The review below from bookjunkies encapsulates the very mixed feelings I have about this book. It's very readable, and I enjoyed it while I was reading; I liked Kate Billings and the troupe of actors very much. Hal Hampton, aka the Marquess of Graydon (not Everdon) was in some respects amusing, and even solicitous. But I am in complete agreement with the other reviewer: his reason for not helping Kate and the troupe out of their mess was not at all convincing. It seemed like a very convenient plot device for dragging out the story, and no more than that. I'm not at all surprised that Kate gave Hal a black eye when she discovered that he'd lied about the threat to his life!

Other aspects of the plot, such as the marriage certificate, were extremely predictable; it was simply a matter of counting the pages until they happened.

All in all, if you want to read a *really* good Carla Kelly, find Reforming Lord Ragsdale or Mrs Drew Plays Her Hand!

I have mixed feelings about any Carla Kelly book that I do not quite like. While the heroine Miss Katherine Billings and her predicament are delightfully and sympathetically portrayed, and the acting troupe and family that Miss Billings falls in with are believable and all-too-human secondary characters, the hero a Marquess is a real disappointment.

Warning - spoilers ahead.

The problem I have with this book is that the hero acts selfishly throughout the book, and justifies his actions late into the story by claiming that he wants to test her mettle before marrying her. At that point, I could have slapped him cheerfully, and wished that Katherine Billings had up-ended him (again) for another suitor. Alas, unlike in LIBBY'S LONDON MERCHANT there was no other suitor in the offing, not for Miss Billings anyway.

The book starts out with a bored and overweight Marquess escaping town to avoid criticism by his sister and others (including his valet who irritates him, and me as the reader). Ah yes, the Marquess also has his sister's son as the heir [note to author: Dear Miss Kelly, this rather spoils your plot, even worse than in MISS MILTON SPEAKS HER MIND]. Since his journey up North and the exact route he takes is supposedly a secret, it is a shock to him (and to me) when he is attacked by pretend-highwaymen who are in reality his disinherited sister's son (aforesaid nephew who is heir to the Marquessate and the fortune) and his dismissed valet. Now you would think that the reasons for this attack are quite reasonable, wouldn't you? But no, the nephew and the valet want the Marquess to be grateful to them and by staging a mock-attack, they hope to win back his favor. Duh! And they leave said Marquess bleeding to death (or nearly so) in a country lane, while they get hopelessly lost looking for a doctor.

The Marquess then staggers into a barn, where it turns out that the lady he is looking for, Miss Katherine Billings has been pressed into service with an acting troupe. [To cut a long story short, she got off at the wrong stop and mistook the waiting carriage for that of her lecherous would-be employer; the actor waiting at that stop mistook her for an actress. She prefers to remain with the troupe temporarily rather than go to her employers, since she has been warned on the stagecoach trip that the husband is a notorious lecher. Miss Billings, you see, is penniless and homeless]. I won't tell you why the Marquess would be looking for Miss Billings, but that is clear from the first chapter.

Ah well. The Marquess's identity is revealed to the troupe, although he will go by the name of Hal Hampton. He pretends to be in fear of his life, from his villainous nephew and ex-valet; they undertake to care for him and to restore him to health, and carry him off up North. In the meantime, a hue-and-cry has been raised for the missing Marquess. The Marquess, now Hal Hampton, is pretending to be the husband of Miss Billings (now temporarily Miss Hampton) and having a fine time getting into shape with the troupe. Enter a Bow Street Runner, who is not deceived by the act, and whose purposes are uncertain to the troupe. Has he been employed by the Marquess's solicitors and the estate trustees? Or has he been employed by the Marquess's would-be killers? They take no chances and protect Hal Hampton from discovery, even when offered a magnificent reward.

The theatrical scenes are well-done, showing the progress of a small-time troupe with genuine talent through the North and their disastrous ending in town. Until they are saved by their own hard work, coupled with Miss Billings's own decision to help out. [How? Read the book]. Everything, or almost everything, ends happily for the actors, with the arrival of two great Regency names - Kemble and Kean.

But I digress from the love story, such as it is, between Hal Hampton (aka Henry Tewkesbury-Hampton, Marquess of Everdon) and his mock-wife Miss Katherine Billings. Is it really love when the hero acts selfishly almost through the entire novel? It is true that he helps out nobly with the troupe in staging their brilliant production, but he does so because it will be "fun" (and incidentally, help him get into shape). Not because he really wants to help out. His argument at the end of the book is that he wanted to see the troupe and Miss Billings win their way out of disaster through their own efforts. Not bad - except that his own example has hardly been one to inspire anyone.

My summary at the end of the book was that this story had a great heroine, a memorable set of secondary characters (with two romances among troup members thrown in) - and an unlikeable hero with some appalling friends and relatives. Even the valet comes across as rather more decent. The plot lines involving the Marquess's disappearance from society and his attackers make little or no sense. It might make more sense to someone less critical than me.

Rating = 3.7 [upgraded to a 4]
P.S. This is so far the lowest rating I have assigned to any Kelly book.

This was an enjoyable Regency anthology built around the Christmas season. However, as is common with anthologies the stories were not all equal. The best story was Carla Kelly's "The Christmas Ornament". Olivia and James, were refreshingly unlike the typical Regency couple, especially James, whose shyness and absent-minded professor personality was truly winning. You could just picture a young Jimmy Stewart or Hugh Grant playing the character. Of the five stories this was the one that I wish had been a full-length novel. My second favorite was Edith Layton's "The Hounds of Heaven", which was full of humor and the true spirit of the Christmas season, despite having the least amount of Christmas "trappings" in the group. Again, a charming hero and a sweet and different plot twist. The only drawback for me was that Helena, the heroine, was not fully drawn-out, probably as a result of the limitations of the short-story format. Barbara Metzger's "Three Good Deeds" and Elisabeth Fairchild's "Felicity's Forfeit" were both pleasant Regency fare. Both stories managed to fit a great deal of detail and some originality into their short frameworks. The only story I didn't enjoy was Allison Lane's "Second Chance". The hero, Jeremy, was actually quite attractive, but I could not warm up to the overly dramatic plot, and found Alice annoyingly self-pitying rather than tragic as she was obviously meant to be. It's hard to enjoy a romance when you only like half of the couple. All five stories featured very charming and well-drawn male leads, and in fact most of the stories were told from their points of view, which I enjoy, since I read romances for the heroes. Overall, a nice group, which Regency fans should enjoy, and which does get you in a pre-holiday spirit.

Anthology series are indeed hit or miss and the stories in The Grand Hotel are a miss all the way around. Romance and humor was seriously lacking in this book. There was little to recommend or differentiate one story from the other. If I had to pick one story that was at least semi-enjoyable, I would choose Barbara Metzger's story as there was at least some attraction and humor between the love interests, though not as amusing as amusing as Ms. Metzger can usually be. Why does Carla Kelly always right such somber romances? For me, somber and romance are two adjectives that should not mix in a romance novel.

The Grand Hotel is an anthology based around a single setting: a hotel in London, where the various characters either work or are guests. It's an interesting concept, and one which should, in theory, make the stories appear less as unconnected vignettes and more as 'chapters' in one longer story. But in practice, The Grand Hotel didn't turn out that way. It's something which could have been achieved quite easily, had the authors been given a plot thread which would weave throughout the individual stories and be resolved in the final one. As it was, the stories were very much stand-alone, with only brief references to common characters.

Carla Kelly's The Background Man is probably the best of the bunch, which is hardly surprising. Charles Mortimer, the assistant manager, is rarely noticed, because of his ability to blend into the background. However, substituting for his superior, he comes to the notice of Miss Carrington, a somewhat unusual guest. He falls in love with her immediately, and barely dares to hope that she will return his feelings. She does... but she's hiding a secret from him. Will this destroy any chance for them? My problem with The Background Man was mainly that it was too short, a common problem with anthology stories. The relationship really didn't have enough time to develop, and I wanted to see more of Charles and Millie together.

In Elisabeth Fairchild's Love Will Find A Way, Lieutenant James Forrester is about to meet, for the first time, the widow of his late commanding officer. Yet he feels as if he's known Annabelle Grant all his life. (Incidentally, Annabelle is a widow. Why does Fairchild refer to her as 'Miss'?). James, we see, had to read all her letters to Archie, her late husbamd, and once Archie was too ill to respond on his own, James wrote to her. He fell in love with her from her letters. Now, he has a few days only to get to know her and persuade her to consider marrying him. This is an interesting idea, and a nice, gentle love story - but again rushed by the pressures of coming in at under 65 pages.

Anne Barbour's The Castaway is the most disappointing, given Barbour's undoubted talent. A woman called Martha Finch arrives at the hotel to keep an appointment with Lord Branford, acting on behalf of the Marquess of Canby, the man whose granddaughter she claims to be. The reader is shown very soon that Martha is lying about her claim, and Barbour does not give her particularly sympathetic motives. I was hoping throughout that she would be exposed and that Branford, the hero, would reject her. Her lie is, of course, found out, but a far too convenient solution then emerges. This is one heroine I did *not* want to see end up with the hero.

Next, we have Barbara Metzger's The Management Requests. Captain Arthur Hunter (who should, in fact, be Captain Viscount Huntingdon, if Metzger paid proper attention to protocol) needs a room on the ground floor because of an injury. None is available, so he persuades the manager to let him have the room behind the reception desk. Because of this, a guest - Hope Thurstfield - mistakes him for the manager, a misapprehension Arthur chooses not to correct. (Why?) The secondary characters in this vignette almost drove me crazy, and I didn't especially care for Hope. Another miss.

And finally, we have Allison Lane's Promises to Keep. Maggie Adams has arrived from America to try to make peace with her father's family, from whom he was estranged after eloping with her mother. She bumps into a Marcus Widner at the hotel, who just happens to be related to her mother's family and who offers to help her in her quest - but who warns her off making immediate contact with her father's family. Lane lives up to her usual standards here by inventing the usual crop of one-dimensional villains, completely unbelievable in their audacity and villainry. I liked Marcus, but that's about all I can say for this story.

All in all, not worth the new purchase price, unless you're desperate to complete a Carla Kelly collection. My copy is going to the next charity shop collection.

Although I'm not terribly found of anthologies because the brevity of the format inevitably results in shallow, partially-drawn characters, I found myself enjoying this one more than most. Why? Mostly because it included the romances of some ordinary people, not just those who are rich and titled. Also because it was (for the most part) the heroes who fell in love first and "loved from afar," instead of the women. And because some of the characters and events were intertwined in other stories and gave the impression of a single book instead of an anthology by five different authors. I'd like to see more anthologies like this one!