He’s come undone

I have a stack of books that I am reading and will be reading.  Books I selected specifically for CBR7 and my goal of 52 reviews this year.  My list is heavy on the scifi and fantasy, but romance keeps sticking it’s pretty nose in my list, so another romance it is.  Mrs. Julien kindly lent me Cecila Grant’s novella, A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong.  I must read it within 2 weeks, so what am I to do, but quickly read and review?

Mr. Andrew Blackshear is an honorable gentleman.  Miss Lucy Sharp is the daughter of a Baron.  They meet when Mr. Blackshear travels to visit Miss Sharp’s father to purchase a hunting bird for his soon to be married sister.   A chance encounter on a muddy road gives Mr. Blackshear a first view of Lucy – hair down and windblown, striding along like a goddess.  He is captivated by her walk and the shape of her mouth even as he is shocked by the impropriety.  They meet again a short while later when she is properly turned out, in a proper drawing room, under the proper chaperonage of her father.  Mr. Blackshear is very concerned with propriety while Lucy and her father are more practical.  When it becomes clear that the only way Lucy will be able to attend a Christmas house party is if Mr. Blackshear drives her there in his carriage, propriety is no match for practicality.

As the short journey becomes a long journey, Andrew and his notions of propriety come apart.  Kindnesses abound. Propinquity gives rise to appreciation, and the simmering attraction has a chance to blossom.  It’s a lovely story, with no bad guys.  Misfortune and the culturally imposed limits of propriety force the protagonists together and keep them apart.

This was my first Cecilia Grant book, but I will read the rest of her books about the Blackshear family, but not until after I finish the three books I was reading when I picked up A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong.