"Recommended anthology"

A Holiday Fling. British actress Jenny Lyme tries to save the "Tithe Barn Community Center" by producing a Christmas show for TV. She asks her former lover cinematographer Greg Marino to help. Both fondly remember about the other and want a second chance together.

The Christmas Cuckoo. Major Jack Howard heads to his aunt for Christmas, but instead ends up slightly drunk at public coach's inn. Meg Lambert goes to the inn to meet her brother's buddy, Captain Jack Howard, only to find him inebriated. The next morning Jack realizes the mistake, but soberly finds he desires Meg.

Sunshine for Christmas. Randolph Lennox goes to Italy to escape the loneliness of Britain. However, Naples remains as cold as his heart until he meets Elizabeth Walker whose fluent Italian helps him with a problem. As they tour together, they fall in love, but what happens after Italy?

The Christmas Tart. Her employer accuses seamstress Nicole Chambord of robbery and fires her. Sir Philip Selbourne settles his late father's estate. His friends decide Nicole could cheer him up but he believes this innocent gift is worth more than just a one-night stand.

The Black Beast of Belleterre. Baron James Markland wears a cloak to hide his hideous visage. He visits Sir Edwin Hawthorne, whose estate is in ruin due to gambling debts. Sir Edwin plans to sell his daughter Ariel to a lecher, but James buys her instead, promising a marriage in name only. However, Ariel wants a real relationship with her cloaked spouse.

Four reprints and one new story, CHRISTMAS REVELS is a wonderfully warm holiday collection that displays the gift of Mary Jo Putney.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted October 15, 2002

Read an Excerpt

Celebrate the holiday season with Mary Jo Putney in this delicious volume containing four of her classic Regency novellas, plus one new contemporary story.

Summary

In A Holiday Fling, a British actress and a Hollywood cameraman team up to film a Christmas show for a good cause. Anything that happens between them will be a strictly temporary holiday fling-or might it be more?

The Christmas Cuckoo features a level-headed young woman who goes to the local coaching inn and comes home with the wrong Jack Howard.

Sunshine for Christmas sends a lonely young aristocrat to Italy for the holidays, where he finds a most unexpected bonus.

The Christmas Tart is the tale of a young Frenchwoman down on her luck, whose bleak choice for survival takes her to a new chance for happiness.

The Black Beast of Belleterre turns Beauty and the Beast into a tender holiday love story.