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    How the Dukes Stole Christmas: A Holiday Romance Anthology
    How the Dukes Stole Christmas: A Holiday Romance Anthology
    How the Dukes Stole Christmas: A Holiday Romance Anthology
    Audiobook12 hours

    How the Dukes Stole Christmas: A Holiday Romance Anthology

    Written by Tessa Dare, Sarah MacLean, Sophie Jordan and Joanna Shupe

    Narrated by Justine Eyre

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Christmas magic is in the air... From the ballrooms of London, to abandoned Scottish castles, to the snowy streets of Gilded Age New York, four bestselling authors whip up some unforgettable romance...with a little help from some enchanted shortbread.

    ""Meet Me in Mayfair"" by Tessa Dare
    Louisa Ward needs a Christmas miracle. Unless she catches a wealthy husband at the ball tonight, the horrid, heartless Duke of Thorndale will evict her family from their beloved Mayfair home. But when her friend begs to switch dance cards, Louisa finds herself waltzing with the enemy: the horrid, heartless--and unexpectedly handsome--Thorndale himself. Now the duke's holding her future in his hands...and he's not letting go.

    ""The Duke of Christmas Present"" by Sarah MacLean
    Rich and ruthless, Eben, Duke of Allryd, has no time for holidays. Holidays are for whimsy and charm--the only two things his money cannot buy. Lady Jacqueline Mosby is full of both, even now, twelve years after she left to see the world. When Jacqueline returns for a single Christmas, Eben can't resist the woman he never stopped loving...or the future that had once been in reach. It will take a miracle to convince her to stay...but if ever there were a time for miracles, it's Christmas...

    ""Heiress Alone"" by Sophie Jordan
    When Annis Bannister's family leaves her behind in the rush to escape an impending snowstorm, she finds herself stranded in the Highlands, left to fend off brigands terrorizing the countryside, robbing homes locked up for winter. Her only hope falls on her neighbor, a surly hermit duke who unravels her with a look, then a kiss ... until she fears the danger to her heart outweighs the danger of brigands and snowstorms.

    ""Christmas in Central Park"" by Joanna Shupe
    Women all over America devour Mrs. Walker's weekly column for recipes and advice. No one knows Rose, the column's author, can't even boil water. When the paper's owner, Duke Havemeyer, insists she host a Christmas party, Rose must scramble to find a husband, an empty mansion, and a cook. But Duke is not a man easily fooled and she fears her perfect plan is failing--especially when Duke's attentions make her feel anything but professional. To save her career will she give up her chance at love?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateDec 4, 2018
    ISBN9780062936585
    How the Dukes Stole Christmas: A Holiday Romance Anthology
    Author

    Tessa Dare

    Tessa Dare is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of more than a dozen historical romances. A librarian by training and a book-lover at heart, Tessa makes her home in Southern California, where she shares a cozy, cluttered bungalow with her husband, their two children, and a pair of cosmic kittens.

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    Reviews for How the Dukes Stole Christmas

    4/5

    159 ratings7 reviews

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    • 3/5
      "Meet Me in Mayfair" by Tessa Dare --> 4/5"
      "The Duke of Christmas Present" by Sarah MacLean --> 2/5 (ouch...)"
      "Heiress Alone" by Sophie Jordan - - > 2.5/5"
      "Christmas in Central Park" by Joanna Shupe --> 2.5/5
    • 5/5
      Transports you to Victorian London! Just what I wanted before Christmas ⛄
    • 1/5
      The narration is so horrifically bad, I found it impossible to get into any of the stories.
    • 5/5
      I have been having some trouble getting into reading lately, but these short novellas were the perfect thing to get me out of this big reading slump. I loved all four of them. They were sweet, cute, and they made me want to bake my own shortbread. Would definitely recommend this for anyone looking cute romances set around Christmas.
    • 4/5
      "Meet Me in Mayfair" by Tessa Dare- Maybe I was particularly in the mood for this sort, but I was just delighted all the way through.  I like pretty much all Dare's other work too though, so I lean toward believing it's just a solid novella.  Great premise, wonderful execution.  5 stars.  

      "The Duke of Christmas Present" by Sarah MacLean- I tend to not enjoy stories that bounce back and forth between past and present as much, but this one was handled pretty well.  I enjoyed the slight Christmas Carol vibes.  I would have liked for the hero to out with his feelings earlier, but I did enjoy the great access to his inner thoughts and feelings.  And there were some very sweet moments.  4 stars.    

      "Heiress Alone" by Sophie Jordan- This one seemed sort of simplified compared to the others.  Not complex, the plot was more unlikely.  It wasn't painful to get through or anything, but it wasn't great.  3 stars.  

      "Christmas in Central Park" by Joanna Shupe-  I haven't read any from Shupe previously, so I can't say wether she just let holiday whimsy carry her away, or if she simply doesn't concern herself much with grounding her writing in reality.  But this story was preposterous.  Ridiculous scenarios, numerous inconsistencies, very apparent contortions of circumstances to arrange for drama.  Also, the side characters weren't well developed and I didn't particularly care for either of the leads.  I just did not enjoy this story.  All the way to the climax of the story I just kept thinking 'seriously?...  really??...'.  It was like watching a car wreck in very, very slow motion.  Their make-out scene was better written I think, but also the plot was set aside during that, and that may have been part of the seeming improvement.  I will still try Shupe at another point, anyone can write a weaker piece here or there, and some people just don't shine as much at short stories.  But this one did not inspire much interest in me for more.  2 stars.

      Despite getting worse (for me) as it went, I'm still giving this 4 stars overall. I liked the variation between the stories, different times and settings, and it was fairly cute how they were tied loosely together by Dukes, Christmas, and a cookie recipe.
    • 4/5
      A collection of four Christmas historical romance novellas and I was surprisingly pleased with every story in the collection, even though I mostly just picked it up for Tessa Dare's tales. The stories aren't particularly strongly tied together (there is one small plot point that crosses over from story to story) but all of them manage to put a historical romance twist on narratives from popular Christmas tales. Suffice to say I recommend it if you want a festive read and historical romance is one of your reading jams but I'll give further notes on each of the stories below."Meet Me in Mayfair" by Tessa DareLouisa Ward needs a Christmas miracle - she needs to marry rich quickly to save her family from being turned out of their Mayfair home just after Christmas. However, at the ball where she means to find such a miracle man she ends of up meeting the very Duke who has called in her father's debt and is the cause for her family's upcoming move to the back of beyond. On a single evening they end up touring Mayfair together and discovering something between them as well. A really sweet romance that happily doesn't feel too rushed as Dare does put in some intimate moments but no one jumps into sex after just meeting that night."The Duke of Christmas Present" by Sarah MacLeanA riff on A Christmas Carol sees Eben, Duke of Allryd hating Christmas because it's the time of year his neighbour and childhood sweetheart, Lady Jacqueline Mosby, left him twelve years ago. This year she suddenly waltzes back into his life and his kitchen leaving him to face the question of just who exactly left whom. I really loved this story and it's my favourite of the four stories in the collection. I'll definitely be seeking out more of Sarah MacLean's work."Heiress Alone" by Sophie JordanAnnis Bannister's family forgets her when they quickly depart their Scottish castle to avoid being stranded there in the face of a massive snowstorm. When a group of rogue bandits begin terrorizing the neighbourhood, Annis must rely on the surly Duke who is her neighbour. I was pretty meh about this one although I did like the idea as a riff on Home Alone."Christmas in Central Park" by Joanna ShupeRose Walker has a popular advice column in a New York paper as Mrs. Walker, society matron extraordinaire. Of course, neither her readers nor the paper's owner, Duke Havemeyer, know that she's just the daughter of a housemaid who's trying to make her way in journalism. When Duke demands that Rose host a dinner just days before Christmas for the editorial board, she must scramble to find a husband, a house, and a staff in order to keep her job. What doesn't help are the sparks that fly between her and Duke. Charming and solid tale, it mostly made me want to watch Christmas in Connecticut of which I've only ever seen parts.
    • 5/5
      Usually, with a compilation, you find some good stories and some not as good, but here all four of the novellas are wonderful. My personal favorite was Sarah MacLean's story that had a bit of Dickens' A Christmas Carol in it and made me cry. But the other three were just as good, all displaying the best of a talented bunch of authors.