What A Lady Needs for Christmas by Grace Burrowes (MacGregors #4)
Released: October 7, 2014
Historical Romance
Sourcebooks

Reviewed by May

This story opens as Lady Joan is trying to book passage on a (full) train and a child comes to her aid. The child happens to belong to Mr. Dante Hartwell, a man Joan has met and thinks well of. As the pair get to know each other on the train a bit Mr. Hartwell realizes that a marriage to Joan could be most advantageous, and Joan realizes while marrying down, a marriage could solve her pending scandal and increase her happiness as well.

Soon enough the train ride ends and the couple are off to a house party where they are joined by her family (oh, the coincidence!) and they marry quickly. For all the mistletoe and lively characters this could have been quite a delightful winter read.

Sadly for me, this book didn’t work out. I have several problems in fact. The biggest one for me was that the author chose to force the heroine to find her own pleasure during sex, if she has time before her husband finishes his own, that is. Her husband never offers any help in that regard (not even a well-placed finger… come on man!) and this really set me off. I mean it really annoyed me that this is allegedly a romance novel and the “hero” is a man so lazy in bed he can’t be bothered to see his wife to completion. Once he is done she gets a pat on the head and a “maybe next time”. Repeatedly.

He isn’t a bad guy – he works hard and seems like a good sort. But my goodness I don’t know any romance reader who wants to hear about such a lazy in bed type of man!

Second problem: no real heat. I love that this was a mutually convenient marriage for them, and that their relationship was a slowly building thing. That said there was never anything powerful, moving, or remotely interesting either. Of course considering Dante’s lack of sexual prowess I suppose I should have expected it.

Third and final big problem that I have is that the story is a mucky mess. It starts when Joan believes she may be pregnant hours after she may have had sex. She’s not sure if she had sex or not – she was very drunk and has no memory of it. Then this man (not Dante) comes back to threaten her because she’s so talented and such. Then her brothers get involved, and Dante is there, and there is a sort-of romance budding in the background for two other characters, and there are kids, and it is the holidays…

In other words, a lot was there, but not much actually worked. It is a shame because this author is capable of quite the heartwarming, satisfying, and utterly delightful read. The holiday aspect never really came into play much other than it being cold, and sadly cold is how I would describe this book in general.

This book is not a total fail, as I did really like our heroine and reading about her dress making. I also enjoyed many of the supporting characters and there were a number of good scenes and moments too. It just didn’t come together in the end, much like our poor heroine in her marital bed. What that lady needs for Christmas is for someone to give her husband some lessons in how to pleasure his lady wife!

Grade: C-

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