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A Christmas Charade (2014)

by Karla Hocker(Favorite Author)

3.66 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Diversion Books

review 1: For the most part I enjoyed this story. I think Ms. Hocker did a very nice job fleshing out her characters and the storyline is entertaining. I also really liked her writing style. However, I have to agree with other reviewers who stated that there was a lot going on in this story--maybe a bit too much. There is a smuggling ring, French spy, a second chance at love, a secondary romance, a ghost, and lost family jewels. Really, the only thing missing is the kitchen sink. LOL Seriously though, I wasn't too bothered by the many different aspects of the story, but I do think that I would have enjoyed it more had there been less. Because of course, everything else that was going on in the book took away from the central plot, which was the romance between Elizabeth and Clive. F... moreor instance, as much as I enjoyed the ghost and lost family jewels aspect, as far as I am concerned, the story could've easily done without them. What really bothered me about the story are all the details with which it was inundated. I'm one of those readers who likes the action in a story to begin on page one, or very soon thereafter. In a romance, that action is the first meeting between the H and h. In this book, Clive and Elizabeth don't lay eyes on each other until Chapter Four! In the meantime I had to hear about the ghost, who we meet in the epilogue, the layout of the castle, which I didn't care about, and on and on. I just wasn't that interested; and to be honest, in the beginning I skimmed over whole passages of the story.Fortunately, the details seemed to get less as the story progressed; or maybe the story got more interesting so that I didn't notice them as much? It's hard to say, but whatever the case, I got into the story and it moved along at a nice pace. Elizabeth and Clive met during her first season, when Clive only had eyes for her best friend, who he ended up marrying. Elizabeth fell in love with Clive, but although he was very polite to her as his intended's best friend, he hardly noticed her. Now, some eleven years later, the two are reunited when Clive hosts a house-party at his country estate and invites Elizabeth's employer to attend. Considering Clive barely knew Elizabeth existed when they first met, and doesn't even recognize her when the meet again, I wouldn't say this is a true "second chance at love" romance--except for Elizabeth, that is. In any event, the real purpose of the house-party is to give Clive a reason for being at his ancestral home, which has been unoccupied for some forty years. Of course, as the story is set during the French war and Clive's home estate is located on the coast, there are "gentleman" smugglers who are operating in the area. Then there is the ghost, Annie, who died in the fire that destroyed a wing of the family home many years previously, a king's ransom in jewels that is rumored to have been lost during the fire, and a secondary romance between Clive's cousin, Juliette, and her husband, Stewart--which for me was even more interesting than the romance between Clive and Elizabeth.Despite the multi-layered plot, I liked the book. While there are a lot of different things going on, I found each aspect interesting, especially the secondary romance between Juliette and Stewart. However, while reading the scene where the spy is captured, I found myself rolling my eyes. For one thing, I was beyond annoyed when Elizabeth took it upon herself to follow Clive, because "someone had to look out for him." I hate when heroines feel they can help to protect the H when they can't even protect themselves. Bear in mind that Clive wasn't going into the situation without prior knowledge, and he had back-up in the form of his friend, Lord Nicholas, so really I didn't know what the heck she thought to accomplish! She didn't know how to fight, and she didn't have a weapon, so what was her great plan--talk the man to safety, should he need saving. Ugh! It's equivalent to a present day police officer's wife deciding--without her husband's knowledge--that she's going to go play backup to him during a dangerous mission...stupid and ill-considered! In any event, Elizabeth's stupidity was just about saved when Annie gave her a legitimate reason--at least to me it seemed legitimate--to follow Clive. Then there were the circumstances surrounding the actual capture. OMG! At this point, Ms. Hocker threw in the kitchen sink that had been missing from the story up to that point. I mean, did we really have to have more people added to the mix to complicate the matter even more? SighSo bottom line, while I liked this book, it wasn't anything awe-inspiring. Truthfully, I was so eagerly looking forward to reading it that I felt a bit let down afterwards. Nevertheless, it makes for entertaining reading and I would definitely read another book by this author. FYI, this is a clean romance. Happy reading!
review 2: Another Christmas story from a new author this A Christmas Charade is my final entry for the 2009 Holiday Reading Challenge. I have been trying a lot of new authors for these Christmas challenges and if not all of them are winner they at least are entertaining for an afternoon of leisure.I found that this story suffered from the same problem that many other Christmas reads where there are too many things going on. Here we have a house party, a search for lost family jewels, smugglers and French spies, a secondary romance and a ghost all in one book. I was particularly interested in this story because, from the blurb, it seemed a "second chance" kind of story and I do love those (I blame it on Austen's Persuasion). However I found that particular side of the story ends up being one of the least important ones and the hero doesn't remember the heroine almost till the end so it was like they were getting to know each other for the first time.What really made it entertaining for me was the presence of the ghost, I normally complain of paranormal elements in my traditional regency reading but I must confess that this time I found the ghost of Annie Tuck fun and a good addition to the story. Especially when she helps the secondary characters reunite.I think the smugglers and the spies really weren't needed, although the search for a French spy was the reason for Stenton to reunite the family at his home I thought he could have searched for him better without them and so the story could have been just their reunion because of the Christmas festivities and their interaction with each other.With so many things going on it is only natural that Clive and Elizabeth don't have that much time to interact and their relationship seemed to me a bit superficial. But it was still entertaning and pleasant.Grade: 3.5/5 less

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