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A Lyons in Winter*
Awesome Box Set Intro to Author
I so enjoyed this collection of novellas plus a novel! This was the first time I had read this author. I absolutely adore historical romance, particularly medieval, Regency, and Victorian. Because I read so much of these subgenres, I find that I am often disappointed at the willful disregard for the basic rules and mores of the times or a story that is filled too much with the familiar tropes. So I was delighted and enchanted to find well-written stories well-drawn and sometimes quirky characters. The stories themselves revealed an author who is well versed in Victorian manners and morality, yet still knows how to weave a story that focuses on the uniqueness of the characters and the particulars of their individual stories.
I particularly loved the first novella. I enjoyed how the author made the heroine, Madeline, erudite with her love of Shakespeare and the theater, yet she had a good sense of humor, compassion, and backbone surprising for a Victorian daughter of a duke. The author did an excellent job of showing how the hero gradually came to know his own mind and needs better; he was surprised and charmed by Madeline, and I love his chivalrous nature. I also enjoyed the humor in this book, in particular where the author brought the modern “never have I ever” game into Victorian times, as the hero often imagined himself composing a letter to his sister proclaiming that never had he done something as he was doing now at the house party at the duke’s. I like how the epilogue of this first story became the prologue for the next story, although it was told or from the perspective of the hero of that novel.
I really enjoyed all the members of the Lyons family as well as the Christmas spirit that flowed through these novels. While this may have been my introduction to this author, I am definitely going to look into her other books.