Featuring the RITA Award-winning novella "I Will" by Lisa Kleypas. 4 excellent Christmas Regencies in one great book. Puddings, Pastries and Thou, by Lisa Cach; Union by Claudia Dain, and All I Want by Lynsay Sands make up the menu. You'll love all four. In I WILL, a young lord convinces a "spinster" lady to pretend an interest in order to keep his disinterested by dying father from disinheriting him because of his dissolute lifestyle. She agrees in order to keep her younger brother out of the gaming hells. Can you guess what eventually happens? PUDDINGS tells the story of Vivian Ambrose, a poor relation, horribly mistreated, and what the Christmas Spirit brings to her life. You'll feel warm all over after reading this one! UNION tells Clarissa's story, and her compulsion to marry only an Irishman, never an Englishman, although she's "coming out" in England, and neither she nor her family understands WHY she feels this desperate need. ALL I WANT is both funny and touching, a story about a girl who sets out to keep her father from putting the family in the poorhouse with his gambling, starts a crusade against a gambling house run by a Lord, and --well you can guess the rest. Needless to say, the wish list is complete by the end of the book. A very satisfying read!

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4 witty, warmhearted and sexy tales to keep you warm this holiday season. The one by Lisa Kleypas is very good-read and enjoy:)

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three stories in one.

Dear sT. Nicholas
What we'd really like for Christmas this year is:

An Irish Estate
A Family
A quiet elopement
Someone to close down all of the London clubs-(like whites)
or
Marriage to a man who is honest,loving, sexy, handsome, and titled.
But we know there aren't enough of those to go around...are there?
Respectfully,
For hopefull English ladies

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This was okay. Better than I thought it would be.

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Good book. The first story was the best of the four.

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Great read anytime of year!

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This anthology is an offering of 4 short stories in their first publication. Lisa Kleypas is a favorite author; the others are unknown to me. At the end, I will list the stories from fave-to-least.

I WILL (Lisa Kleypas) --
Having already read this in another collection just recently (in A CHRISTMAS TO REMEMBER), I'll repeat my evaluation. Caroline Hargreaves loathes Lord Drake. He is an intimate friend of her younger brother, Cade, and has led Cade astray (so that he owes huge amounts of money for gaming excessively). Lord Drake needs a faux betrothed because his father has disowned him (because of Lord Drake's hedonistic ways). Drake manipulates Caroline into acting as his love interest for a few months (until dear Papa reinstates Drake in his will). However, after his status is returned in the will, Drake decides to marry Caroline's cousin. Now what?

PUDDINGS, PASTRIES, AND THOU (Lisa Cach) --
Vivian Ambrose is a poor relation. Her previous relation (Vivian cared for her for years), has now died and Vivian has been passed on to the next relation. Unfortunately. Captain and Mrs.Twitchen have a daughter who is about to come out in her Season. Penelope is underwhelmed with the idea of sharing any of her dresses or beaus with Vivian.

Penelope suggests that Vivian find a marriageable partner in the next 10 days (so Vivian did not intrude on Penelope's Season). Vivian says she would marry anyone just to cease being a poor relation. Penelope suggests Vivian set her cap for the only unmarried man at the dinner that night. When Vivian asks Penelope why she didn't set her cap for the guest, Penelope demures. I did not like this story; the whole concept of capturing a man in 10 days was tasteless. Yuck.

UNION (Claudia Dain) --
I didn't the last one could be beaten for stupidity, I was wrong. Clarissa Walignford has 10 older brothers and she knows the game; she must marry soon and she is hunting for a husband. She's attracted to Lord Montwyn, especially when she finds out he has an Irish home. There was too much inner conversation and at the last minute, the author tells us why Clarissa insists on an Irish home. Frankly, it was not very interesting or realistic.

ALL I WANT (Lynsay Sands) --
Prudence Prescott's family is in danger of seeing the inside of a goal. Her father, Lord Prescott has been unable to accept his only son's death a year ago and he has been gambling and drinking himself to the poor house. He sneaks off early every morning and Pru cannot get to him to explain how bad things are getting. She goes to the club where her father gambles and drinks, but Lord Stockton, the owner won't let her into his establishment. But that doesn't stop Pru. Comedy laced with substance; a winner.

** Overall score (fave-to-least): Sands, Kleypas, Cach, Dain. Overall score = 3.5 stars

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Curiously, I think these stories are presented in this anthology in the order of their quality. I liked Lisa Kleypas' novella I WILL (the first in the book) very much. I would have been happy to have this story expanded into a whole novel, but even as a novella it's excellent - maintains a nice tension & has good characterizations. And Lisa Cach's PUDDINGS, PASTERIES AND THOU is very good. It's a sweet love story and also funny. Thereafter, things slide downward; Claudia Dain's UNION gets boring quickly; the last story is utterly forgettable.

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A lovely collection of Christmas-themed short stories. The Lynsay Sands story was the weakest of the lot and fairly boring. The others were charming holiday stories that just hit the spot.

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