The year is 1822 and Richard Brockwell is an aspiring novelist and bachelor about town, determined to avoid the clutches of eligible debutantes and scheming mammas alike; including his own. However as Christmas approaches his funds are low and his mother insists he return home to Wiltshire for the festive season or she will stop funding his caddish lifestyle. Reluctantly he travels home to spend Christmas with his mother, his elder brother Sir Timothy, his wife Rachel Lady Brockwell and their young son. For company Richard has brought along a friend; David Murray a publisher; though sworn him to secrecy about his literary ambitions. Richard is soon embroiled in his mother's schemes to see him married off when house guests arrive including the Awdry sisters; Arabella and Penelope. While Richard is determined to show the sisters that he has no intention of forming an attachment to either of them, he is surprised to discover that Arabella is a great deal more beautiful then he remembered. Arabella meanwhile has no intention of marrying. She has hopes of involving herself in charity work and finds Richard Brockwell thoroughly dislikable.
A sharp, witty, romantic comedy of manners that will delight fans of Austen and Heyer. If you have swooned over Bridgerton this Christmas then Julie Klassen's novella will be the perfect after Christmas treat.
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