In this Regency romance Lord Robert, the Viscount of Marchwood, is throwing his annual Christmas Ball in the Highlands of Scotland even though his financial position is a poor one. His daugher the Lady Audrey, who's coming out ball this is decides it will be a masked ball. This leads to her falling for a stranger. Can the discovery of who he is bring them together or will they be parted for ever.
A nice enjoyable novella, though not really long enough to give a depth to all the characters.
A NetGalley Book ( )

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Lady Audrey is eighteen and about to have her coming out Christmas Ball. With rumors swirling that her father is having some financial trouble, she hopes to meet her future husband on the same night. A late decision to make the Ball a mask sets up a night full of intrigue and magic. Thomas has been the valet to Audrey's father for the last five years and developed a close relationship with Audrey. With her turning eighteen and beginning the search for a husband, he feels the urgency to examine his feelings. The Christmas Ball will be a night neither will forget.

At fewer than one hundred pages, A Christmas Surprise is a short novella that will require you to be very forgiving with its regency period setting. I was curious how the daughter of a viscount would/could be set-up with her father's valet, the story for the most part decided to not address it and went with "luv". Audrey's father had no objections as Thomas must really love Audrey because he still wanted to marry her even when he thought she was poor. Having characters with these roles was an intriguing idea and to have the author flake out on providing the meat of this situation was disappointing.

Audrey and her father were the most fleshed out characters with Audrey coming off a little flighty. Thomas was disappointingly missing; he was a pencil sketch of a character. There is talk of how Thomas and Audrey grew close because of their conversations but we are never shown any of them. I was left bereft of any reasoning as to why these two cared for one another.

The language used by the characters felt off but the overall writing flowed well, you'd have no problem finishing this in an hour. I was looking for a shorter story with a holiday feel, this was both but it also read more as a pitch for a story, rather than an actual story. I needed more depth of character from Thomas and for him and Audrey to have more interactions and evidence of feelings between them.
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Regency romances take us back to a time and place where rigid morals and social expectations were stronger than they are now. So much was different and yet people must have had the same wants and needs and feelings and wishes for their futures. This novella tells the story of Audrey’s coming out ball – a masked Christmas ball. She meets a stranger that stirs her blood but he leaves before she even catches his name. Will she see him again? Will society’s expectations prevent her from following her heart? Or, will there be a happily ever after for Audrey.

I have to say that I look at this as a fairy tale rather than a historical novel…probably due to do with my understanding of what the Regency era was like. That said…this was a sweet story that will provide a comforting comfortable afternoon read to get you in the Christmas spirit. For those of you who would like to know – it is not a steamy story and thus appropriate for teens as well as adults.

Thank you to NetGalley and Endeavour Press for the copy of this story to read and review. ( )