made for engaging reading, there was humour as Joan's family gave Dante a grilling, and then there were rabbits that made for some lightheartedness. There is also a sub plot involving Hector and Margaret - Hector being Dante's chief assistant.

This was a pleasant early Christmas story, it is a Victorian historical romance, so the changes of that time are appearing in the classes.  The last part of the book was about family, and working together and being triumphant.  

Gabriel

Gabriel
Grace Burrowes
Published by: Sourcebooks, Casablanca
Date: 3rd September 2013
Format: e book
Pages:384
Genre: Historical Romance
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Summary from Goodreads.

Gabriel North has spent two years allowing his family to think he is dead, while he assumes the identify of a hard-working steward on the Three Springs estate.  When Gabriel falls in love with Polonaise Hunt, the cook at Three Springs, he realizes until he solves the mystery of who tried to kill him, he cannot ask this woman to share his life.

Gabriel resumes his proper identity as Marquis of Hesketh, only to find Polonaise has also resumed her calling, as a talented artist, and she is commissioned to paint Gabriel's heir.  While Gabriel tries to untangle the mystery of his attempted murder, he finds Polonaise has been keeping secrets of her own.  

My thoughts.
I enjoy the occasional historical romance, and Gabriel by Grace Burrowes was one that I enjoyed very much.  It moved a long at a reasonably good pace, and the characters were endearing - if not a little frustrating at times.

It took me a little while to settle into the story, I had not read the other books in this series, and I am not sure if these particular characters had been a part of a previous book.  However once I had orientated myself to their back story I began to understand it.

I was wrapped up in the mystery of who the potential murderer might be, and the reason why.  It turned out a little tame in the end, although I guess it was plausible.  The hero and heroine are likeable, and endearing, however I found it a little difficult to understand Polonaise's refusal to accept Gabriel's proposals of marriage.  Allemande, Polonaise's child, had a small part to play in this book, and she made a very fine character, with lots of fire and straight talking.  She believed in telling the truth, and couldn't abide the lies adult spoke, often because it was what they thought was the 'right' thing to do.

This book was well written and Grace Burrowes knows how to entertain with a very good historical novel.