So much about the Christmas holidays is wonderful. We get together with friends
and family we might not see at any other time of year, cook our favorite foods,
decorate the whole house, sing the good old songs, give and receive thoughtful
giftsโฆ. Even if we also sometimes wish we could find a place to hide and take a
three-day nap.
Then thereโs the weather, which means we can be traveling at the least
convenient time of year.
And the budget, which must accommodate travel expenses, holiday shopping,
holiday meals (with libation), holidays guests, and holiday heating bills.
And the folks who react to the holidays by over-imbibing, or channeling Attila
the Hun in the mall parking lot, or the children who MUST come down with the flu
on December 20th, or the relatives who revive the feud that should have died a
quarter century ago (the feud, not the relativesโฆ.).
And thatโs all before Christmas itself.
The holidays, in other words, can be stressful. Really, really stressful.
The characters in my Scottish Victorian holiday romance,
WHAT A LADY NEEDS FOR
CHRISTMAS, have added to their yuletide stress by becoming engaged. Dante
Hartwell is a Scottish mill owner who seeks an aristocratic wife for her class
connections. Lady Joan Flynn is an English marquessโs lovely daughter whoโs made
one, teeny, tiny, disastrous mis-step from the path of perfect deportment. Joan
must find a husband by Christmas or sheโll her figurative stocking will be
filled with coal.
Dante and Joan arenโt strangers, and they do like each other, but theyโre hardly
in love. Well meaning family, business concerns, holiday traditions, and naughty
elves from Joanโs past all conspire to drive the new couple apart, but Dante and
Joan do what we all need to do when coping with holiday stress: They draw on
reserves of goodwill, humor, patience, and love they didnโt know they had.
They give each other the benefit of the doubt. They take the big risk of
trusting each other, even when thatโs scary. They take up for each other because
thatโs what spouses do. They give one another a place to regroup from the
challenges of the holiday season. Oddly enough, without those challenges, their
new marriage would not have made the leap from cordial distance to friendship,
to committed love.
I hope the holidays can work like that for you! I hope when the stress hits, you
can find the humor, the goodwill, the patience and fortitude to turn a tough
moment into a smile, and the temptation to mutter bad words into a holiday
toast. And who knows? If you hang enough mistletoe, maybe youโll find a happily
ever after this holiday season, or add to the happily ever after youโve already
found!
Do you have a few tried and true holiday coping tricks? Care to share any of
them here? One of mine is to get outside periodically, even if all I do is stand
on the porch for five minutes and enjoy a cup of tea in the chilly, chilly air.
About WHAT A LADY NEEDS FOR CHRISTMAS
Lady Joan Flynn needs a husbandโany husbandโif sheโs not to find scandal and
mischief under her Christmas tree; Scottish wool magnate Dante โHard-heartedโ
Hartwell needs an aristocratic wife to gain access to the financing that will
keep his wool mills secure. Can holiday magic spin an expedient match into true
love, and wary differences into trust?
About Grace Burrowes
New York Times and
USA Today bestselling author Grace
Burrowes' bestsellers include
THE HEIR,
THE SOLDIER,
LADY MAGGIE'S SECRET
SCANDAL,
LADY SOPHIE'S
CHRISTMAS WISH and
LADY
EVE'S INDISCRETION. Her Regency romances have received extensive praise,
including starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Grace is
branching out into short stories and Scotland-set Victorian romance with
Sourcebooks. She is a practicing family law attorney and lives in rural
Maryland. Visit Grace online at her
website,
Facebook,
Twitter, and
Goodreads.
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