Review

The Gift-Wrapped Governess is a delightful historical romance anthology filled with Christmas cheer and romance.

I enjoyed all three stories in this anthology. Each story was romantic and sweet. The Gift-Wrapped Governess is the perfect book to read this holiday season.

Christmas at Blackhaven Castle by Sophia James

Lady Seraphina Moreton travels to Blackhaven Castle the week before Christmas. She is starting her life as a governess and turning her back on life as a Lady. She is overwhelmed when she meets her new boss and his children. Trey Stanford, the Duke of Blackhaven, is a man who has withdrawn from life after the death of his faithless wife and his own injury sustained during the war. He is immediately taken with the new governess and notices how she breathes life into his home and his children.

I really enjoyed this couple. They truly need each other. Seraphina has been mistreated by those she should be able to trust above all others and Trey was cuckolded by his wife whom he should have been able to trust. The story takes place during one week and it’s a week that changes everything for Lady Seraphina and Trey.

Governess to Christmas Bride by Annie Burrows

In Governess to Christmas Bride, a man realizes that he has been overlooking a woman who has always been there. Lord Chepstow has spent lots of time with Honeysuckle Miller. She is his sister’s best friend and always came home with Pippa during breaks from school as a child and as a young woman. When he finds himself at a house party where Honeysuckle is the governess, he feels it is a duty to say hello and check up on her.  He is shocked when he finds her attractive and finds himself drawn to her.

Honeysuckle has always been drawn to Lord Chepstow, but knows that nothing could ever happen between them. But Honeysuckle is about to find out that Christmas is a time for miracles.

Duchess by Christmas by Marguerite Kaye

Gabriel, Duke of Blackmore, is trying to find a wife. He comes up with the plan to make sure that the woman he marries isn’t like his own mother. He wants his wife to be maternal. In order to find out, he asks his childhood friend to pose as a governess in his home and to let him “borrow” her three younger siblings.

Regan Stuart has no choice to accept, but doesn’t like Gabriel’s plan at all. She knows that what he is looking for won’t make him happy although he believes it will. She tries to convince him that he needs to put his own happiness first, and that children need parents who are in love with each other. This will lead to a happy family.

All three of the stories are excellently written and entertaining.

My only problem with any of the stories was with Duchess by Christmas. I didn’t understand Gabriel’s motivation and didn’t like him as a character in the beginning. As he changed, I came to really like him. However, the change took most of the story and that detracted from the narrative as a whole.

I think that The Gift-Wrapped Governess is the perfect book for a cold winter day when you are curled up under a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate.

Reviewed by Carrie