The Wedding of the Century and Other Stories (anthology)
Mary Jo Putney
Kristin James
Charlotte Featherstone
Historical Romance
Published in 2011
Read in June, 2011.
My rating:
[spoiler alert]
Note: My review and rating is solely based on Charlotte Featherstone's novella “Seduced by Starlight”, which is related to two of her smashing books Addicted and Sinful.
“Seduced by Starlight”, Charlotte Featherstone
H/h - Jesse Markham, now The Earl of Raeburn/Lady Blossom
Setting: Worcestershire, somewhere in the 1870's.
For me the novella didn’t really live up to the expectations comparing both Addicted and Sinful. I mean, as usual, novellas aren’t my favorite types of read due to the short length and the fact that most of the times I don’t get the feeling of completion afterwards. This one was nice but I just wasn’t really moved by it. This is a sweet, short story between Lindsay’s son Jase and Matthew’s daughter Blossom.
In the aspect of love, Jase proved to be like his father. He’s a gentleman without many vices. But, his love for Blossom reminded me of Lindsay’s for Anais (Matthew even tells Lindsay something like that, which was cute! :D). Jase has been in love with her for a longtime but somehow, Blossom got engaged to his younger brother Samuel. Jase thought Blossom and Samuel loves each-other and to hide from the hurt, he made up this reputation of a rake and a scoundrel but Jase is anything but. He was living apart from his family because as the wedding date came closer, he got restless. All this time, he’s been doing things he loves, including horse breeding and seeing his friends.
Blossom had a crush on Jase but when she heard of Jase’s reputation as a rake, she sort of shook herself outta that crush and thought Samuel is her best option. But, she and Samuel never shared anything more than a few friendly pecks. Blossom thought someday she’d grow to love him and have the kind of passionate marriage like her parents share. Blossom is an artist (ooh, you can tell where she inherited that from, huh? ;) ). Anyway, just about 2/3 months before the wedding, Samuel drops the bomb, telling her he’s fallen madly in love. Blossom does what was the right thing to do by releasing him from the engagement. When Jase learns of it, he’s shocked and then, elated and then he got mad with his brother for doing this to Blossom. Then, he returns home with only one thing in mind, which is to make Blossom his. The story afterwards just tells you how he (and they- Lindsay, Matthew, Jane, Anais and Blossom) made it all happen!
But the trouble is I wasn’t really impressed with Blossom. I don’t know why. She felt a bit spoilt and whiny (running to her papa for everything?!) for me. I liked Jase but didn’t adore him. Then again, it could be that I’m still drooling and crawling over Matthew in my dreams so seeing him in his mid-fifties with a 20 yrs old daughter was a bit … ermmm … Let’s just say, I rather would’ve loved to read Garrett aka Lord Broughton’s book. It would’ve been Matthew and Lindsay’s contemporary and not take place 25 yrs later.
In the end, I did love one scene between Matthew and Jane, where after everything was settled Matthew tells Jane that he’s just given his baby daughter away and it hurts. He asks Jane to take the pain away. I’d rather read a love scene between these two, really. Yes, I loved every scene Matthew was in but the one where he questions Jase about his reputation and so on was quite funny. I wanted to roll my eyes reading the things he asks him, seeing how his own reputation wasn’t any better. Jase is an infant comparing with Matthew’s rather broad indiscretions. But, Matthew was still honest, a bit toned down but honest nonetheless about what he’d been back then. And I still think he’s a sweetie pie. :p
Anyway, 3.5 stars because it was worth a try. I got to read more about Matthew aka my darling, which to me, counts more than anything else.
“Seduced by Starlight” has 12 chapters, including a prologue. It has one love scene and quite a lot of Matthew the ‘protective papa’! muhahaha ;)
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