Betrothed by Christmas by Jess Michaels & Elizabeth Essex

Published: October 15th 2019

Publisher: The Passionate Pen LLC

Length: 355 Pages

My Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

A madcap plan to avoid marriages they do not desire, leads two women to romance and passion they don’t expect in a duet of novellas by bestselling authors Jess Michaels and Elizabeth Essex.

A Lady’s Gift for Seduction by Jess Michaels
Lady Evangeline is a Diamond of the First Water, but she fears her father will match her to his own advantage, not hers. She decides marrying a biddable groom is the only way to salvage her future and chooses her old friend, astronomer Henry Killam. But she soon realizes Henry isn’t quite as manageable as she first believed and her feelings for him are stronger than she ever imagined.

A Lady’s Gift for Scandal by Elizabeth Essex
Miss Tamsin Lesley desires above all else to be a bluestocking and lead an intellectual life. The only thing standing in her way is her father’s heir, who wants her along with her father’s estate. To foil him, Tamsin enlists the services of masculine wallflower Simon Cathcart to ruin her. But the road to ruination leads to far more pleasurable places than Tamsin could ever imagine, and her charming wallflower proves to have secrets of his own.

My Review:

A Lady’s Gift for Seduction by Jess Michaels

I follow the author on twitter, and I was beyond excited at the hints she was given for this book. I loved the idea of the hero being the wallflower and couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

Lady Evangeline isn’t my favourite heroine, there was just something about her that I didn’t connect with. I could see why she made the decisions she did, but she was almost too controlling, and I didn’t like that she became so upset that Henry helped his friend with his scientific problem even though he had promised to give up his pursuits until after the wedding.

The sex scenes are as steamy as I have come to expect from Jess Michaels and definitely added to the plot. I hate when an author just throws in explicit scenes that add nothing to the plot. With this author, the sex scenes are a continuation of the romance and have a natural flow that adds to the story.

Overall this is an enjoyable read.

A Lady’s Gift for Scandal by Elizabeth Essex

This was my favourite of the two novellas.

I think Simon is one of my favourite heroes, he has cultivated the reputation as a bumbling idiot injured in the war. There is more depth to him and complexity than initially portrayed. I particularly like the fact that he liked Tamsin for who she was not for her looks.

Tamsin with her dry wit was a fun heroine, and her interactions with her mother had me laugh out loud on a couple of occasions.

My only issue with the book was when Tamsin ran from home and stayed in Simon’s house. She had no care for the worry that her flight would bring only that her mother thinks she was ruined.

These two books are a great read that will keep you entertained. I highly recommend any fans of historical romance give this a read.

I received an arc of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

*Blurb and cover image via Goodreads.