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A Christmas Ball

by Anthology: Ashley, Bryan, Johnson

reviewed by Cheryl Sneed

October 2009, 336 pages, Publisher: Leisure, ISBN: 084396250X

All three of the stories in A Christmas Ball have scenes which take place during Lord and Lady Hartwell's annual Christmas Ball. However, the device is, for the most part, rather clunkily employed and only one of the stories was worth reading.

My Lady Below Stairs: Emily Bryan

Jane Tate is the illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Sommerville and works in his house as a scullery maid. One day, she is called in to impersonate her half-sister who has run away with the artist painting her portrait. Jane's father is out of town and his minions want Jane to attend a Christmas Ball in her sister's place where she is to accept a marriage proposal that will save the family finances. If she does not, the man she loves, Ian MacGregor the household's head groom, will be fired.

I'm afraid that I found this to be pretty dull. Ian and Jane are already in love when the story begins and the big conflict between them is that Ian doesn't feel worthy of the daughter of an earl, even if she is illegitimate, especially after he sees her in all her finery, dressed for the ball. There are a lot of characters that clutter up such a short story and I didn't much care about any of them. I did like that the hero and heroine are commoners and servants - a far cry from the usual lords and ladies - but aside from that, it was all rather bland.

The Longest Night: Jennifer Ashley

Baron Valentin accompanies the Nvegarian ambassador to England as an attaché and spy, but he has a personal reason for coming: to see Mary Cameron again. They met a year ago and fell in love in a previous book, apparently. Valentin asked her to come to him in Nvegarian, but she refused, not wanting to leave her life and her family. They meet again and the pull between them is even stronger than before. Can he convince her to leave with him this time? And who is the Nvegarian traitor?

Well, I didn't much care who it was, but then, I didn't much care for anyone in this story. This is a part of Ashley's "Nvegarian" series and there are characters and events from previous books that would have helped this story make sense to me if I'd read them. But I haven't, so the whole back story info dump wasn't very much fun to plow through, and Valentin inexplicably turns out to be a wolf shapeshifter who also has yet another persona (and body to go with it) as a demon. It was all too confusing for a newcomer to the series. The fact that neither Mary nor Valentin were terribly interesting or likeable characters doesn't make me want to explore the series further. And don't even get me started on the whiney, spoiled, wholly unattractive debutante Mary is chaperoning and whom I longed to slap. Ugh. This was a complete miss for me.

Traditions: Alissa Johnson

William Renwick, Earl of Casselbury, is a man with a plan. He is very organized, bordering on anal-retentive, and has decided that it is time to take a bride. He has his logical eyes set on Caroline Meldrin and is about to take his first steps to courtship, when he is distracted by Caroline's friend and companion, Patience Byerly. In a library at a ball, he witnesses Patience stuff an entire piece of cake into her mouth on a dare from her friend. How bizarre! And how intriguing. Soon, William's plans are in complete disarray as he becomes obsessed with Patience - and her mouth. But will Patience's secret put an end to the romance?

This is my favorite story in the anthology - indeed, it is the only story in the anthology that is any good. Thankfully, it is very good and almost took the bad taste out of my mouth that the previous two stories had left. I love seeing straight-laced men overset by love and the havoc it produces in their lives. William is a lot of fun, but so is Patience. She's had a careworn life, but hasn't allowed it to dampen her zest for life. She and William are sweet together and I was rooting for their Happily Ever After.

Reviewed by Cheryl Sneed, October 12, 2009