Acquired Book By: I am a hostess with Writerly Yours PR – which is run by my dear friend Priya of whom I met during a blogger panel. We have become friends through our collaborations and it has been an honour to work with her on her publicity projects for Indie authors – most of whom I have been featuring a guest author feature as I cannot read digital copies of books. In this particular instance, I was allowed to print the PDF in order to read in full for which I was thankful to the author for allowing me to do so in lieu of a paperback copy to read.
This particular story had a blog tour anchoured by Twitter chats last year wherein we attempted to break the novella down into collections of chapters and discuss the story via Twitter until time and circumstances prevented us from continuing. I have captured as much of the chats as I could which are included at the bottom of this post. I was meant to post this review on the 20th of December, 2016 however, it took me awhile to re-shift back into reading and blogging after my Dad’s stroke. This year, I felt more inclined to focus on Christmassy stories than I had last December where my reading habits were quite difficult to recapture.
I received a complimentary copy of “A Christmas Surprise” direct from the author Emily Murdoch in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Why I was keen on reading this story:
I personally love stories about upstairs/downstairs situations where the propriety of the past and the curious connections of those whom find themselves in love – sometimes do not hold fast to tradition. In this particular case, there is a twist of a surprise about whose heart is being wooed by which suitor and I thought it would be an interesting story to read. If only to see how the author brought the two together and how the story-line handled the twist in the end.
It was my original intention to continue to host the Twitter chats, as I had started them off by prompting directed conversations about the chapters we were reading at hand – however, most of those on the blog tour I found had read the novella ahead of the chats, whereas Priya and I were reading only the chapters pertinent to the chats to have the story ‘on mind’ to talk about as we proceeded forward. We were attempting to have it as a ‘readalong’ convo series in other words. I do regret I had to bow out of the chats, but as foresaid, I am including a capture of the chats below this review.
Likewise, I hadn’t foreseen my circumstances would have changed outright Thanksgiving weekend, and sadly, this was one of the blog tours I was not able to hold onto posting on schedule. I had tried to keep myself positioned to run this before Christmas, but I simply found my focus was limited and not where it had been prior to my Dad’s stroke. Therefore, I am running it after Christmas whilst running a succession of posts about #ChristmasReads ahead of ringing in the New Year.
A Christmas Surprise
Subtitle: A Regency Romance
Every year for thirty years Lord Robert, the Viscount of Marchwood, throws a Christmas Ball.
But this year the Marchwood Christmas Ball holds extra importance.
His daughter, Lady Audrey, has just turned eighteen, and it is time for her to be introduced into society.
It is Audrey’s first, best, and potentially only chance of securing a husband.
Especially seeing as there are rumours that the Marchwood money is running dry.
But headstrong Lady Audrey is not sure she wants a husband.
Ever since her mother died she has been left to her own devices.
Though she is very close to her father, it was often the servants she turned to for companionship, particularly Thomas, who, five years older than her, was always the person she depended on for conversation.
She is not ready to leave everything she knows, and the thought of abandoning her father breaks her heart.
She is determined that only someone truly special will take her away from her home.
But with the ball centred around a masquerade theme, everyone is in disguise.
And a handsome stranger threatens to steal Audrey’s heart.
Could he hold the key to her heart?
And when she unmasks him will it be a good, or bad, Christmas Surprise?
‘A Christmas Surprise’ is a festive regency romance novella.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9781517456153
on 30th September, 2015
Pages: 94
Self-Published Author
Formats Available: Paperback and Ebook
Converse via: #HistRom, #HistoricalRomance, #Regency or #IndieAuthor + #ChristmasRomance
Read MoreReading this book contributed to these challenges:
- #WYChristmasReadathon
- 2017 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge