{"id":4921,"date":"2023-06-12T22:39:04","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T22:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/?p=4921"},"modified":"2023-06-12T22:39:04","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T22:39:04","slug":"review-the-mistletoe-test-by-diane-farr-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/06\/12\/review-the-mistletoe-test-by-diane-farr-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Mistletoe Test by Diane Farr (2017)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"I\u2019m having a good run of reads at the moment, all of older books or, as in this case, a newer book by an established author. Diane Farr wrote some of my favourite Regencies from around twenty years ago, so it was a real treat to discover this newer work that\u2019s very much in the same vein. It\u2019s a lovely, light read, although with some serious moments when the subject of slavery arises. Very much one for the traditionalists.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the premise: Felicity Pennington is being threatened with a sixth season in London by her rich, indulgent Aunt Agnes, better known as baronet\u2019s widow Lady DuFrayne. Felicity wouldn\u2019t mind, but it\u2019s surely time her younger sister Lucille, aka Lulu, had her chance. She\u2019s a bit of a madcap hoyden, but perhaps she could make a smaller debut in their home town of Bath over the winter to prepare her – nothing could go wrong, could it?<\/p>\n

Aunt Agnes reluctantly agrees, and instantly Lulu gets into trouble at her debut event, managing to tip a water-filled vase over herself. But all is not lost, for appearing miraculously on the scene to rescue her from total ignominy is Oliver Stanhope, who\u2019s everything that\u2019s desirable in Lulu\u2019s eyes, and isn\u2019t at all censorious, despite being the son of a bishop. There\u2019s only one problem – he\u2019s already as good as betrothed to the humourless Miss Almeria Bliss, an inapt name if ever I heard one.<\/p>\n

Into all this arrives the person of Sir Gavin DuFrayne, the inheritor of Aunt Agnes\u2019s husband\u2019s baronetcy and the estate but not the fortune, which went to Aunt Agnes. Now that his father has died, he\u2019s sold the plantations in Barbados and has returned home to try to wrest some of that fortune for himself, or at the very least, stop his aunt blowing the whole lot on the deeply unworthy Pennington family. Although he has to admit that Felicity Pennington is good fun, with her sharp mind and willingness to spar with him.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s obvious at this point where the story is going, and so it does, with few surprises, but every step of the way is filled with charm and humour and a delightful lightness of touch. The only darker note is the discussion of slavery, where Gavin tries to recruit Felicity to his cause of helping his own freed slaves to come to England, which he isn\u2019t able to do because he stupidly tied up all his money for several years (which is the only misstep in the entire book, because he\u2019s far too smart to do that before he\u2019s done what he promised for the freed slaves; serious plot manipulation there).<\/p>\n

Apart from the main characters being anti-slavery (which is a very common theme in modern Regencies and barely worthy of comment, even though there was far more controversy about it at the time), the book is actually quite subversive. For one thing, Aunt Agnes\u2019s husband leaves only the entailed property to his heir, and gives all his money to his widow. Nor does she have it only for her lifetime – it\u2019s hers absolutely. She could give it all to the Penningtons if she wants, or an orphanage, or spend every last penny, leaving the baronet in relative poverty. That would be regarded as wicked in an age when male primogeniture was everything, and a man with a title was expected to live expensively. We\u2019re not really told why he did this, although it\u2019s hinted that Gavin\u2019s father was something of a reprobate, but it\u2019s still a drastic step to take.<\/p>\n

The other unusual arrangement is that Oliver Stanhope is his father\u2019s heir, despite being the middle of three brothers. Again, it\u2019s almost invariably the eldest son who inherits, but here it\u2019s shown as an agreement between the men of the family. The eldest and youngest sons wanted to follow their father into the church and Oliver didn\u2019t, so he gets the money. Although I have to say that his delight in his new estate and the enthusiasm with which he threw parties there were delightful. He has so much joie de vie, it\u2019s obvious he\u2019s a perfect match for the exuberant Lulu.<\/p>\n

The story eventually winds its way to Christmas and the mistletoe test of the title about which I will say nothing except that it\u2019s all lovely. I would have liked a little more followup with Gavin and Felicity, who were supposed to be the main characters but got pushed into the background by Lulu and Oliver far too often. I liked that the minor characters got their turn in the spotlight, but I wanted to see a bit more of the majors. In particular, I wanted to see a lot more of them falling in love. But that\u2019s not really a complaint. This was a lovely traditional read that put a smile on my face almost from start to finish. Beautifully written, with lots of humour and charm, I can\u2019t give it less than five stars.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m having a good run of reads at the moment, all of older books or, as in this case, a newer book by an established author. Diane Farr wrote some of my favourite Regencies from around twenty years ago, so it was a real treat to discover this newer work that\u2019s very much in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[95],"class_list":["post-4921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-farr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4925,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4921\/revisions\/4925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}