DESCRIPTION:
As the first Christmas snowflakes fall, Rosalind finds herself pregnant and alone…
Christmas is coming to the village of Rockwood. But the happiest time of the year is marred by the news that Rosalind Blanchard’s husband, Piers, is close to death after a shipwreck at sea. The fate of her beloved family home, the crumbling Rockwood Castle, is once more in her hands. She must find the strength to keep her family together.
Pregnant, Rosalind comes face to face with the only man who ever made her heart truly sing: her husband’s brother, Alex. As the Christmas bells ring, news of Piers arrives that changes everything. And another chance of happiness might be the gift Rosalind has been waiting for…
Book Two of The Rockwood Chronicles
MY THOUGHTS:
We rejoin the Careys and the Blanchards at Rockwood once again in the second book of the series WINTER WEDDING. As usual, Dilly delights us with the tales of scandal, love and woe in equal mesaure with her trademark rags to riches interwoven into the story.
Rosalind Blanchard remains living at Rockwood Castle, the unofficial custodian of the estate in the absence of her older brother Bertie who inherited their grandfather's baronetcy on his death some months before. Rosie married Piers who continues to divide his time between Trevenor in Cornwall and Rockwood in Devon, as well as overseeing affairs of the china clay mine he inherited from his father. For the past several months Rosie has longed for her husband's return and yet when he is home, he isn't quite present.
Christmas is approaching and with it the upcoming nuptials of Rosie's younger sister Patricia to Piers younger brother Alex, who once held a torch for Rosie. Their wedding is to be Christmas Eve and everyone who is anyone in the county and beyond are to attend. But then a telegram arrives informing her that Alex has been injured in a shipwreck and remains in a hospital in France until he is able to travel. Patricia is beside herself that he could do this to her and humiliate her in such a way. And then their mother comes back with a solution to their problem...unfortunately, only Felicia can see it as such whilst everyone else finds her idea tactless and insensitive. But then Felicia Carey could only ever think of herself.
Rosie decides to leave for France immediately and arranges a passage across the channel with Hester by her side. They arrive to discover that Piers was also injured in an adjoining wreck and is currently unconscious in hospital. Rosie and Hester rent premises close to the hospital so that she may visit Alex and Piers every day. When Alex is able to leave the hospital, Rosie continues to visit Piers daily until his condition improves. She will not leave France until both men are able to travel back with them.
Of course, a return would only mean histrionics as far as Patricia is concerned, who appears to be a younger version of her mother - self-centred and self-obsessed to the core. She gives no thought as to what Alex has endured, only that he apparently jilted her and left her humiliated when it should have been the happiest day of her life. I personally think he escaped something of a sentence. But what of Piers?
While I quite liked Patsy in the first book, I loathed her in this one. She was petulant, selfish and completely spoilt. She thought of no one but herself, much like her mother, dare she outshine Felicia! Thankfully they did not take precedence and featured very little. Rosie is the focus as is her relationships with Piers, Alex and the two children she took under her wing - Nancy and Tommy.
As always, Dilly delights her fans with her distinctive style of rags to riches, romance, woe and a little bit of scandal. A definite read for fans of "Downton Abbey" and delightful Victorian sagas. I can't wait to continue the series with "Runaway Widow" to see what she has in store for us next...
I would like to thank #DillyCourt, #Netgalley and #HarperCollins for an ARC of #WinterWedding in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Dilly Court grew up in North-east London and began her career in television, writing scripts for commercials. She is married with two grown-up children and four grandchildren, and now lives in Dorset on the beautiful Jurassic Coast with her husband. She is the author of eighteen novels and also writes under the name of Lily Baxter.
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