Jess Michaels and Elizabeth Essex: Betrothed by Christmas

A madcap plan to avoid marriages they do not desire, leads two women to romance and passion they don’t expect in a duet of novellas by bestselling authors Jess Michaels and Elizabeth Essex.

A Lady’s Gift for Seduction by Jess Michaels
Lady Evangeline is a Diamond of the First Water, but she fears her father will match her to his own advantage, not hers. She decides marrying a biddable groom is the only way to salvage her future and chooses her old friend, astronomer Henry Killam. But she soon realizes Henry isn’t quite as manageable as she first believed and her feelings for him are stronger than she ever imagined.

A Lady’s Gift for Scandal by Elizabeth Essex
Miss Tamsin Lesley desires above all else to be a bluestocking and lead an intellectual life. The only thing standing in her way is her father’s heir, who wants her along with her father’s estate. To foil him, Tamsin enlists the services of masculine wallflower Simon Cathcart to ruin her. But the road to ruination leads to far more pleasurable places than Tamsin could ever imagine, and her charming wallflower proves to have secrets of his own.

If you lurk around Romancelandia Twitter, you may have seen Jess Michaels teasing this story since she dreamed it up in February. And it did not disappoint.

For A Lady’s Gift for Seduction Michaels gives us a heroine who, although a Diamond, has seen the negative impact marriage has had on the women in her life and so crafts a scheme to make sure hers is different. A marriage of convenience with a certain bespectackled male wallflower is just what she thinks will save her from a fate worse than death. Evangeline is something of a crusader, trying to help other women in the Ton.

I lurve a Beta hero, and Henry is certainly that. He is a giver in almost all ways (wink, wink). He is a scholar, devoted to mathematics and astronomy so much that it makes him a pariah with his family. A fuller length novel would have likely explored those relationships more, but the taste was enough to understand his plight without weighing the story down.

These two already have been friends of a sort, but Evangeline’s seduction of her male wallflower is nonetheless surprising to studious Henry. This makes for some great sexual tension and light hearted comedy which I really appreciate in a holiday story.

Henry has his reasons to wed, too, and so this is pretty true to the marriage of convenience trope. Michaels skillfully plays with convention, however, in having her heroine be the pursuer. She plays with gender roles gently, but in a way that I identified with and cherished.

Even though this is novella length, it had all the satisfying feels and action of a full length to keep me entertained, engaged and loving it.

The holiday elements are light, providing more of a setting than being the focus of the story.

There are several sex scenes, although they are fairly vanilla (though hot).

A Lady’s Gift for Scandal by Elizabeth Essex takes on a character introduced in Michael’s timeline, who similar to Evangeline, is looking to get out from under the marriage mart pressures. When Evangeline suggests to Tamsin she might consider being “lightly ruined” they look to the male wallflowers at a ball to be of service. And Evangeline introduces Tamsin to “Simple” Simon.

Simon reminds me a lot of Freddy (Heyer’s Cotillion). He seems like he is a slow top, but still waters run deep. He is also intrigued by beautiful Tamsin’s proposal for a fake ruination (I love a good holiday fake partner/engagement story) and so they set out to do so for an audience of one (her overbearing mama).

Tamsin is a would-be historian who idolizes intellectual salons and the life of independent women. Instead she is being pressured to pick a mate from the ding-dongs in the Ton…or face marriage to her horrid cousin who will inherit. After a chance encounter, she lets Evangeline guide her towards the ruination scheme.

And her meeting with Simon seems fated to bring two likeminded souls together. And every time they attempt to stage a scene of light ruination, they keep finding themselves edging closer and closer to the real thing.

Lots more here that would be hard to share without spoiling the fun, but like Michaels novella this is fun, sexy, and with enough snow and light holiday setting to make it a Christmas duet.

I can easily see adding this to the winter rotation for favorite holiday historicals, and encourage those looking for a Christmas Regency that plays with the tropes to check it out.

Its release date is October 15th, so preorder to queue up for holiday reading!

5 Stars 4.75 out of 6 Male wallflowers and would be bluestockings find love…and some steamy holiday pastimes in this novella duet