Kiss Me at Christmas by Valerie BowmanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was pleased to be chosen to review an ARC of this book because (1) I'm a sucker for a good Christmas story and (2) I recently read and enjoyed the previous book in Ms. Bowman's "Playful Brides" series, "A Duke Like No Other." Happily, I enjoyed "Kiss Me at Christmas" just as much as its predecessor. The main characters, Lady Regina and Daffin Oakleaf, played important roles in the previous book and made for very likeable secondary characters. I found myself rooting for them to get a happy ending of their own during Mark and Nicole's story, so it was wonderful to be able to watch their story play out here. I also enjoyed the chance to check in on Mark and Nicole and meet some of the characters from earlier books in the series, which I haven't yet read.
The central mystery of the book, involving a mysterious assassin's plot to hurt Regina, was well-written and engaging, though things did seem to drag a bit towards the middle of the book. The pace picked up at around 60% on the Kindle edition, and I found myself anxious to discover the culprit. The author dropped a couple of clues as to the identity of the plot's ringleader along the way, but still managed to fool me right up until the big reveal. (That's unusual since I can usually guess the bad guy's identity pretty early on in a story, so good job, Ms. Bowman!)
Overall, this was a relatively light, sweet romance, despite the focus on the assassin's pursuit of Regina. I would definitely recommend this book to friends and look forward to reading more of Ms. Bowman's work myself. In fact, I plan to go back and catch up on the earlier books in the "Playful Brides" series in the near future; the Cavendish twins, in particular, are very intriguing! Also, is it too much to hope that the Duke of Huntley and Delilah will be featured in the next book in the series? (I have a feeling their love story would be quite something, with a number of laughs along the way!)
*ARC provided by the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
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