His Christmas Pleasure

So, the story is: Abby is a 25 year old, almost spinster whose father is trying to get her to marry a morbidly obese widower with 13 children in an arranged marriage that would benefit everyone but Abby herself. Obviously, as you do, she elopes with a sexy, Spanish guy named Andres at the first opportunity, to thwart her father. This handsome Lothario, however, is flat broke and marrying Abby primarily for her money to fix up a house given to him by his ex-paramour's husband. It's...weirdly complicated. The short of it is, Abby's parents won't let her live her life and Andres can give Abby the life she wants...if she gives him her dowry. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement for both of them.

I felt really distanced from this story. show more There's a lot of telling and not a lot of showing in the narrative. "She is this" and "he did that", and -- after a while -- it got tedious because it felt like I was reading a summary of events rather than an actual, engrossing story. Abby and Andres didn't feel like real people to me either, just a couple of dull, poorly fleshed out characters placed in a wallpaper historical. Yes, Andres is Spanish, but he is such a cardboard cutout character, along with Abby, that I never felt like either of them were anything different from every other hero and heroine out there. I'm pretty sure by tomorrow I won't even remember their names.

Still, this was an okay book. Right up until the climatic ending, which ENRAGED me. The heroine gives the hero your standard "prove your love to me" test, which is fine, but... The actual test itself threatened everything that the hero held dear; he could have lost it all for the super selfish heroine! I'm sorry, but JERK MOVE, Abby. We don't test the people we love by forcing them to choose between you and something they've been working super hard towards, something else that they love. I was half-hoping that Andres would roll his eyes and leave her to teenage emo angst, but ALAS. This last half ruined the book for me. 2 stars = D-ish grade. show less

My first time reading this author. I liked it. It felt pretty true to the time period. The characters did not just seem like modern people in period dress.

Pros: The hero and heroing eloped as a convenient arrangement and encountered problems and eventually her father disowns her and they have to make it without money as the hero has only a very run down small estate. Instead of giving up she sticks with him and believes in him and they work together to better themselves. Another good point is that there was not a lot of shall we go to bed together back and forth foolishness. She mentions that she would rather not sleep with him and he says don't be absurd and takes her to bed. He doesn't force her but does make her realize that it is an show more expected part of marriage and makes it good for her. (He is a handsome Spanish hero after all) It was refreshing to see a realistic portrayal of this aspect of marriage. Instead of false tension achieved through the use of delaying the first sex scene.

The characterizations while not the most indepth I've ever read were good and believable. The plot also was not absurd. The love story was the only focus of the book, no spies or murderers or whatnot.

Cons: I think the book would have been stronger if less time had been spent on the build up to the elopement and more time spent showing them working together renovating Stonemore. Those were the scenes that were of the most interest to me. Showing him using his ingenuity to build a home for them.

A lovely regency and I will look up more of this author's books. show less

Horrible title (love that no one knows what I'm reading on my ereader unless I tell them! No awkward covers to hide from others), but it was a pretty decent story--until the last twenty or so pages. Everything was wrapped up way too quickly and neatly. As always, I'm all in favor of the HEA, but this one was so abrupt in its race to the conclusion that it almost felt as if suddenly a new writer took over who only had the vaguest of ideas about who the characters were and what their lives had been like previously. Their dialogue suddenly became stilted, characters suffered complete and total turnarounds that might possibly have been extremely painful and pulled something internally, and any and all obstacles in the way of Abby and show more Andres's eternal happiness together were smashed into oblivion. If more time and careful execution had gone into the ending, it would have been a solid four-star read for me, as it is, it'll have to settle for three. show less

Read from November 28 to 29, 2012

Listened for Fun! (Audible)
Overall Rating: 4.00
Story Rating: 3.75
Character Rating: 4.25

Audio Rating: 3.75 (Not part of the overall rating)

Part of my 25 Holiday Reads for 2012

How His Christmas Pleasure put me in the Holiday Spirit: This season I am really loving the historical reads and this is not an exception. How they met, how they connected, and the spirit of the relationship put me in the Holiday spirit.

What I thought of the Characters/Story: His Christmas Pleasure is a marriage of convenience story with a ton of heart. Almost from the beginning, you can feel the attraction, mutual respect, and start of love from both Abigal and Andres. It is the respect and trust (though yes this was tested) that show more really won me over. They seemed to be each other's biggest champions. I fell in love with them as a couple and enjoyed their romance.

What I thought of the audio: Narrated by Jaime Birch, I thought she did an excellent job on all the voices except maybe Andres. It took me awhile to warm up to her doing his voice. I am almost positive this was due to his Spanish accent. Otherwise, the pacing, narration, and cadence was wonderful for the story. I will listen to her read/act out another book in a heartbeat. show less

Full Review Appears on my blog:
http://authorjanebnight.wordpress.com...

I absolutely loved the characters! Andres is a dreamer who I could totally respect and root for. He wants to breed horses and he will do whatever it takes to make that dream a reality. That made him extremely sexy.

Abigail wants things her way and isn’t willing to let others choose her path. Plus, she is a little insecure which I liked. From the very beginning I wanted her and Andres to make it.

The beginning and middle of the book were amazing. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Will Andres and Abigail elope without getting caught. Is the property Andres taking them to going to be all he dreams or will it be horrible. What will Abigail say once she gets show more to Andres’ property and finds it wasn’t quite what she was led to believe? I loved it.

The ending of this book really disappointed me. Abigail asks Andres to do something that could potentially destroy his dreams of being a horse breeder. I thought it was really selfish and unfair of her to do.If she really loved him like she thought she did then why would she ask him to risk his big dream just to prove to her that he loves her.

Without giving away the ending, I will say that everything works out but it didn’t feel totally believable. Andres and Abigail have lost everything and are in real trouble when suddenly the problem is solved. There had been hidden subterfuge going on with another character and they swoop in to save the day. Abigail and Andres get everything they want and it is just unbelievably tidy. show less

Listened for Fun! (Audible)
Overall Rating: 4.00
Story Rating: 3.75
Character Rating: 4.25

Audio Rating: 3.75 (Not part of the overall rating)

Part of my 25 Holiday Reads for 2012

How His Christmas Pleasure put me in the Holiday Spirit: This season I am really loving the historical reads and this is not an exception. How they met, how they connected, and the spirit of the relationship put me in the Holiday spirit.

What I thought of the Characters/Story: His Christmas Pleasure is a marriage of convenience story with a ton of heart. Almost from the beginning, you can feel the attraction, mutual respect, and start of love from both Abigal and Andres. It is the respect and trust (though yes this was tested) that really won me over. They seemed to show more be each other's biggest champions. I fell in love with them as a couple and enjoyed their romance.

What I thought of the audio: Narrated by Jaime Birch, I thought she did an excellent job on all the voices except maybe Andres. It took me awhile to warm up to her doing his voice. I am almost positive this was due to his Spanish accent. Otherwise, the pacing, narration, and cadence was wonderful for the story. I will listen to her read/act out another book in a heartbeat. show less

HIS CHRISTMAS PLEASURE BY CATHY MAXWELL is an exciting Christmas historical romance set in 1810 London. It is well written with depth, details, turns and twists. It has passion, sensuality, romance, love, secrets, wit, family, miracles, horses, longing to belong and making dreams a reality. The hero, Andres, is a Spaniard, lonely, a rogue, handsome, illegitimate, determined to prove his worth to his peers. The heroine, Abigail, is rich, lonely, beautiful, set aside by others as plain, the only daughter of a wealthy banker and looking for love. Enter Andres....Abigail encounters Andres in the library of Abigail's uncle looking at a dueling pistols, knowing the chamber is empty he places it at his head. Abigail races to him to stop him show more from committing suicide, she thinks. Andre informs her he would never commit suicide. His father had done just that when everything had been taken away from him in Spain. They are intrigued with each other.When Abigail learns her parents are about to marry her off to an older man with thirteen children she is appalled. Andres learns from Abigail she has a fortune waiting for her when she marries. He is broke and needs her money, she needs him. When Andres proposes to her, she accepts and they elope to Scotland. Together, they learn true love, passion,and receive the greatest miracle of all. This is a fast paced story about love, forgiveness, moving on with life, learning to trust and the miracle of family and belonging. This book was received for review from Net Galley and details can be found at Harper-Collins Publishing and My Book Addiction and More. show less