Hello everyone!
Namely, continue in the vein that I did last Thursday, when I reviewed December Heart by Merry Farmer, and of course once I start a series I will usually try to find other books from it.
Which I did.
And then of course I realized that, yeah, there will be other older gentlemen falling in love in the main books, there are NOVELLAS accompanying each book.
Like, two short stories per each novel.
How cool is that?!
It's basically like getting three presents instead of one for your birthday.
So for tonight, I decided to combine blog posts and write about the stories from Starcross Castle.
You can find the first book from last week and the review I wrote if you follow the link down at the bottom of the page.
For now, let's briefly recap, shall we?
So Lord Peter, a man of fifty, ended up marrying a daughter of his friend, twenty-seven year old Mariah, and after dealing with his annoyingly obnoxious nephew William who thought he was the next best thing since sliced cake, the two could finally settle down at Starcross Castle, Cornwall, to await the birth of their first child (hint, in the epilogue, we learn it's a boy!).
The two novellas take place BEFORE Mariah gives birth, but they follow the lives of the servants at Starcross as opposed to the gentry, which is always fun. You WANT to read more about the supporting characters sometimes!
In Starcross Lovers, we reconnect with Ginny, Mariah's lady's maid who was a huge help back in December Heart and quietly supportive, becoming more a friend than a maid really.
This is her book, about her love story with head stableman Harry.
Ginny and Harry have kind of had a thing going for them ever since she first arrived and he stole a kiss, but it's never gone farther than physical intimacies, and even that has never actually led to the bed, really. Just sort of ... fooling around, for the both of them.
Ginny keeps saying how she wants to rise up in the world, have adventure, travel, etc. etc. whereas Harry keeps saying he's a homebody and wants a wife and family.
Now, since Ginny secretly wants Harry (and exactly what Harry wants), and Harry secretly wants Ginny, you'd think these two could get to the point soon, right?
Ha ha. Wrong.
See, Ginny thinks of herself as too 'loose' for someone like Harry who wants a stable life with a wife and kids, and Harry thinks Ginny won't stick around so why bother telling her he loves her?
At the same time, the man charged with checking out Lord Peter's land and establishing a tin mine after the copper vein ran out also notices Ginny and starts a-courtin', and whereas all the women around Ginny keep telling her it might be a REALLY good idea to just TALK to Harry about how she's feeling, she's a stubborn one and starts walking out with the surveyor.
And Harry sort of just ... well alright he's jealous and kind of shows off, but really, he feels he doesn't have a right to do anything.
Until surveyor proposes, since he's headed to Australia soon, basically everything Ginny wanted, and Ginny goes and ends up sleeping with Harry for real, and then there's a misundertanding about who's marrying who and the two of them kind of have a falling-out. Luckily, however, there's this storm and a land slide in which Harry saves Ginny so the two of them can FINALLY talk out their issues and agree to marry because, hello, true love!
This one was kind of funny and frustrating at the same time, because seriously, how bad would it have been to sit down and have a talk??
Moving on.
In Starcross Dreams, our story revolves around maid Poppy, a kind girl who's really, really clumsy for some odd reason or another. I think it's her most endearing trait really, although it's sort of explained away in the book as her wearing shoes that are much too big for her.
Anyway, she's had a crush on head gardener at Starcross, Nick, since FOREVER, and he's one of the only ones who doesn't laugh at her or talk about her behind her back, because he finds her adorable and sweet.
You'd think this was the end of it, since both of them like each other.
But NOPE.
See, a couple of years ago, Nick got engaged, and since he's a man of honour and a man of his word, he's going to have to keep said word, especially since the marriage had been dreamed up by his mother and the girl's mother, fast friends, and his mother's been looking forward to it since the death of Nick's father.
Poppy, who'd always thought this other maid, returning from Lord Peter's London house, was Nick's sister, is crushed to learn she's actually his intended, despite Nick telling her he loves HER, Poppy.
And he and his mate Harry both hope the intended would have changed her mind by now, but it doesn't look it; despite no word from her for four years, she returns as if she's been pining for Nick and Nick alone and he'd been on the other end of the world, unreachable.
She's also pushing for a very hasty marriage which Nick doesn't seem to have the backbone to stand up against.
Things kind of get a bit extra complicated when Poppy goes to seduce Nick, thinking it might be her only shot, to get him to 'dishonour' her and then he'd have to marry HER. Well, they get caught by his intended and his mother (yep!) but said intended STILL wants to marry him.
And Nick kind of lost points in my head when she dragged him to church and his mother WASN'T EVEN THERE but he couldn't just tell her to go to hell and he's not getting married without his mother present.
In the meantime, however, Ginny and Poppy, at Starcross, learn that Nick's intended hasn't really been faithful to him at all in London, and got herself into trouble that'll last nine months, which is why she's pushing this marriage so hard. So the two race to prevent it, arriving in church just in time, and Poppy suggests there's a fisherman from her village who would have married Poppy but could easily be persuaded to marry someone else, if need be.
So all's well that ends well, Poppy marries Nick, and the fisherman also gets a wife, and they can all live happily ever after!
This one was a bit more likeable for me than the first, although Nick turned out to be a bit of a sop instead of a real man in my mind, but hey, you can't have it all. It was entertaining in any event, and I liked Poppy quite a bit.
All in all, both these short stories are worth the read on a rainy afternoon, for pure enjoyment and a bit of eye-rolling, and just to kill some time. The author's style is still really likeable and I'm definitely going to pick up her subsequent books, just as soon as I can!
xx
*images not mine
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