This anthology kicks off with the late Blythe Gifford's Christmas at Court. I have enjoyed several of Gifford's full-length historical romances, she really had a way of infusing history into her romances that I always appreciated. Unfortunately the short format here does her no favors. This story is mostly political intrigue not given enough room to breathe with a teaspoon of romance that never takes off because I never felt invested in the couple either separately or together.
The story is set after the young princes "disappear" and Richard III is King. Lady Alice is our heroine and her family is working in concert with a rebellion to have Henry Tudor (future Henry VII) claim the throne by marrying Elizabeth of York. Part of the scheme involves Lady Alice becoming betrothed to Sir John Talbot.
That's pretty much it and I confess I couldn't figure out why the Alice-John marriage was so reliant on whether Henry married Elizabeth. Also the whole "romance" consists of Alice and John not sure if they can trust each other because they have to act like they're loyal to Richard, even though they're not, but they also can't tell the other that because what if the other one IS loyal to Richard. The short word count means neither the romance nor the political intrigue have room to grow and it comes off convoluted.
Final Grade = D
Secrets of the Queen's Lady by Jenni Fletcher was by no means perfect, but after slogging through politics it was nice to get back to a story that was mainly romance, even though Anne of Cleves is the main secondary character.
Pippa is a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves who has since been divorced by Henry VIII and living quietly in the country. Landing on their doorstep is Kit, a diplomat, who is delivering a message that Henry wishes for Anne to join the court for the Christmas holiday. Kit met Pippa years ago and was besotted, despite the fact that she was married. Now widowed, he sees an opening, but he's unaware that despite what everyone may think, Pippa's marriage was not a happy one. Her husband became emotionally abusive due to her in ability to get pregnant. Needless to say Pippa has no desire to marry ever again, and besides - Kit is 7 years younger than she is, and even though he's not the heir, his political animal of an older brother is determined that Kit do his familial duty. Marry well, keep the future Mrs. pregnant and squirting out babies.
Kit's a rather enlightened hero for the times, and while his lack of concern about being disowned by his family raised an eyebrow, it helps that he's not a fan of court, Henry's tendency to discard wives, nor his brother's machinations. Our Kit wants a different sort of life. Still, during this period family and loyalty were kind of, well, everything. Pippa is ready to tar and feather Kit with the same brush as her husband - which I can understand better here than in other romances because a woman's ability to procreate was pretty much her sole reason for existing during this time period (and future time periods...). It wasn't perfect but it was quick, readable and heavy on the romance.
Final Grade = B-
The anthology ends with His Mistletoe Lady by Amanda McCabe, which is set during that period when Queen Mary was "pregnant" and newly-wed to King Philip II of Spain. Catherine Greaves' father is currently in the Tower of London for his part in the failed Wyatt Rebellion. Catherine's mother came over from Spain with the former Queen, Catherine of Aragon, so the plan is to head to court and hopefully a sympathetic Queen Mary will allow them to see her imprisoned father. The Queen is sympathetic, as is Don Diego de Vasquez, a visiting courtier from Spain who has been sent to help ferret out other plots against the Queen - and turns out that Catherine's father is a double agent. He's Diego's contact on the inside and feeding him information. Oh, and Catherine nor her mother have any clue about any of this. For all they know, their husband and father is a traitor.
Of course these two crazy kids start to fall in love despite the drama and intrigue surrounding them, and there's a little suspense at the end to carry us home to the happy ever after. The story works so long as you don't think about what's going to happen shortly after these events - but I'm convinced it all works out for Diego, Catherine and her parents in the end. One imagines that once they find out the Queen's pregnancy is a "phantom" one, they hightail it back to Spain to live on Diego's lands populated with orange and lemon groves.
Final Grade = B
The last two stories were pleasant enough, but the whole reading experience overall was very much a slog. Certainly this time of year is challenging for a lot of us, but I also think the overt political threads running through all these stories was just not where my mind wanted to go right now. I probably would have been better served reading some cotton candy holiday fluff instead of the political machinations and shenanigans of the Tudors. Your mileage may vary.
4 comments:
I read this anthology when it was released back in 2020, and basically came away with the same overall impression as you, though for me Amanda McCabe's story did a LOT of the heavy lifting. I agree that Blythe Gifford's story was way too constrained by the page count for all that she stuffed into it (novella-itis), but I also really didn't like Jenni Fletcher's story, apparently. The heroine rubbed me the wrong way. I usually like Ms Fletcher's work (in the Victorian era, at least), so that was a mismatch.
Sorry your year ended with a whimper. Here's to a better 2025 for you and all the rest of us!
In my experience, anthologies are always a risk, even with authors whose work one has previously enjoyed, simply because not everyone who excels at long stories can craft a good short one. Add in the political thread, given ::gestures at world:: and it's not surprising you struggled.
Here's to more reading, and more stories that enthrall you, come 2025.
Eurohackie: I really stalled out during the Gifford story and I couldn't bring myself to DNF it because it was as short story and there were two more stories by different authors following up behind. It took hindsight for me to realize that all the political machinations in the stories wasn't gelling with my mood. Oh well, it's off the pile at least.
AL: I normally like a good juicy medieval or Tudor-set romance that leans heavily on the political strife of those eras as a backdrop for the romance. My main issue here, I think, was short stories and putting all that "stuff" around the Christmas season. It just didn't work well for me or my overall mood.
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