How the Dukes Stole Christmas

A Holiday Romance Anthology

By: Tessa Dare, Sarah MacLean, Sophie Jordan, Joanna Shupe

Narrated by: Justine Eyre

Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

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 best-selling 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, 12 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?

©2018 Eve Ortega, Sarah Trabucchi, Sharie Kohler, and Joanna Rotondo (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Movie Adaptations as Historical Romances

I didn't realize when I bought this anthology that each story is loosely - very loosely - based on a Christmas movie. At least, each takes a premise from a classic Christmas movie and runs with it. The stories are also tied together by magical shortbread. Tessa Dare is one of my favorite authors, and she didn't disappoint with Meet Me in Mayfair. It had her usual humorous flair and translated "Meet Me in St. Louis" perfectly to a historical romance. Although Sarah MacLean is also one of my favorite authors, I was a little disappointed in her story, "The Duke of Christmas Present," which just seemed to drag. Maybe I'm just bored with remakes of "A Christmas Carol." However, MacLean's had an unusual twist (as her books so often do), giving the Scrooge character, Eben, a happily ever after while he was still a young man. I liked that. I loved Sophia Jordan's "Heiress Alone," which was a romance between an heiress and a reclusive duke in Scotland after her family left and forgot her, leaving her to be rescued by the duke. I also loved Joanna Shupe's "Christmas in Central Park," a twist on "Christmas in Connecticut" set in a newspaper office in New York in 1889. All four stories had creative twists that didn't follow the movies. It was a really fun listen that I was sorry to have end. Justine Eyre was the perfect narrator for all the stories. #ChristmasRomance #ChristmasAnthology

Good and bad

I love Tessa dare and Sarah Maclean so decided to use a credit for this book. It’s cute that the special short bread recipe is in each book (although it was never consumed in the last book hmmm...).
Book 1 - I really enjoyed the book and loved that there was time they spent together to develop feelings (always important to me). There were a couple moments of angst and the ending could’ve been steamy but wasn’t!!! The scene was set, why not go through with it???
Book 2 - I was very disappointed with this book. As I said earlier, I love her books but this was a let down. It felt slow and boring like she didn’t know what to write to fill the pages. I hated both characters for being so stupid.
Book 3 - I’ve never read from this author before but I will look into her. There was some steam in this book and I liked that both didn’t fight their feelings and gave into what they felt. Good book but felt the ending was very abrupt.
Book 4 - there was no development of feelings in this book but because it’s a book and they’re supposed to end up together they did. I really enjoyed his character and would’ve liked to explore him more to better understand everything about how he ticks but there wasn’t enough time.
Would I spend a credit knowing what I know now? Probably not. But I don’t dislike it enough to ask for my credit back.

The Perfect Listen for Christmas Time!

How the Dukes Stole Christmas is a fun compilation of four Christmas-themed novellas. The sweet, sexy historical romances are loosely tied together with a number of elements: Dukes (or men named Duke), the magic of snow, and some rather horrible (but possibly magical) shortbread. And like many Christmas stories, several are based on classic Christmas books/movies: A Christmas Carol, Home Alone, and Christmas in Connecticut.

I am always a little apprehensive when purchasing anthologies -- will the quality of the collection be uneven? No need to worry about this one. All four stories are wonderful and add up to a volume well worth the credit. Step away from the Hallmark movie... this is better!

A painful experience

The stories started off nicely, but the narrating was so painful I couldn't continue so I don't know how the first ended and I never listened to the others. The narrator should be a younger voice to match the young lady characters. Also, the attempt by the narrator to do a male voice is laughable. Who wants to fall in love with someone that sounds like they're severely constipated? And the ladies sound like shrill and then gravelly smokers in turn. Very unfortunate.

Four Star 4 Story!

The first story, "Meet Me in Mayfair" was my favorite. I truly thought she had no chance of turning her plight into a Christmas miracle, but...there you go. It's Christmas. Anyway, I'd never read author Tessa Dare before I read The Duchess Deal and I found I liked her as a writer. This anthology was a bit of an investment since I bought both print and audio versions. They were both very good. Also, it was a short but complete story.
The second book, "The Duke of Christmas Present", was also a fun read. I related to it as kind of a Ebenezer Scrooge type story except instead of ghosts, there were people who came and visited. It was so good, I read it once and then listened to it once. I am positive that I'll be going back to that story to read/listen to it again. The Duke was/is a stubborn, stubborn man but through all of the years, the Miss still loved him. I so wanted to smack him up side the head. I swear that Lady Mosby was going to as well, but that would not be ladylike. It was a good story. A complete story.
The third story, "Heiress Alone", was not exactly my kind of story, though it was good enough. I like a little longer "get to know you" period for my characters before they hop in the sack, but I guess they do things differently in Scotland. Anyway, it was a good story, albeit a sad one. The heroine was left behind by her family. Kind of like Kevin in Home Alone except with a Laird rescuing her against the bad guys instead of her saving herself.
The last story took place in New York City. It was a historical that took place in the late 1800's early 1900's. It was not a practical story. I know, I know. These aren't supposed to be practical. The heroine took a great personal risk over something that had failure written all over it and then highlighted a multitude of times, but she did it anyway. This story is for some, but not for me. I kind of just slapped my forehead and muttered, "Duh, woman. You are an idiot."
All in all, I enjoyed this book with it's various adventures. I also enjoyed it because it's easy to stop in between books because life intrudes. During Christmas, who doesn't need a break?

Disappointing narration

I hate to speak ill of Justine Eyre’s narration, but it was painful at times to listen to. Her voicing of the male leads, in particular, was distracting and disappointing. And the attempt at annunciating every word (i.e.- “I do not wish...”) made the interaction feel unnatural.
The stories were “ok”.

Holiday regency -my favorite Christmas confection

I am not a sentimental gal. Eleven months out of the year, I skew towards fierce gals and alpha guys and prefer stories with meat on their bones. But, when the weather turns crisp and Christmas approaches, my grinch sized heart grows ten times its size and I am a complete sucker for contrived, sweet, sappy love stories. And, what better sub-genre for that than regency romances, and novellas to boot, so you can get to the warm heart squeeze before the eye-roll gives you heartburn.

I enjoyed all four stories, which give variations of spirited ladies and sexy, but oblivious, gents who get to their HEAs with sweet, if not fade to black, get togethers. Don’t let the lack of naughty nooky dissuade you- these novellas are all about the heart. There are three stories which drop the F-bomb, an unnecessary, but forgivable oddity. There’s also a cute connection via a magical shortbread recipe (one more gimmick I’d normally hate, but gobble up during the holidays). Also, where each novella begins isn’t labelled in the Table of Contents, so here’s the Cliff Notes:

Ch1 Meet Me In Mayfair: lumbering oaf and spirited spinster get with the Xmas spirit by hate-flirting
Ch16 Duke of Xmas Present: Rather angsty second chance romance with muddled past, present, dream sequences, but I still appreciated the “you had me at hello” ending
Ch27 Heiress Alone: aka Snowed in With A Scott. That Scottish burr got me to completely overlook the eye-rollingly silly intruder bit.
Ch39 Xmas in Central Park: So many of the tropes I hate (virgins, journalists, openness towards adultery, and lies upon lies), and yet this buttery confection gave me all the Xmas feels.

Great narrator, Predictable story

The narrator did an excellent job reading the stories. The stories themselves were too predictable. I am glad I did this through the romance package rather than purchasing the book.

Perfect Christmas get away!

I enjoyed these novellas. Nice get away from the hustle and bustle of Christmas time. All four were slightly different and I would be pressed to say which was my favorite - so that is a good thing!

As with all novellas - they aren't long so the slow burn romance is not there, but the characters are fun and I believed they would all fall for each other.

Made it feel a little more Christmas-y!

Only one story worth the credit.

I was disappointed in this anthology, particularly the second story, which was so tedious. The only story that earned an A was the one by Joanna Shupe.