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superwendy 's review for:
A Countess for Christmas
by Anthea Lawson
This short story starts out very strong but lost steam for me by the end. Heroine and an Earl exchange letters while her brother is recuperating from an injury at the Earl's estate. To show his gratitude, the brother invites the Earl back to his family home for Christmas - of course not giving his sister any warning. I mean, she's only still mourning their mother's death, caring for their ailing father, and trying to get the house ready for descending family at holiday time. Brothers, AMIRITE?!
There's a potentially great emotional scene when the hero finds the heroine crying in a linen closet, but it doesn't go far enough and while the tacked on suspenseful scene at the end adds some heft - it leads to a "happy ending" that seemed to come out of left field with not enough build-up to it. But I liked the premise and I thought the letters in the beginning were fantastic - I just wanted this to be longer, a bit more fleshed out. It left too much unanswered and on the table.
There's a potentially great emotional scene when the hero finds the heroine crying in a linen closet, but it doesn't go far enough and while the tacked on suspenseful scene at the end adds some heft - it leads to a "happy ending" that seemed to come out of left field with not enough build-up to it. But I liked the premise and I thought the letters in the beginning were fantastic - I just wanted this to be longer, a bit more fleshed out. It left too much unanswered and on the table.