His Mistletoe Bride
By Vanessa Kelly
Publisher: Zebra Books
Release Date: October 2, 2012
Phoebe Linville has never quite felt as if she really
belonged in the New Jersey Quaker community where she has lived since her
father’s death with her brother George and his family. Maybe it’s her memories
of the tales her mother told her, stories of the life she lived before she
married Phoebe’s father, a Quaker merchant from America, stories of the days
when she was Lady Elspeth, only daughter of the seventh Earl of Merritt, that
make Phoebe feel different. Or maybe it’s the temper she struggles to control
that keeps her from being an obedient Quaker. Whatever the reason, Phoebe
accepts her maternal grandfather’s invitation to come home to England. But
after a long, difficult journey, she is greeted by her distant cousin Major
Lucas Stanton with the news that her grandfather had died and his final wish
was that Phoebe marry his heir, Major Stanton.
Lucas Stanton is not enthusiastic about his new
responsibilities as the eighth Earl of Merritt. A soldier’s life suited him, as
did maintaining distance from his cousin, Stephen Mallory, Marquess of Silverton,
from whom he has been estranged for a decade. At first Phoebe is just one more
responsibility that Lucas feels duty bound to accept, but as they come to know
each other, he develops affection and respect for the young woman who is far
more spirited than he expected a Quaker miss to be. She’s also far more
beautiful than he expected, and he begins to think marriage to this “responsibility”
might be far more satisfying than he imagined.
Phoebe quickly comes to love her new family, who welcome her
warmly into their home and their hearts, but it is Lucas on whom she grows to
depend for security in the London social world that often confuses her and
sometimes troubles her. He also evokes feelings in her that she’s certain are
most inappropriate for a Quaker. But however attractive she finds Lucas, she
knows he is still very much a soldier at heart, antithetical to her beliefs,
and she is determined to marry for love, while Lucas is determined to avoid the
messy emotion at all costs. But a run-in with a cad at a ball and the very
emotional kisses that she and Lucas exchange afterward leaves her with no
choice but to marry him to avoid plunging her new-found family into scandal.
Phoebe knows she loves Lucas, and everyone but Phoebe and
Lucas knows that he loves her. But the two of them are very different, and
their differences are exacerbated by conditions at Mistletoe Manor and the
troubles in the village. On the subject of the smuggling ring that is operating
on Merritt land, Lucas is strictly law and order, and Phoebe is all compassion
and mercy. Christmas is the season that honors a miracle of love, but will even
the season in a house full of servants named Christmas be enough to bring this
pair of opposites their own miracle?
I’ve been a Vanessa Kelly fan since I read an ARC of
her debut book, Mastering the Marquess, which reminded me in many ways of my beloved
traditional Regencies, which had all but disappeared at that point. One of the
things I liked best was the strong, resourceful heroine who was also flawed and
vulnerable. That has become the pattern of Kelly’s books, and it’s one of the
reasons they are all favorites of mine. Phoebe is no exception. I loved her
independence, her honesty, her refusal to forsake her beliefs. And while I may
have thought Lucas should have recovered from that early love affair sooner, I
both liked and understood him. There’s a particularly revealing passage early
on that makes clear how he has been shaped by his experiences as a warrior:
“No one who had ever lived through war could ever completely
turn his back on it. And part of him didn’t want to. Not the killing, of
course, but the purpose and clarity that came with knowing what must be done,
and then doing it. No messy relationships or extravagant emotions, no broken
promises or betrayals that could turn a man’s life into a complicated hell.”
From that point, I knew this man and wanted to see him find
his HEA.
There are Christmas books in which the holiday is just a
backdrop, a stage setting that could be changed without significantly altering
the story. Then, there are others in which the season is an inextricable part
of the story, stories whose meaning would change in essential ways if the
setting were different. His Mistletoe Bride belongs in the latter group. It’s a
lovely, heartwarming story about romantic love, familial love, and love of one’s
fellow human beings; it’s a story about forgiving and growing and opening one’s
heart. It’s the best kind of Christmas romance. I highly recommend it.
What are some of your favorite holiday romances in which the
holiday is a significant part of the story?
