![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() While Willig’s series has been distinguished by its Austen-like wit and historical accuracy, its gimmick of upperclass spies in the Napoleonic Wars had grown increasingly strained. ![]() As the holidays begin, and Arabella’s attendance is required at one last function, both espionage and romance unfold, all under the knowing eyes of Arabella’s aspiring novelist friend. Over her friend Jane Austen’s objections, Arabella takes a teaching job in a girl’s school, where she literally runs into the wealthy and handsome older brother of one of her charges, uncovering a spy plot involving encoded schoolbooks and a message wrapped rather stickily in a Christmas pudding. But not only has the aunt married a much younger officer-the Captain Musgrave, who had previously paid attention to Arabella-she has since made it clear that Arabella, after years of virtual servitude, will not inherit a fortune. The oldest daughter of an impoverished Bath parson, Arabella had been living in London with her well-to-do aunt. It is Christmas, 1803, and the charming Arabella Dempsey is not looking forward to the holidays. In this seventh installment in the Regency romantic suspense series, Willig ( The Betrayal of the Blood Lily, 2010, etc.) refreshes her formula for a lighthearted and sweet holiday romance. ![]()
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