CBR15 Book 82: "A Christmas Affair to Remember" by Mia Vincy

Page count: 202 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Sylvia Ray was married to a charming, persuasive man, who died and left her destitute. Because he lied to his family, they believed she was the reason he had ended up with massive debts, so they refused to give her any financial assistance after his death. After years of trying to support herself and keep herself from starvation, she's found a man who wants to marry her, and who can give her a secure future. 

Isaac DeWitt went to see as a young boy and was forced to leave his career in the navy when he damaged his leg. Now he works as an investigator and would like to settle down with a wife - but having grown up surrounded solely by men, women are a complete mystery to him. He enjoys flirting, but has absolutely no idea how to go about actually kissing or wooing a woman - what if he turns out to be disappointing?

Sylvia discovers Isaac's dilemma, and though she knows she shouldn't, she makes him a wicked proposal. The man she is marrying is sickly and her future union is unlikely to be passionate. Having one final fling before she marries again may be irresponsible, but she can't help herself. Isaac is more than happy to take her up on her offer, he'll get experience and confidence enough to find himself a wife, and she'll get some pleasant memories to think back on once she's married in the countryside, taking care of a hypochondriac.

It's been a few years since I read any romances by Mia Vincy, but she always writes her characters so well. In this holiday novella, which was free on her website, we meet the younger brother of Joshua DeWitt, the erstwhile grouchy hero of A Wicked Kind of Husband. Here he is an affectionate older brother and dotes on his wife and children. 

Several of my reading challenges for December asked for books set around winter and/or holiday time. This seemed like a good fit (and made me realise I probably want to re-read some of Vincy's novels). The older, experienced partner who offers to tutor the younger, virginal character in the amorous arts isn't an unusual trope, but the gender reversal where the woman is the experienced one and the man is the virgin is not one I can remember coming across very often. Of course, Sylvia is a widow and all of 33 years old. That's an OLDER woman in historical romance. I'm basically a crone now. 

Isaac and Sylvia have excellent chemistry and of course, start to fall for one another. The main conflict in the story is Isaac's inability to understand why Sylvia is determined to go through with her marriage to a sickly man who will never appreciate her, and why lust, and even love, isn't going to be enough to make her change her mind.

If you haven't read any Mia Vincy, this is a nice place to start. While there are cameos from other couples from her books, you don't need to have read any of their stories to enjoy this one. 

Judging a book by its cover: Mia Vincy's covers always seem to be done in gentle watercolours, with one specific colour dominating. On her other covers, there's pink, yellow, purple, and blue, while here the dominant colour seems to be a sepia-tinted orange. The covers always seem to suggest much more gentle stories than Vincy often delivers, but they are pretty. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

#CBR12 Book 94: "A Dangerous Kind of Lady" by Mia Vincy

Page count: 362 pages

Audio book length: 11 hrs 41 mins

Rating: 4 stars

While this is the third novel Mia Vincy has published, and the second book chronologically in her Stanhope Abbey series, all the books work well on their own. She writes excellent historical romances, though, so you should check out all of them.

Arabella Larke has been promised to Guy Roth, the Marquess of Hardbury since they were both children. He's been off exploring the world for years and years, and Arabella has been able to put off any other offers of marriage because she claimed to be honouring this agreement. However, Hardbury has returned to England, and one of the first things he did was send a letter breaking the engagement. Arabella's father is sick of waiting for Arabella to find a husband and start producing heirs, so he promises to cast her off entirely if she doesn't accept the suit of Lord Sculthorpe, a wealthy baron, and lauded war hero. Since Sculthorpe's words and leers make Arabella's skin crawl, she is desperate to find a way to escape marriage to him.

At the Prince Regent's ball in his honour, Guy Roth finds himself reunited with his former betrothed after she schemes to get them literally tied together for a time. While they were growing up, Arabella was the only one who ever dared to properly challenge him and they had a very combative relationship. She always liked to brag about how she was going to be a Marchioness one day, and Guy isn't really surprised to discover that Arabella is now a haughty, proud, and very manipulative woman. She represents everything he fled England to escape, including his now-dead father's tyrannical control over Guy. He's convinced she's upset that she's lost her chance to become his wife, and refuses to listen to anything she suggests, even as he fights his attraction to her.

While Guy was away, defying his father's expectations, his sisters were put under the guardianship of one of his father's friends, Sir Walter Threadgold. Guy wants to find a nice, calm, charming wife, regain guardianship of his sisters and settle down into the family life he's always dreamed of. He just needs to prove that Sir Walter is mismanaging his sisters' money somehow, he just needs to find the proof.

Back before Guy left England, he fell in love with an unsuitable woman, who his father disapproved of. Arabella's current fiancee, Lord Sculthorpe, ended up seducing this woman, and when challenged to a fight by Guy left him beaten severely and humiliated. The lady in question ended up becoming one of London's most popular courtesans. Arabella, therefore, believed that Guy might want to aid her in getting revenge against Sculthorpe by pretending to still be engaged to Arabella (until she could sort out a more suitable husband for herself). To her dismay, he distances himself from schemes, manipulation, dishonesty, and skulduggery of any kind. Guy is all that is honourable and stalwart, which doesn't really help Arabella get out of the match with the creepy Lord Sculthorpe, who seems obsessed with her virginity and the fact that he will possess her once they're married.

While Guy may be honest, honourable, and not have a manipulative bone in his body, his life-long rivalry with Arabella means that he doesn't just toss her out when she shows up at his townhouse at midnight, demanding that he deflower her (she's determined to claim her virtue for herself, because she'll be damned if Sculthorpe gets it). He thinks it's yet another scheme to get him to marry her and wants to reject her, but instead, their strange battle of wills and wits ends up with Arabella having achieved her goal of getting deflowered, leaving Guy absolutely baffled when she then leaves and claims she's gotten all she needed from him.

As Guy still insists on believing the worst about her, and refusing to listen to a word she says about how his eldest sister Frederica is in trouble, Arabella takes matters into her own hands and makes sure her family invites the Threadgolds to their estate, so Guy's sisters are nearby and she can keep an eye on them. She's shocked to discover that her father has decided that rather than getting married in the spring, like she's first believed, he intends for her to marry Sculthorpe within the month. She has a lot less time to free herself than she believed but refuses to be told what to do by anyone. If only Guy would have agreed to the fake engagement plan, everything would be so much easier...

If there wasn't already a very famous romance novel (possibly THE most famous) called Pride and Prejudice, that would be an excellent alternate title for this book. Arabella's twin brother Oliver died when they were children, and her entire life since then, Arabella has tried with everything she has to be a worthy heir to her father, while only meeting coldness and disappointment. To the world at large, she appears arrogant, haughty, and overly proud, so incredibly guarded that only a very few know her true self. She's ambitious, independent, and incredibly intelligent, constantly strategising and plotting, but mostly to take care of others and make sure that her friends and the people of the estate she is due to inherit one day are safe and well. She's been raised by her mother to be strong, forthright, and outspoken and refuses to suffer fools. Unfortunately, this has made her very unattractive on the marriage mart, and she's never had a chance to flirt or charm and because of her father's coldness has convinced herself that she is impossible for any man to actually love. She plans to wed the eldest son at the neighbouring estate, so they can live in an amicable and mutually beneficial, yet passionless marriage.

If Arabella is the proud one, Guy is very much the prejudicial one. Growing up, he only ever saw the fiercely ambitious and deeply competitive Arabella, the only one who never let him win or get away with anything, and never seemed to bother being nice to him, even though she seemed very pleased about her future as his marchioness. Controlled in every aspect of his life by his domineering father, Guy as a young man tried everything he could to rebel, ending up with his eventually leaving the country, cut off from any funds, and having to make his own way in the world. The years away built him into a strong and independent man, and now he's one of the highest peers in the realm and a deeply sought after match and business partner. Guy was disgusted by all the underhanded deals his father kept making, and because his father always intended him to marry Arabella, he's determined to choose a bride for himself, someone preferably the complete opposite of what she has grown up to become.

Yet every time he and Arabella meet, he can't deny his physical attraction to her, and he finds arguing with her exhilarating. Everyone, from Arabella to his sister Freddie assures him that he will be bored witless if he marries a sweet, quiet, biddable, and well-behaved young lady as his wife, but it takes him a long time to listen. It also takes him quite a long time to see the truth of Arabella's character, not exactly helped by her tendency to mask her true feelings behind hauteur and pride and getting super prickly every time she feels vulnerable. She would rather Guy despise her than see her as weak and needy, so it takes the two quite a long time to find their happy ending, even as they keep giving into their passions and falling into each other's arms along the way.

I thought Lord Sculthorpe was a villain who could have been dispensed with much earlier in the story than he was, and that's one of the reasons I don't rate this book higher. On the other hand, Arabella's mother turned out to be a wonderful surprise and I wish she'd been present for more of the story. 

After three novels from Mia Vincy, all excellent, she's now achieved auto-buy status from me. I suspect the next book in the series may be about Arabella'a artist friend Juno, and the duke that she claims to be platonic friends with and nothing more. I can't wait.

Judging a book by its cover: Mia Vincy's romances all have these wonderful dreamy covers, where the edges seem to have been softened, all dominated by one particular colour. Arabella's cover gets to be in tones of purple, indigo, and violet - which happens to be some of my favourites. At one point in the novel, Arabella is compared to an expansive starry sky (I know, it's very romantic), so it seems appropriate that this cover looks like she's surrounded by dark evening clouds. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR12 Book 91: "A Beastly Kind of Earl" by Mia Vincy

Page count: 384 pages

Audio book length: 11 hrs 53 mins

Rating: 4 stars

Some years ago (I want to say three?), two noblemen lied at a ball and claimed to have slept with Miss Thea Knight. She was humiliated and scandalised and both family and high society rejected her. She's been living lonely in the country under an assumed name as a ladies' companion. Now she's pretending to be her younger sister at a house party, so said sister can run away to Gretna Green and marry her true love. She also plans to publish a pamphlet with the true story behind her supposed ruin, and hopefully restore her reputation. She just needs to figure out how to get enough money to pay for the pamphlet's publication.

Rafe Landcross, the reclusive Earl of Luxborough, is believed to have murdered his first wife. He also has unsightly facial scars after having been attacked by a jungle cat during an expedition in the Americas. Due to a provision in his mother's will, he needs to get married to claim a large sum of money, but he also doesn't actually want another wife. He learns about Thea Knight and her sister's deception and figures that marrying Thea, who is using a false name, is the perfect plan. If he pretends to believe that she is, in fact, her sister and they get married, he can later have the marriage annulled once he has the inheritance in hand. Thea, on her part, intends to spend as much of her new husband's money to buy items she can easily resell, and then leave him. 

So Thea (under her false name) marries Rafe, and goes with him to his big and somewhat spooky estate. Gruff and introverted Rafe tries not to be charmed by Thea's optimistic nature and natural charm, while she refuses to be scared off by his terrifying appearance or dark reputation. Of course they start falling for one another and both of their schemes are complicated. They come to realise that they share a common foe, however, and might do well to unite to defeat him. 

Thea and Rafe are a delightful couple, who both have sad experiences in their past (Rafe very much more so than Thea). He's also never allowed to relax and forget about his failures, thanks to his powerful father-in-law, who keeps paying actors all over the country to publicly accuse Rafe of witchcraft, dark arts and murder. Rafe bears the various actors no ill will, knowing that they're only trying to make money. He's even mostly learned to ignore them. Nevertheless, his first marriage was a tragic one and now he's convinced that he never deserves happiness again (yes, that old chestnut). He also can't imagine that anyone as lively and vibrant as Thea won't waste away and hate living secluded in the countryside with a grumpy man obsessed with botany. 

Thea has never gotten over the fact that the only people who believed her and stood by her when the scandal broke was her sister and her best friend, Arabella Larke (who will help her publish the pamphlet). Thea's status-obsessed parents washed their hands of her and have refused any contact with her, so as not to harm the marriage chances of their younger daughter. Throughout the book, it's obvious that Thea so desperately wants to get back into her parents' good graces, even though they were willing to turn their backs on her in her time of need. Happily, she realises that there are other ways of building a family throughout the book.

Part of the conflict in the story obviously comes from the fact that Thea and Rafe start their relationship on a lie. Thea believes she is fooling Rafe with her false identity, he's using her to get his inheritance. As they get closer, both suffer from not being able to tell each other the full truth. It also takes Rafe quite a while to work through all his angst and misplaced guilt, but when he does, he comes through beautifully. 

I don't want to spoil anything, but this is a romance, and there IS a happy ending. The way the various threads in the novels come together into the finale is beautiful, and I'm so glad that I discovered Mia Vincy's books this year. She's quickly moving into pre-order category for me. 

Judging a book by its cover: I wasn't a huge fan of the overwhelmingly pink cover on A Wicked Kind of Husband (which is chronologically set AFTER both this and A Dangerous Kind of Lady (not sure why that is). This, however, in a beautiful sunny, cheerful yellow seems to fit perfectly with Thea's general temper and personality. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR12 Book 12: "A Wicked Kind of Husband" by Mia Vincy

Page count: 386 pages
Rating: 4.5 pages

Official book description:
Cassandra DeWitt has seen her husband only once—on their wedding day two years earlier—and this arrangement suits her perfectly. She has no interest in the rude, badly behaved man she married only to secure her inheritance. She certainly has no interest in his ban on her going to London. Why, he’ll never even know she is there.

Until he shows up in London too, and Cassandra finds herself sharing a house with the most infuriating man in England.

Joshua DeWitt has his life exactly how he wants it. He has no need of a wife disrupting everything, especially a wife intent on reforming his behavior. He certainly has no need of a wife who is intolerably amiable, insufferably reasonable … and irresistibly kissable.

As the unlikely couple team up to battle a malicious lawsuit and launch Cassandra’s wayward sister, passion flares between them. Soon the day must come for them to part … but what if one of them wants their marriage to become real?

Cassandra was married to a wealthy man who her father trusted to take care of her, but she hasn't seen him since their wedding day. She barely remembers what he looks like, she was nervous during the ceremony and it was dark when they consummated the marriage. Now Cassandra is doing her best to take care of the family estate, but after the deaths of first her brother and later her father, her mother is no longer to be relied on, mostly retreating into a laudanum stupor. Both her two younger sisters are out of control in different ways, and it's becoming painfully clear that the eldest of the two, Lucy, needs to have a season and be married off before she ruins the entire family and/or creates a scandal out of sheer boredom.

So against her harried secretary's advice (he was sent there by her husband to assist Cassandra), the young woman goes off to London to speak with her grandmother, the Duchess of Sherbourne, whose help Cassandra needs to her launch Lucy into society.

Joshua DeWitt has a lot of darkness and grief in his past. He believed himself to be the heir to the Earl of Treyford until he was fourteen. Then it was discovered that his father was a bigamist, so Joshua, his two younger brothers, and little sister were all illegitimate. Joshua's mother, no longer a countess, took his little sister and disappeared without a trace. Joshua and his brothers were disinherited and had to fend for themselves. One of his brothers went to India, the other joined the Navy, while Joshua eventually became a very wealthy and powerful industrialist. He was married once before and had a child, but it would be spoilery to reveal any more details than that. He felt intense gratitude towards Cassandra's father (who helped him settle his brothers in their chosen professions and helped Joshua get his own start), hence he married her as a favour, to make sure she could keep the estate in the family. He doesn't need, nor want a wife, and certainly has no intention of interacting with her in their London home.

When the couple are first reunited, in a public park, neither of them recognise the other. Cassandra believes her husband to be on an extended business trip in Liverpool, he thinks she's off in the country taking care of her family and estates. He wants her to go back to Warwickshire, she's not going to leave London until she's secured her grandmother's promise to help Lucy. This isn't really enemies to lovers, more like strangers to friends to lovers. From the start, the dialogue between Joshua and Cassandra is amazing:

“You’re meant to be in Warwickshire,” he said.
“You’re meant to be in Liverpool.”
“I did not give you permission to come to London.”
“I did not ask your permission.”
“You should…  Let me explain, Mrs. DeWitt, how marriage works.”
“Oh, please do, Mr. DeWitt, I’m all agog.”
“I am the husband, so I make the rules to suit me.”
“And I am the wife, so I change the rules to suit me.”
(...)
“You seem puzzled,” said his disruptive wife, as they reached the gate. “Have I said something to puzzle you?”
“Most of what you say puzzles me.  It’s almost as though you have a mind of your own.”
“Please don’t vex yourself. I’ll try not to use it too often.”

On the surface, Cassandra is all that a proper, young lady should be. She's unfailingly polite, gentle, dutiful, takes care of her family and dresses with decorum. Yet there is a lot of pain and darkness hidden underneath her mask of amiability as well, and having been forced into the unwilling role as the head of her family, she's certainly not going to let some man who hasn't bothered to even visit her order her around. Neither of her sisters understands the sacrifices she's made for them and her mother has entirely checked out.

Both protagonists carry a lot of understandable grief and have dark secrets they haven't been able to share with anyone. They both project one image to the world around them, while secretly feeling lonely and vulnerable. It's obvious to the reader from early on that they need one another a lot, but it takes them quite a while to open up to the other and accept help and support.

I wish I could go into more insightful details about the plot and characters, but the problem with 1) not taking notes while I'm reading and right after I finish a book to help me gather my thoughts about what I just read and 2) letting life get in the way and waiting a month and a half to review the book, means that I no longer remember clearly exactly why I really liked this book so much. I read it in little over 24 hours, which with my busy schedule and especially last year's deplorable reading record, is in itself a testament to how much I liked it. I promise it really is a very good book and it rightfully appeared on a bunch of the Best of 2018 end of year lists. The fact that this is a debut novel makes it all the more remarkable. I'm very happy that I discovered Mia Vincy and am very excited to read what she does next.

Judging a book by its cover: Gah, this cover is so excessively pink I can almost feel my teeth hurting. Rather than making me likely to buy the book, this would likely make me run (in a figurative sense, I really try never to run) in the opposite direction. Had I not read several extremely glowing reviews about this book, I would have relegated this book to the "Nope" pile - that's just too much Pepto Bismol pink in one place for me.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.