Series: The Widows' Club, #5
Traits & Tropes: class difference; widowed heroine
Genre/Setting: Historical, Regency; England
Publication Date: 09.29.20
Heat Level: 2.5/5
Rating: 2/5
Lady Maria Kersey has just given birth to a lovely baby girl but can’t celebrate much given her late husband’s scandalous death in a duel just a month prior. Since the estate is left without an heir, Maria’s future rests on the largesse of the new earl once he is located. Her late husband’s reputation has left her own name blackened by London society and Maria is left with few friends. One of the few who show her any concern is Hugh Granger, the estate’s steward with whom Maria would like to be much more than friends. If only the charming man weren’t penniless.
Hugh has long admired Maria and finds her irresistible, even though he can’t offer her a stable future. Distraught at the new earl’s underhanded behavior in covering up the discovery of her late husband’s will, Maria opts to spend Christmas in London with her cousin and friends, never expecting events to unfold that will secure the happiness that so eluded her in her two previous marriages.
Wow was this book not what I expected. [You may risk what some would consider spoilers from here, but I’ll try to refrain as much as I can in this thought session.] No light-hearted Christmassy romp here. We actually have some pretty heavy topics introduced a bit here, although they were handled well. Maria was the big issue for me. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a sillier, more immature heroine. Yes, I understand she was still very young, but after two marriages, one to a rakish philanderer, one would think she’d have developed a bit more understanding and lost some of her naivete, or at least grown a spine. Maria’s cousin Jane was even worse in her own way. As a widow Maria had no need of a chaperone or such strict control over her movements and yet Jane was constantly nagging her. Jane kept on and on complaining about delaying her trip to visit her own lover in Scotland, even after Maria had ceased asking her to stay. Jane was definitely part of the reason Maria was still so naïve and unable to stand up for herself; she kept Maria dependent, even telling Maria she was to young to hear the story of Hansel and Gretel. (I had hoped this was a joke but given Jane’s insistence on treating Maria like a recalcitrant child, I’m not so sure.) When Maria truly did need companionship to save her from unwanted advances, Jane wasn’t there, and Maria kept on making the same stupid decisions right up to the end.
My annoyance with Maria aside, the basic story here wasn’t bad, although the dialogues were a bit cumbersome. The romance here, as well as the characterization of Hugh and Maria, was rather flat. We didn’t get much in the way of time these two actually spent together so their relationship didn’t seem very believable or deep to me. I appreciated them standing up for themselves in the end, but even that didn’t seem to be a permanent change, especially on Maria’s part. Their intimacy was also lacking for me and Maria was rather aggressive with Hugh to the point that I felt sorry for him. Especially given her previous description of her physical reaction and attraction to another man, however unwanted, just undermined her feelings for Hugh for me and that connection was never really strengthened. The villain here was believable, if dumb, and got much further than he should have simply because Maria didn’t bother to think and make inquiries about her situation, and nor did her supposedly worldly cousin. I also found it a bit odd that Maria’s baby was only trotted out a couple of times and otherwise mostly forgotten, though I suppose this is understandable given Maria’s immaturity. I also wound up feeling sorry for Maria at how fickle her friends were in their failure to wholly believe her over a known villain. She certainly deserved better friends and family and I wound up being proud of Hugh for his treatment of his own family and for how he and Maria went after what they truly wanted.
This story was a bit slow for me and I struggled to maintain my interest. Given my failure to connect with the characters in this book and the two previous installments, I’m not sure if I’ll continue this series.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3119993386
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/700345388
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