When Lady Adalyn is saved by a knight in shining armour, she soon changes her mind about him. When she realises that he is the man whom her parents have organised to marry her, she is furious. Viscount Bain Cooke is thoroughly confused. One moment, Adalyn and he have a connection, then she is quite chilly in her attitude. When they finally discuss the situation, Bain proposes that they pretend to be going ahead with the engagement. Yet as they spend time together, both wonder whether they will be able to part on Christmas Day.
A sweet novella that gives enough attention to the details, that the author was able to give depth to each character. A great read for the holiday season.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to #netgalley for the opportunity to read Mary E. Taylor's An Arranged Christmas in exchange for an honest review. ⁠If you like fun Christmas romance novellas, this is a good one to try. Lady Adalyn is honest, forthright and dead set against the arranged marriage her parents have brokered - all to save their crumbling finances. But when she meets the handsome caring Viscount Bain Cooke, she begins to have a change of heart. Will she have made up her mind by the Christmas Ball?⁠
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I enjoyed Adalyn and Bain and their swoony, budding romance. The more modern dialogue didn't bother me like I thought it might.

I feel like An Arranged Christmas had potential, but unfortunately needed some more fleshing out. I enjoy the premise of an arranged marriage trope and felt like I could have enjoyed the characters more if the reader would have had more time with them, but as a novella there is not a lot of time in which to do so. There were some interesting scenes that would have been nice to have added to their length, such as the opening scene with Adalyn running away and falling into the ice and being rescued by Bain only to find out that he is the man she is supposed to marry. There were some continuity errors throughout the novel which could be fixed with a bit more of a polish as well as some aspects of the story which felt as though they clashed with the time period the novel is supposed to be set in. Unfortunately, those errors felt like they were pulling me out of the story. I really feel like this novella has potential.

Sweet quick regency Christmas read. Some of the words used were to modern for the times. A little more research would have helped. I did like Adalyn’s independence and Bain’s understanding. Alls well that ends well!

It was an OK novella. Probably less than 100 pagea so there was a lot of telling and not showing.
The first few pages had me hooked, started really strong, but it slowed down after the first few chapters. Quite a few anachronisms but just comes to show how hard writing a historical romance can be.
Happy that though she saod her parents were controlling they weren't evil!

My initial impression of this book was very positive. I thought the opening chapter was exciting and captured the reader's attention, throwing us into the action. While overall I did enjoy the plot of the book, I did find the romance between the couple a little underdeveloped. The hero was in love with the heroine almost instantly, with no obvious reason to have those feelings, and the heroine went from trying to avoid marrying the hero to being in love with him in the blink of an eye.

This may be in part due to the fact that this book is a novella and the author obviously doesn't have as much time to spend on fleshing out the characters but unfortunately on this occasion I struggled to connect with the characters and therefor didn't enjoy the story quite as much as I thought I would at the beginning.

Delivering all the expected parts of a romance in a novella is HARD. Maintaining the backdrop of the regency time period when you have to have a couple meet, come together, have their challenge, and then find Happily Ever After is especially hard in a tight format. An Arranged Christmas makes a valiant effort.

Adalyn’s arranged marriage to Viscount Cooke, who goes by Bain, will save her family from financial ruin. She’s a sheltered young woman who dreads marriage and we meet her as she is running away. She winds up having to return home and her fiancé has also come for an extended visit. Adalyn resists interacting with the Viscount initially, but we all know where this is headed.

There are issues with language and time period that are a little distracting here. For example, Adalyn and Bain go to a restaurant owned by a woman for breakfast. In this time period, restaurants didn’t really exist outside of inns and hotels. Women didn’t eat out. There’s some modern language like “you guys” and “gussied up.” There are also a few continuity errors (a meal is lunch, then breakfast, then lunch again).

This is a good effort to deliver a holiday romance novella that might benefit from another round of edits.

Can Bain bring forth a Christmas miracle and prove his love to his reluctant bride-to-be? Not if she has anything to say about it.

Her family faces financial ruin, but Lady Adalyn can’t accept that the only way to save them is to marry for money, not love. When her parents arrange for her to wed a stranger despite her objections, she flees her childhood home. Just when she thinks her daring escape has been a resounding success, she finds herself in more trouble than ever.

When her knight in shining armor sweeps in like a fairytale, Adalyn can hardly believe it. He’s charming and dashing, with the most beautiful green eyes she’s ever seen. She’s completely smitten with her handsome stranger. That is, until she realizes who he is…

Viscount Bain Cooke can’t believe his luck. His future bride is witty and beautiful, with a strong mind and delightfully sharp tongue. She’s less than thrilled with their engagement, but he couldn’t imagine a better fit. He only has until Christmas Day to change her mind, and time is running out.

Can Adalyn open her heart to the possibility of love in her arranged marriage?

Adalyn, the main character, spends most of the book acting overly dramatic, like a child throwing a tantrum. Bain, the main male character is lovely. Time jumps keep the reader's at an emotional arm's length, so you never quite connect with the characters. Despite this, it is still a very quick, fun, Christmassy read.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for my honest review.

An Arranged Marriage is a historical romance novella. It is the story of Adalyn, the daughter of a financially strapped Baron and Bain, a well off Viscount. Adalyn does not want an arranged marriage and is running away She falls into freezing water and is rescued, unbeknownst to her, by Bain who is on his way to her parent’s house for a visit. Once she finds out who he is, she decides to act like she doesn’t like him. The story quickly covers how they develop feelings for each other. Nice short story. I enjoyed the POV of both main characters. I would recommend.

Unfortunately this was a miss for me. Too much of a slow burn. The end wrapped too quickly even for a novella. It didn't really capture my attention at all. I ended up skimming most of the chapters.

An Arranged Marriage is a novella opens with our heroine, Adalyn running through the snowy forest away from her home after her parents told her she is to be married soon. She ends up lost, and falls into a frozen lake.
Our main male character, Viscount Bain Cooke rescues her, returning her home.
Immediately, they are attracted to one another. That is until Adalyn find out her handsome rescuer is her husband and-to-be. All of her attraction and admiration immediately vanishes and does everything to avoid him.
On the other hand, Bain is enamoured by her. He seems dark and broody but is actually the human version of a golden retriever.
Both proceed by pretending that their courtship is going well while actually falling in love (you know tale as old as time but it never gets boring!). The novella is a super quick read with fairly large time jumps between chapters, progressing their relationship quickly. Obviously it’s a short story but I always end up wanting more.
Mary E. Taylor writes a progressive warming tale of unexpected love.

Adalyn's parents have arranged her engagement to Viscount Bain Cooke but she is angry that she's not been given a choice and decides to go running in the snowy forest, wearing unsuitable clothing, with no clear plan where to go and what to do when she falls in an icy lake. In a convenient coincidence, her fiance Bain fishes her out of the water.. It is unclear how he knew she was there and why she thought she was lost if she was close enough to a road for someone to spot her from a carriage. He gives her a ride home and when she gets there nobody seems to notice that she's soaking wet from her dip in the icy lake and wearing a man's coat. Instead of heading to her room for a hot bath and a change of clothes she joins her family in a sitting room for introductions. This set the scene in a rather implausible manner, and there are other details that struck me as somewhat unlikely. They go shopping for ball gowns off the rack, that sort of thing.

Adalyn is opposed to the planned marriage as a matter of principle although Bain seems quite nice and she might like him a lot if he wasn't the suitor that's being forced on her. I liked the general plot idea and the feminist vibes Adalyn and Bain have embraced but the romance suffers a bit from the short format. We learn that they become best friends and fall in love but a lot of this we're told rather than shown.

The steam level: tame.

I received a Netgalley copy and this is a voluntary review.

“You need to stop living in your fairy-tale wonderland. Love doesn’t solve anything. Real life doesn’t work that way. Look at your family situation. They found a good match for you, and who knows, maybe he might actually love you like you want.”

“I don’t care about reason, Emily. It’s my heart and my future at stake here. I won’t let them take that away from me.”

Such a cute read!!! A short historical romance story with a fierce, strong female character and a loveable and persistent male character. It was a quick read, I enjoyed the plot and arranged marriage is one of my favourite tropes. I recommend it to everyone!!!

Rating: 5 /5 stars

I voluntarily read a review copy kindly provided by the publisher and NetGallery.

Well that was a fun little read! A bit of Red Riding Hood, Beauty & the Beast, and my favorite trope, arranged marriage. Not a lot of substance but a quick read.

A quick, easy Christmas read. Fairly predictable plot but still enjoyable. I probably wouldn't read it again however it did help me get into a festive mindset.

Short but very enjoyable. I enjoy the authors writing style and the flow of the book. It was a little instant for me but still lovely.

Can Bain bring forth a Christmas miracle and prove his love to his reluctant bride-to-be?
Not if she has anything to say about it.
Her family faces financial ruin, but Lady Adalyn can’t accept that the only way to save them is to marry for money, not love. When her parents arrange for her to wed a stranger despite her objections, she flees her childhood home. Just when she thinks her daring escape has been a resounding success, she finds herself in more trouble than ever.
When her knight in shining armor sweeps in like a fairytale, Adalyn can hardly believe it. He’s charming and dashing, with the most beautiful green eyes she’s ever seen. She’s completely smitten with her handsome stranger. That is, until she realizes who he is…
Viscount Bain Cooke can't believe his luck. His future bride is witty and beautiful, with a strong mind and delightfully sharp tongue. She's less than thrilled with their engagement, but he couldn’t imagine a better fit. He only has until Christmas Day to change her mind, and time is running out.
Can Adalyn open her heart to the possibility of love in her arranged marriage?
This is a sweet novella. Adalyn and Bain are meant to be together. Will they be able to get the same thing?
Mary E. Taylor has written a sweet novella.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion of this book which I read and reviewed voluntarily.

This had a great premise. Adalyn's parents have arranged a marriage for her, mostly for their own benefit. She decides running is her only option, but quickly finds herself in a pickle, only to be rescued by an intriguing young man...who happens to be on his way to her family home...

I would have loved to read more about how Adalyn and the Viscount grew to understand and appreciate each other. This being novella-length, we weren't treated to those details and it felt a bit insta-lovey. Calling this PG-rated would even be a bit of a stretch, so readers expecting steam may be a bit surprised. Finally, both the tone and the word choices didn't really fit the Regency setting, to the point of it being distracting to someone familiar with romances set in this time period. It wasn't just nit-picky things, but frequent use of modern words, slang, and phrasing.

This wasn't unpleasant, by any means. There is definitely potential, but it could use a polish and a bit more fleshing out of the story.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

🎄🎄🎄/5

Thank you NelGalley and BooksGoSocial publishing for this ARC!

A self proclaimed socially awkward Baron's daughter in an arranged marriage with a handsome and caring Viscount. What could go wrong? More like-- what goes right? If you are looking for an incredibly short story to get you into the Christmas spirit, look no further, but lower your expectations.

This novella was adorable, but needs work. While I loved the premise, I felt like the story itself fell flat.

Things I loved:
-names of the characters
-premise
-arranged marriage
-enemies to lovers
-quick read

The names of these characters are amazing. I love the vibe and I felt like the overall regency vibe was carried over well. I also just feel like the names of the characters fit the aesthetic of each character as well. I was very happy with each encounter.

I feel like the author picked a great setup for this story. She formatted it well, and with the quick chapters it was an easy read. I will say, the beginning didn't quite fit, but it did allow our characters to meet so I'll give her some slack.

Ok but who doesn’t love an arranged marriage? Enemies to Lovers– also a big fan of that.

Things that could use some work:
-rushed
-character dynamics
-flat characters

Listen– the good things in this book are what is giving this the 3 stars. However, the rushed content and plotline made it really hard for me to fully enjoy this novella. The characters need some dimensions and truly could have been worked on more. While I feel that the setting was well formatted, the descriptions of everything else were virtually non-existent. Additionally, due to the flat characters, the story fell flat as well. The characters virtually went from “we can’t get married here’s the plan to avoid that” to “iloveyousomuchmarrymepleaseeventhoughyoudon’twanttomarrybecauseihatetheconceptyethereweare”.

Overall, I gave this novella a 3 out of five because of the overall vibes and Christmasy feel, but the plot needs some saving.

An Arranged Christmas
by Mary E. Taylor

An Arranged Christmas started off running both literally and figuratively and continued through the whole 89 or so pages of this novella.

While I felt the short story was fine I wasn't pulled into the story enough to care if Adalyn ended up with Bain or not. I was actually hoping that Adalyn's friend Emily would get the Lord.

Beyond calling Adalyn's family home a 'regency house' I didn't get much Regency feel from it. Such as form of address to a Viscount - referred to as Mr., Viscount, or Bain but not one My Lord to be found and modern slang - Adalyn's sister refers to Adalyn and Bain as "you guys'.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

#AnArrangedChristmas #NetGalley