"Christmas Joy"

I am a complete sucker for Christmas Anthologies, I love the spirit and feel of the short stories my favorite authors offer in the Yuletide season.

A REGENCY CHRISTMAS is a feast for the Holiday season and the stories are, with one exception, uniformly wonderful.

The Amiable Miser by Edith Layton starts this anthology off with a charming story of a miser, who is Scroogelike in some ways, but is not a curmudgeon. Alfred Minch is quite cheerful, as a smile or compliment costs him nothing. Minch has taken in his cousin Joy and she has labored in his bookstore to pay for her keep. Minch turns into an unlikely Christmas Cupid to give Joy the man of her dreams and the end result is pure Christmas schmaltz--just what I want from a Christmas story.

Metzger's A Home for Hannah brought a tear to my eye as a young child finds a family for herself. The hero, Gregory Lord Bryson is penniless and in desperate need of marrying an heiress to save his estates. Hannah's appearance quashes his best hope, but when he realizes that Hannah is his late brother's child; he takes her into his home. His finding not just an heiress, but a love for himself was great fun to read and this one put a tear in my eye at the end.

A Partridge in A Pear Tree by Amanda McCabe is just pure fun. A wealthy Aunt stages a 'scavenger hunt' to determine the heir to her estate and watching the hero and heroine join forces to outwit her obsequious nephew and his obnoxious family had me laughing out loud.

The Solid Silver Chess Set by Sandra Heath, was the only disappointing story in the set. The entire story hinges on my least liked plot device--The Big Misunderstanding--and also involved a screw-up elf. Once the couple talked and ironed out the misunderstanding, the story picked up and the couple became quite likable.

Carla Kelly's No Room At The Inn was a charming story about a woman who has just discovered that she is not the Lady she was raised to be. Mary lands on the doorstep of Joseph Shepherd, who she loved as a child. This story relied a lot on coincidences, but was ultimately satisfying due to the decency and chemistry of the main couple. This one had a fittingly schmaltzy ending and left me with a smile on my face--what more can one ask of a Christmas Anthology?

Reviewed by Linda Hurst
Posted November 5, 2002

Summary

This Christmas, cozy up with five all-new Regency tales!

From five award-winning and bestselling Regency authors comes an all-new collection of Christmas stories that capture the warmth and magic of the holiday season.