What Happens at Christmas by Victoria Alexander

Introduction

This book was such a pleasant surprise. I went into it expecting a historical Christmas romance, but I had no idea it would be so funny. What Happens At Christmas by Victoria Alexander made me laugh out loud quite a few times. I’m new to this author but I’m going to have to check out some of her other books, that’s for sure. This is book 1 of The Millworth Manor series and I believe there are 5 books total.

About the Book

You are cordially invited to Christmas at Millworth Manor. . .

Camille, Lady Lydingham, requests the pleasure of your company at a festive house party, as she endeavors to coax a marriage proposal from Prince Nikolai Pruzinsky of Greater Avalonia.

The hostess’s relatives will be in attendance–in this case, a troupe of actors hired to impersonate a proper English family in order to fool the Prince.

Gate-crashing, distractingly handsome first loves like Grayson Elliott are most unwelcome.

Games will be played.

Motives will be revealed.

Mayhem may ensue.

And hearts will be won–and lost–in the most romantic, magical season of all.

Please RSVP. (from Amazon.com)

My Thoughts

What Happens At Christmas is just the delightful Christmas romp I was looking for. The setting of Milford Manor was lovely and the characters (and their actions) were laugh out loud funny. I kept flipping the page thinking that things couldn’t get crazier, but they did.

Oh, they most certainly did. And in the best way!

Camille is a young widow who is thinking about settling down again. Her husband left her with enough money to take care of her for the rest of her life. And that’s good. That means she doesn’t have to worry about finding someone who she loves. Or someone who can take care of her.

She’s aiming much higher. She’s aiming for royalty.

Nobody in her life thinks this is a good idea, not even her twin sister Beryl. But that’s ok because Camille has the perfect plan. She will bring the Prince of Avalonia home for Christmas. She will teach him what a traditional English Christmas is like. There will be activities and festivities galore. And even better, she’ll have the perfect family. Her own family will be traveling to Paris, so she’ll hire a troupe of actors to play the parts.

It’s a genius plan.

But little by little, her “genius” plan unravels. An unexpected visitor from her past comes to visit and things do not exactly go as planned. Will she be able to impress the Prince enough by Christmastime, so that he’ll get down on one knee and propose?

I found the banter between Camille and her sister so funny. Camille and Beryl may be identical but they certainly have different ideas about what makes for a good relationship. I loved Beryl’s sarcasm and the fact that even though she thought her sister was crazy, she still agreed to help her with her wild plan.

Grayson, the unexpected visitor from Camille’s past, was a real hoot. Although he claimed to want to help Camille with her devious plan, his actions said otherwise. There were so many scenes that had me laughing out loud. Every time Grayson tried (or succeeded) to throw a wrench in Camille’s plans, I sat on the edge of my seat, waiting to see how she would react.

The Love/Hate relationship between Camille and Grayson was so funny and well written. I loved how biting Camille could be and I loved how since we got to see Grayson’s point of view sometimes, it was very apparent how he really would do simply anything to make her happy. It was very sweet and made some of his sillier antics seem much more charming.

Milford Manor is apparently a series, so I’m looking forward to checking out the next book as well. It focuses on Camille’s younger sister Delilah and I have a feeling it will be very humorous as well.

Thanks to Netgalley for a review copy of this book!

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xo Marian