CBR18 Book 12: "In Which Winnie Halifax is Utterly Ruined" by Alexandra Vasti

Page count: 196 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Reading Rainbow - Purple/violet cover

It's 1811. Winnifred "Winnie" Wallace just wants to settle down in a small town in Wales and raise sheep. She has a modest amount of money, given to her by her con woman mother before said woman absconded to France. However, being a single woman trying to establish herself leads to a lot of suspicion, so Winnie fibs a tiny bit and claims to be married, but estranged from her husband. She literally makes up a name and an address for her fictional spouse, and suddenly she's welcomed into the community.

Ten years later, Spencer Halifax, the Earl of Warren, is told by his solicitor, Henry Mortimer, that it has come to his attention that a woman claims to be married to Spencer, and has copies of banns that very much seem to suggest that the wedding took place. Because all the church records of the place where they supposedly got married were lost when the church burned down, legally speaking, there is no way to disprove the claim, and Spencer may in fact have a wife in Wales. 

Spencer has to rescue his fake wife from the local jail, where she's ended up after punching a rival farmer who accused her of theft. Once she cleans up all the grime, he is, of course, stunned by her beauty (they are never just plain and average in these stories). She convinces him that she in no way wanted to defraud or entrap him in any way, and is rather shocked to realise that her clever lies and external circumstances might mean they are actually legally married. She agrees to accompany him to London, but there is a chance they may have to ask for an actual annulment.

Margo's novella was the shortest of the three stories, and the one I liked the least. Matilda's is probably the longest, and the one I liked the most. That puts Spencer's novella smack bang in the middle, at four stars. It's the most farcical of the three stories, and the plot just keeps getting more and more preposterous as the story progresses. There's the fake marriage to be dealt with, and Winnie's secret plan to return the stolen necklaces her mother gave her to their rightful owners, which involves showing up at dinner parties and hiding in broom closets, and sneaking about at the opera, and what have you. It's not quite insta-love in this story, but it comes very close. Winnie and Spencer don't spend a lot of time together before it becomes clear that their fake marriage should become a real one, and that both of them are sick of being alone and terribly responsible apart, when they have so much fun together. 

I'm really glad that I have discovered Alexandra Vasti as a writer. I have an ARC of the novel she's releasing in June, and I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Judging a book by its cover: The covers of Vasti's self-published novellas are a lot less elaborate than her current romance covers. I do really like the shade of purple used for the background and the little white flowers. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR18 Book 11: "The Halifax Hellions" by Alexandra Vasti

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Novella 1: In Which Margo Halifax Earns Her Shocking Reputation (3.5 stars)

Novella 2: In Which Matilda Halifax Learns the Value of Restraint (4.5 stars)

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

This book collects two previously self-published novellas of Alexandra Vasti's, and includes an additional epilogue which has never before been available.

Margo and Matilda Halifax are identical twins, the wealthy younger sisters of an Earl and have basically been seen as outrageous scandals for the years since they made their debut. Both are fiercely loyal and protective of the other; however, neither of them knows that the other has grown rather weary of being seen as shocking and extreme, and they mostly now long to settle down and live quieter lives.

Lady Margaret "Margo" Halifax shows up, soaking wet, on the doorstep of Henry Mortimer, her brother's solicitor and best friend. She believes Matilda has eloped with a dangerous and unpleasant man, and wants to intercept her sister before she gets to Scotland to get married. Henry has been a responsible and steady presence in her life since they met seven years ago, and he's the only one she can think of to ask for help in this situation. 

Henry Mortimer has been in lust with Margo since the first moment he saw her, tying a cherry stem into a knot with her mouth, while fending off suitors in her family's drawing room. He's been in love with her almost as long, because as her brother's best friend, he has seen other sides to Margo than most people in the ton have. The thought of being alone in a carriage with Margo for days on end is pure torture, because he's not sure he'll be able to keep his feelings hidden, but he can't let her endanger herself by running off alone to rescue Matilda.

I'm sure it will be no surprise to anyone that Henry's absolutely right, and that after days in close confinement, they are ready to jump each other's bones. Margo is less in tune with her feelings than Henry, so it takes her a bit longer to realise that she doesn't just want a quick fling with Henry, she'd like to spend the rest of her life with him (whether they manage to stop Matilda or not). 

My notes show me that I read this novella in August 2024, and despite this, I only barely remembered any details. It felt like I was reading it for the first time, not re-reading an old favourite. I can only imagine I was in a very strange headspace when I first read it, which made the details of the story slip from my mind. 

Margo and Henry's novella is the shorter of the two, taking up the first third of the book. Towards the end of the story, our bumbling pursuers actually manage to catch up to Matilda and her potential groom, and it's clear that the sisters should have been a lot more honest and forthcoming with one another. 

Matilda has not been entirely truthful about her true relationship to Christian de Bord, the Marquess of Ashford, who has a very fearsome reputation and possibly murdered his wife. Ashford normally resides alone with his sister in Northumberland, but travels to London because very erotic images of him have been printed in a lewd pamphlet, and he has identified the artist as none other than the infamous Matilda Halifax. She's rather shocked when he confronts her, and while she proves to him that the original drawings have been tampered with, probably to sell more pamphlets, she also feels compelled to confess that he was the inspiration for a lot of her drawings (she's been illustrating erotica in secret for years). Our Matilda has heard rumours about Ashford that he may share certain sexual proclivities of hers, and has apparently been nursing some pretty spicy fantasies about the reclusive nobleman.

Because of the drawings and his already rather dark reputation, Ashford hasn't been able to find an art tutor for his younger sister. Matilda, who is an accomplished artist (she doesn't only draw erotic images) and feels guitly about her part in his difficulties. So she offers to go with him to his estate in Northumberland to tutor his sister, and hopefully persuade her that she might want to travel to London in the near future. Instead of explaining this to her sister, however, Matilda concocts a lie about eloping, and the situation is further complicated because Margo disguised herself as her sister and tried to confront Ashford. Feeling rather irritated because of his inconvenient attraction to the young lady, Ashford said some very shocking things, only to realise shortly afterwards that he'd made suggestive and rather threatening remarks to the wrong twin. So Margo believe her sister to be running off to marry a deranged, perverted wife-murderer. 

While Margo's novella takes place in quite a short space of time, Matilda's story is spread out over a longer time period. There is delighful bantery letters exchanged between her and Ashford, and there's all sorts of mutual pining, Matilda adopting a cat she plans to give to Christian's sister (and him allowing the cat to stay, despite being violently allergic). There's also winning over the Mrs. Danvers-esque housekeeper and trying to befriend Ashford's painfully shy younger sister. I liked the second novella a lot more, mainly because I felt the relationship between Christian and Matilda had time and space to develop properly.

I enjoyed both novellas, though, and am glad I also have the third one Ms. Vasti self-published, where we find out how the elder brother of the twins meets and falls for his wife. 

Judging a book by its cover: I like the bright colours and whimsical details on this cover. The dark and forboding castle in one corner, with the implication that Matilda has been carried off by the brooding Christian, while Margo and Henry pursue them in a carriage. The cherries and the cat are also nice touches (although the cat decribed in the story seems a lot closer to a Persian than the cat on this cover). 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.