Lady Pear's Duke: First Day of Christmas: Bluestockings Defying Rogues

12 Days of Christmas, Book 1

By: Dawn Brower, Twelve Days

Narrated by: Amanda S. Brown

Length: 1 hr and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Lady Pearyn Treedale has been affianced to Cameron Spencer, the Duke of Partridgdon, since she was eight years old. An archaic practice, but a situation she’s come to enjoy. At her formal introduction to society, she wasn’t like the other debutantes. While they all searched for husbands, she made friends, had titillating conversations, and did whatever pleased her. Her fiancé had the good grace to be absent most of her life. Then, the duke went on his world tour, and decided never to return to England, allowing Lady Pear a freedom most ladies never experience.

Now at five and 20, Lady Pear wonders if perhaps she had it all wrong. She has friends, but no love, and no family. With Christmas around the corner, she receives gifts from a secret admirer, and she starts to believe that perhaps she should give this new gentleman her attention, because her duke certainly doesn’t want her.

©2020 Dawn Brower (P)2020 Dawn Brower

A Secret Admirer

Book one in the 12 Days of Christmas series. Lady Pearyn Treedale has been affianced to Cameron Spencer, the Duke of Partridgdon since she was eight and he was fifteen. He is now back when she turns 25 years old. He decides to court her and keep his identity secret The story is interesting and fun to listen to as Amanda S. Brown tell their well written story.

Lies

This is Lady Pear;yn and Duke Cameron's story. Forced into an engagement, they both did not want. She was never free to socialize with other males and the Duke was never around. But what happens when she starts to have a secret admire? Who is it? Can she stop the marriage since he is never around? Camron wants to see what she is really like? Can he consider her?.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Perfect Regency Holiday Novella

I thoroughly enjoyed this quick-listen historical romance Christmas novella. First, I enjoyed the play on words for both the hero’s and heroine's names (her Lady Pearyn Treedale, and him Duke of Partridgdon). This book is the first of the 12 Days of Christmas series, and so their names are à propos for the first day as described by that famous Christmas carol. I love wordplay like that, so that probably set me in the perfect mood for listening to this story.

This author writes a lot of novellas, and some are better written than others. Short-form fiction I think is actually hard to write well because you have a lot to accomplish in a smaller amount of real estate than a novel. This novella was actually perfect, not suffering from the typical faults of short-form fiction. The author constrained the story to a short amount of time and very particular interactions between the hero and heroine. They have a long backstory, having been betrothed as children by their parents for their family’s mutual advantage. But when the hero's father dies, he decides to take extended trips for over a decade, leaving his betrothed to languish. They have a significant age gap, so she didn't always suffer the entire time he was gone, but after her come-out and neither seeing nor hearing hide nor hair of him for years, she begins to despair and to take his inaction personally. The author did a fantastic job showing how this formerly young woman truly suffered from neglect. When the duke finally returns for a more extended stay in England, he's decided to either finally rid himself of her or do the deed. When he sees her again, he chooses the latter but decides to get to know her and woo her without revealing himself, hoping that she will fall for him without knowing who he is.

I don't want to give too much more away, but the interplay of his ideas to woo her with her flagging emotions tugged at the heartstrings. She didn't quite know how to take it when all was revealed … and quite understandably so. For a novella, it had surprising depth of feeling as well as a fun sense of play. I thought the narrator struggled a bit with making all the characters sound distinct. During one scene in the middle, it was hard to distinguish the hero's voice from the heroine’s! However, this did not detract from my enjoyment of the story as I just so enjoyed listening to everything happening between the characters. If you enjoy well-written historical romance holiday novellas, this is one that you will probably enjoy.

Great Series Starter

This was a great start to a new series. The characters were endearing while the story line was engaging. The narrator did a fantastic job of bringing the story to life and making this a fun listen.

I received a copy of this audiobook and I am voluntarily leaving my honest review.

Lady Pear and Cameron

Lady Pearyn Treesdale was promised to the Duke of Partridgedon as a child. The future marriage was arranged so her dowry could provide desperately needed funds to save the dukedom. Since a date was not established, Cameron keeps traveling to avoid the impending marriage. The Lady is in no rush to marry, and has enjoyed her freedom. However, time has marched on, and the young child is now 25, and realizing she is missing the love and relationship she desires. Cameron decides to court the Lady, without disclosing his identity. (I have a moral issue with this. Court her, and get her to fall for someone she thinks is not her intended? A bit likely cheating, and causes unnecessary angst.) Overall, it is a good short story. Some parts are rushed, such as the time between “hi” and “I love you”, but that goes with short novellas. I received a free copy of this audiobook via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

make-up for abandonment

I didn't know that this was initially the Lady I encountered in another story. She was kind of fierce in the other book. Here one can feel the sadness, loneliness and the neglect/abandonment that she felt. The Duke redeemed himself in the end though Lady pear seem to have forgiven him easily.
The story was short but felt complete with HEA. Always looking forward to the author's next book. So far all books/stories had been captivating reads.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.