TBR Challenge: A Christmas Promise
With a theme like “It’s a party!”, I knew I had to find a festive read to close out the 2024 TBR Challenge. A Mary Balogh Regency from the early 1990s proved just the ticket for this one. I love holiday romances, so I’d already read most of the ones on my shelf, but for some reason, A Christmas Promise had been lingering there from a long ago UBS run.
The book definitely doesn’t start off with anything resembling love at first sight. Lord Randolph Falloden has a good title, but is on the brink of financial ruin. Shortly before Christmas, he receives a most unusual caller. A successful merchant has purchased all of Randolph’s debt and will forgive them if Randolph will agree to marry his daughter, Eleanor Transome.
We soon learn that Eleanor’s father is dying of cancer, and that he wishes to see her safely settled before he dies. The marriage does not get off to an auspicious start, as Randolph assumes his wife is a social climbing Cit, while Eleanor thinks her husband must be a dissipated libertine who has run through one fortune and is now preparing to run through another.
The initial chapters of this book sometimes difficult to read. The leads are very cold toward one another and the author shows their initial dislike very clearly, including an uncomfortable wedding night that blends physical passion with feelings that lack warmth, to put it mildly. I wondered how long this painful mood would go on, but then the story collides with Christmas. Randolph had previously invited friends to his family’s country home and Eleanor now invites her whole family.
What ensues is a gathering of aristocrats and the butchers, innkeepers and cloth merchants of the Transome family. The gathering starts off awkwardly, but the author does a good job of showing how the more exuberant personalities carried the day and started to transform Falloden’s home into a place of warmth. The romance between Randolph and Eleanor is on a slow burn, but as the holidays progress, they see different sides of each other’s personalities and start to question their original assumptions. Ms. Balogh does an amazing job of showing the characters’ emotions through small interactions and love scenes that increase in warmth to contrast with that awkward wedding night.
The Christmas guests make this book a delight. Randolph had thought to enjoy a few days of good shooting, but Eleanor’s family swept in with snowball fights, Christmas carols and decking the halls with greenery. Not only do all of these goings-on give the book a very festive mood, but the unexpected Christmas house party infuses the book with the warmth that was missing from the couple’s earlier interactions in London.
While I found the first part of this novel difficult reading, the house party is fantastic fun, and the way in which the author showed the characters’ emotions was incredibly well done. This romance is different in tone than many of the modern holiday romances I’ve read, but I enjoyed it very much. It’s been reissued in paperback and eBook, and well worth seeking out.
Recent Comments
The always enjoyable MB; I remember liking this and it coming in for me at around the same ranking.
I read this a couple of years ago and gave it a solid B. I remember I had recently reread A Civil Contract by Heyer, and I thought this one was lighter and perhaps less realistic, but very enjoyable. (I’m the exception in that A Civil Contract is one of my more reread novels by Heyer. I love the way she handles the relationship.) Thank you for your review.
I had always liked Civil Contract. My only critique of Civil Contract is making a big tragedy out of Adam, an aristocrat, marrying someone beneath him, even if she is superlatively rich and a loving wife. But then, it is Heyer’s snobbery and adoration of aristocracy, coming through unabashedly. To her credit though, she paints the picture of first year of marriage, with all its ups and downs, realistically and with humor.
Interesting take. I don’t quite see it that way. I actually thought Heyer showed more sympathy to Jenny and didn’t show Adam’s snobbery in a very positive light. Jenny has always come across as the hero of that book. Adam is weak at first. I love how Jenny’s steadiness and self-sacrificing behavior wins him over. Some people don’t think the book has an HEA, but while this isn’t some grand passion, there is the kind of love there you can build a lifetime with.
I love this one, too – it’s one of the best Marriage of Convenience stories ever.
I agree. So many MofC stories start with at least one of the leads being attracted to the other. This one, where neither party wanted any part of the forced marriage, really got into the emotions of the situation so well.
I’m adding it to the top of the TBR!
When I read Rose Lerner’s In for a Penny it reminded me of this book. I liked that book as well.
Oh yes! And I loved In for a Penny as well.
I reread a few Christmas stories every year and this is a favorite of mine as it also explores how grief impacts those left behind, in fact, I just finished it. I also like A Christmas Beau/A Christmas Bride by Balogh.
All this love for it–I’m definitely going to give it a try!
I was a fan of this one, too. It really comes down to if you can handle/work through with the characters. Probably a more realistic look at two strangers wary of each other’s motives coming together. Caustic with holiday vibes! Lol
What a coincidence as I just finished reading this book recently.
I am still unsure what to think about this book, but I’m probably leaning towards ‘not a fan’. The contrast between how they started and how they ended was just too stark, IMO, that I simply don’t buy their falling in love with each other within a relatively short time (I think it was within 2 weeks or something?).
I do give Mary Balogh credit for making her main characters want to make the best of their less than ideal situation and actively do something towards that goal.
I am a longtime Balogh fan and I loved this book – great review!
This sounds like a winner! Thanks!
Hope you enjoy it! For a counterpoint, I know another reviewer here most certainly did not. I do see her points, but they didn’t hit me as hard as the warmth and fun that I mentioned in my review.
I posted under the initial review which came in at a C+ that this is a DIK read for me. Her Christmas Bride is another Cit/aristocrat marriage of convenience that I love.