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No Groom at the Inn

No Groom at the Inn is a delightful holiday Regency novella. It’s like the perfect little macaron–a pop of sweetness, but not so much that your teeth ache.

Lady Sophronia Bettesford is the impoverished daughter of a recently deceased earl. With no money and no prospects, she’s looking to family for support–which means moving in with a cousin to help raise said cousin’s six children and twenty-seven chickens. I honestly would prefer the chickens to the children. Anyway, she’s at an inn, spending her last few pennies on some ale, waiting for her coach to said cousin’s home when she’s approached by James Archer. Jamie is a well-to-do gentleman in need of a fake fiancée. He’s about to attend a holiday house party with his mother and many eligible ladies, and he maybe told his mom he was engaged so she’d leave him alone.

Only in Regency romance land is it easier to procure a fake fiancée than it is to just tell your mom that you’re single.

Anyway, Sophy agrees to pretend to be engaged to Jamie in exchange for him buying her a cottage so she can live out the rest of her days independently rather than wrangling poultry and small children.

So they go the house party and guess what happens next? THEY DECIDE TO RAISE CHICKENS ANYWAY! Just kidding. They fall in love obviously.

There isn’t a ton of conflict in this book — obviously the elaborate lie they’re perpetrating is part of it. Also Jamie can’t stay in one place for very long — he’s a world traveler — and Sophy really wants to settle down.

The reason I liked this book was that I enjoyed being part of a Regency holiday house party. Because there wasn’t a ton of drama or angst, I felt like I was on vacation with the characters. I loved the descriptions of the word games that everyone played after dinner. Also the sexytimes felt like a natural part of the book and flowed with the story — in a lot of romance novellas the sex feels wedged in (har!) without a lot of build up due to the shorter length of the book.

No Groom at the Inn is short and lovely, and if you love house party settings, then I recommend picking it up.

– Elyse

In this Dukes Behaving Badly holiday novella, a young lady entertains a sudden proposal of marriage—to a man she’s only just met…

What does a lady do when a man she’s never seen before offers his hand in marriage? Lady Sophronia Bettesford doesn’t scream and run away. Instead, she accepts the shocking proposition. After all, what’s her other choice? To live with her cousin, caring for six children and a barnyard full of chickens?

James Archer has roamed the world, determined never to settle down. He’s faced danger and disaster…he fears nothing and no one—except his mother and her matchmaking ways. So when ordered to attend a Christmastime house party filled with holiday cheer and simpering young misses, he produces—a fiancée!

Sophronia and James vow to pretend to be in love for one month. But when they promise to give each other a Christmas kiss, it becomes clear that this pact made out of necessity might just be turning into love.