Lady Sophie's Christmas Wish

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2011 Paperback Grade: C Catalog: Romance Historical English Synopsis: 404 pages. All she wants is peace and anonymity...Lady Sophie Windham has maneuvered a few days to herself ... at the ducal mansion in London before she... Read more Show Less

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Overview

"Grace Burrowes passes 'the hair rose on the back of my neck' test...{her} voice embeds itself in your brain."
-USA Today

A luminous holiday tale of romance, passion, and dreams come true from rising star Grace Burrowes, whose award-winning Regency romances are capturing hearts worldwide.

All she wants is peace and anonymity...
Lady Sophie Windham has maneuvered a few days to herself at the ducal mansion in London before she must join her family for Christmas in Kent. Suddenly trapped by a London snowstorm, she finds herself with an abandoned baby and only the assistance of a kind, handsome stranger standing between her and complete disaster.

But Sophie's holiday is about to heat up...
With his estate in ruins, Vim Charpentier sees little to feel festive about this Christmas. His growing attraction for Sophie Windham is the only thing that warms his spirits-but when Sophie's brothers whisk her away, Vim's most painful holiday memories are reawakened.

It seems Sophie's been keeping secrets, and now it will take much more than a mistletoe kiss to make her deepest wishes come true...

"Burrowes's sensual love story...rises above the crowd with deft dialogue and delightful characters."
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Editorial Reviews

Anna's Book Blog
A delightful holiday story... Sweet, but ever so tantalizing.
B&N Review
An unashamedly sentimental read... There's a place in the world for the utter sweetness and charm of Christmas books, with newborn babies, newfound love, and happy endings all included. This is a great entry in that sub-genre.
— Eloisa James
Bookaholics Romance Book Club
The perfect book for the holidays... Poignant and tender.
Booklist
Burrowes continues to write outside the usual Regency box with strong characters and humor similar to Amanda Quick's.
Bookloons.com
Another Grace Burrowes masterpiece that hits all the heartstrings...
Caught in a Fab Romance
So sweet... felt cozy just by reading it.
Dark Divas Reviews
A magical delight...
Eva's Sanctuary
Humorous... Makes for a wonderful holiday read.
Fresh Fiction
A warmhearted fun romance with characters whose lovable presence can be felt throughout the book...
Night Owl Reviews
Yet another outstanding Regency romance featuring the Windham family...
RT Book Reviews
An unconventional storyteller who knows exactly how to touch a reader's heart and reach deeply into the soul.... An extraordinary, precious, unforgettable holiday story. 4 1/2 Stars, Top Pick of the Month
The Long and Short of It Reviews
Shines with love, sparkles with humor... Breathtaking.
Yankee Romance Reviewers
Burrowes has given us the most romantic story of Christmas miracles, wishes to come true as the love and purity of the deepest part of our souls pulsates its way into our hearts.
Library Journal
Thrown together by chance and the vicious London weather, Lady Sophia Windham and Wilhelm (Vim) Charpentier, Lord Sindal, suddenly find themselves snowed in, in charge of a baby abandoned by Sophie's maid. They face a growing attraction for each other, as well as an attachment to the child, while not knowing each other's true identity. Passion soon flares, but it isn't until Sophie's three brothers finally arrive that they sort things out and set things to rights. But then life just becomes more complicated. VERDICT Supremely sexy, emotionally involving, and graced with well-written dialog, this gently paced, baby-centered story is a fascinating, enjoyable read and nicely connects with the author's earlier books (The Heir; The Soldier). Burrowes lives in rural Maryland. [Library marketing.]

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781402261541
  • Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated
  • Publication date: 10/4/2011
  • Format: Mass Market Paperback
  • Edition description: Original
  • Pages: 416
  • Sales rank: 122,275
  • Product dimensions: 6.90 (w) x 4.20 (h) x 1.08 (d)

Meet the Author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Grace Burrowes hit the bestseller lists with both her debut, The Heir, and her second book in The Duke's Obsession trilogy, The Soldier. Both books received extensive praise and starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and The Heir was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the Best Books of the Year for 2010. Grace is a practicing family law attorney and lives in rural Maryland.

Read an Excerpt

"Ain't a bleedin' bedamned room t'be had in all a bleedin' Lun'nun, guv!"

The innkeeper raised his voice to holler over the racket created by one screaming infant. "Stables is full up too, and more bleedin' snow on the way! Beg pardon!"

He hustled away and started bellowing over the din in the common for somebody to mop the bleedin' floor. Not surprised at the lack of accommodations, Vim moved off in the interest of sparing his bleedin' ears.

Though moving wasn't easy in the crowded confines of the common.

The floor was a slick expanse of that particular type of mud created when snow, horse manure, and dirt were tracked in from the semifrozen quagmire of the inn yard, and yet it was hardly the worst feature of the crowded room. The stench rising from the floor blended with the aromas of wet wool, unwashed bodies, and overcooked mutton stew to offend even the lowliest nose.

Overlaying it all was the incongruous scent of cinnamon, as if a little spice would confer on the scene some sense of seasonal good cheer.

Which was not bloody likely.

Piercing the noisome air, over the cursing and muttering of stranded travelers, over the scrape of boots and the swearing of the hostlers in the yard beyond, came that sound most capable of driving Wilhelm Lucifer Charpentier to madness.

A crying baby.

Vim had noticed the little blighter when all the passengers on his stage had been told to debark here in the very heart of London, because the weather was precluding further progress on the journey south. Like benumbed sheep, they'd all stumbled into the inn, toting their belongings with them only find an assault on their ears was to be the price of thawing their toes.

The child's crying ratcheted up, from indignant to enraged. The next progression would be to inconsolable, which might last hours.

Happy bedamned holidays.

Vim knew people in London. People who would act pleased to see him. People who would smile and welcome him as an impromptu guest for the duration of the foul weather. Happy people, offering him wassail while they laughed their way through the same hopeless madrigals and selections from Handel's Messiah.

He shifted his gaze from the scene beyond the window to the woman holding the unhappy baby a few feet away.

"I beg your pardon, madam. May I be of assistance?" He tipped his hat and had to fist his hands at his sides, so strong was the urge to pluck the offending infant from her arms. "The child appears distressed."

She bobbed a curtsy while holding the child. "I've explained to him that such a tantrum is hardly seemly, and I do apologize for the noise." She focused her gaze on the child. "You are a naughty fellow, young Kit, banging your tankard and shouting down the rafters..."

She went on softly remonstrating the baby while Vim recovered from the prettiest pair of green eyes he'd ever beheld. Overall, she wasn't a pretty woman-she had a full though solemn mouth in the usual location, underscored by a definite chin and a nose somewhat lacking in subtlety. Her hair was dark brown and pulled back into a positively boring bun at her nape. But those eyes...

And her voice. It was the voice of a pretty lady, soft and luminous with good breeding and gentility, though she was using it to try to gently scold the child into better behavior.

"May I?" He held out his arms, meeting those green eyes when she looked faintly puzzled. "I have some experience with children."

She passed him the child, moving close enough to Vim that he realized she was not particularly tall. She had a dignity about her, though, even holding a bellowing baby.

"His mama should be right back. She just went around to the back for a moment." The lady cast a hopeful look at the door-a hopeful, anxious look.

Vim took the child, who appeared distracted by the change in venue-though likely only temporarily.

"You will hush," he said to the baby. This pronouncement earned him a blinking, blue-eyed stare from his burden. "This good woman is tired of your fretting, as is the entire room and likely half the block. Behave your little self, or we'll call the beadle to haul you off to gaol. That's better."

He put the baby to his shoulder and began to gently pat and rub the small back. "He just finished his luncheon, didn't he?"

The woman colored slightly. "I believe he did."

Still on the breast then, which was going to be a problem.

"I don't believe his mother will be returning." He said it calmly, an observation about the weather, nothing more.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Voice down, madam, lest His Highness start to fretting again, hmm?" He turned his body to provide the woman a little privacy, his larger frame effectively blocking her from the rest of the room.

"Sir, you just said you aren't sure his mother will be coming back. A trip to the necessary will hardly keep her until spring." She hissed the words, suggesting she lacked a parent's instinctive capacity for dissembling before children.

"The necessary is not in the direction of Piccadilly. She took off at as smart a pace as this footing will allow."

"You must be mistaken." Except a certain shift in the lady's expression told him the mother's behavior might not be entirely out of character.

"She's a solid young woman, blonde, attired in a purple cloak?" The baby rooted on his shoulder. "I have a handkerchief in my pocket. Would you be so good as to extract it?"

Again he'd spoken calmly, babies being fiendishly perceptive even before they learned their first words. The lady was perceptive too. She stuck a hand into the pocket of his greatcoat and produced the handkerchief without further comment.

"Lay it on my shoulder."

She had to go up on her toes to do that, which meant amid all the stink and filth of the common, Vim caught a whiff of something... lovely. A hint of late spring. Cool, sunny, sweet... pink-throated roses and soft climbing vines of honeysuckle.

She stepped back to watch him warily.

"I suspect his recent meal has left him a tad dys"-the baby burped loudly and wetly-"peptic."

"My goodness." She blinked at Vim's shoulder, where the infant was now beaming toothlessly at all he surveyed. Vim shifted the child and retrieved the handkerchief, which had protected his greatcoat more or less from carrying the scent of infant digestion for the rest of the day.

He hoped.

"How long do you intend to wait for his mother?" The child swung a tiny hand and caught Vim's nose.

"Joleen was to board the Portsmouth stage." Another anxious visual sweep of the surrounds.

Vim took a step back so the lady might have a view out the window. He also disengaged his proboscis from the baby's surprisingly strong grip.

"I was told the coaches are all putting up for the duration, madam. My own travel has been interrupted because of it." The baby knocked Vim's high-crowned beaver straight at the woman beside them. She caught it deftly in one hand. When Vim dipped his head, she positioned the hat back where it belonged.

"That is a naughty baby," she said, eyeing the child.

"He's a boy baby. They all have more energy than they know what to do with, until they sleep like the dead, restoring themselves for their next round of mischief."

This recitation seemed to please the little fellow, for he smiled directly at Vim, a great drooling expression of benevolence disproportionate to his tiny size.

"I think Kit likes you."

"He likes having food in his tummy and a warm place to cuddle, the same as the rest of us. You can linger here, but I honestly do not think the mother will return. May I have your coach brought round for you?" Though the pandemonium in the yard suggested it would be far simpler to escort the lady to her conveyance.

"I only brought the gig, and it's right around the corner." She reached for the baby, but Vim took half a step back.

"I am happy to carry him for you."

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 65 )

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 65 Customer Reviews
  • Anonymous

    Posted October 13, 2011

    WARNING to Grace Burrowes fans!

    DO NOT read this before The Virtuoso! How was this story released before we know Val's story?!!!

    5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 24, 2012

    Highly Recommended

    Grace Burrowes is a WONDERFUL author. I have enjoyed all of the companion books to this one - The Heir, The Solider, Virtuoso...Can't get enough of Ms. Burrowes books! This is a great romantic read.

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  • Posted January 22, 2012

    A Sweet Love Story.

    This is a great story and you will fall in love with Sophie and Vim.

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  • Posted January 21, 2012

    Great easy read.

    I enjoyed this book, it is a good easy read historical. I would recommend it to people who like historical romances.

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  • Posted January 16, 2012

    Highly Recommend!!!

    LOVE these books...have all on the brothers too...always excited for the next book to come out!!! MUST READ!!!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 30, 2011

    It was good

    I like her other books better

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 26, 2011

    Heart-warming story and loveable characters!

    This story grabbed me from the very beginning with its unusual plot. I love all the adventures of the Windham family, but this story took me by surprise, the characters stole my heart and I couldn't put it down. As much as I loved The Heir, The Soldier, and The Vituouso, this first story about one of Their Grace's daughters is my favorite. I eagerly await another!

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  • Posted November 21, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    A Magical Christmas Read!

    A Gem of a Read! a rapturously entertaining story that warm the hearts and just in time to bring in the holiday season with yuletide cheer. Need a little Christmas right this very minute? In New York Times bestselling author Grace Burrowed LADY SOPHIE¿S CHRISTMAS WISH has her heroine wishing for a bit of a break from family obligations but having an unexpected baby thrust into arms this holiday season was not on her Christmas list. This magically enchanting book is guaranteed to entertain readers with two of the most generously gifted hearts this readers has enjoyed reading. A magical treat for readers at any time of the year. For it being the¿Season of Giving" it makes LADY SOPHIE¿S WISH that much more poignant with the authors heart felt message caring, sharing and above all cherishing this time of year. Reader I can all most be one hundred percent certain that when Lady Sophia Wyndam set out to write her Christmas Wish list that being stranded with a screaming baby in a snow storm did not even top her list. Lady Sophia the ever so loving, compassionate and who has never given her devoted parents one ounce of trouble finally feels the dregs of being practically perfect in every way. Mind you, it is Lady Sophia¿s nature to nurture every living creature she come in contact with and being one out of ten siblings this charismatic beauty thinks of others before her self. that is not to say the Lady is not stunned when her maid leaves her six month old child in Sophia¿s care. Caring for an animal is quite different that tending a squirming child. Perplexed as what to do Lady sophia is desperate for any assistance. Alas, help comes in the guises of Vim Charpentier who if by chance knows one or two things about a scream child. to weather out the storm Lady Sophia and Vim with babe in arms head to her family estate in Mayfair. The two quickly bound over the precious little minx and realize that there could be no great Christmas gift that what they have at this very moment. But all is not as it seems for both Vim and Lady Sophia are under the false guise neither revealing who they truly are. With Christmas magic all around there is nothing but hope that in the end what had started out as a Christmas wish will be a life long love of contentment and loving family for years to com. LADY SOPHIE'S CHRISTMAS WISH is my favorite romance of the year. It is no surprise that when a Grace Burrowes book is placed in my hands that I devour ever intricate imaginative word until I am desperate to read it all over again. Burrowes sets her Christmas plot in the heart of London. A young vivacious women stranded with a young child, a dark mysterious stranger offers help. Pile on a heavy snow storm and readers are set for one excitingly gripping ride.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 19, 2011

    Excellent

    So far, the books are in this order: 1. Heir 2. Soldier 3. Virtuoso 4. Sophie. They are all excellent.

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  • Posted November 19, 2011

    Recommended but not her best.

    This story is part of a series I have thoroughly enjoyed. However, it came out before Virtuoso and seems to be out of order. It ties up things with the family so that when I read Virtuoso, about Val, I will expect him to be married and usually these stories are love stories and I'm sure, although I haven't read it yet, that Virtuoso is Val;s love story.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 14, 2011

    She does it again!

    I start reading each book thinking it can't possibly be as good as the last; but I think they are getting better! I have given each 5 stars so I don't how that can be! Each book is very character driven and you become immersed in their emotions and story. Another keeper!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 6, 2011

    Excellent!

    Very heartwarming, emotional story.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 31, 2011

    Amazing! Highly Recommended

    The moment you open one of Grace Burrowes books, her words just suck you in. The stories are great. Not only does she move her story along smoothly, she doesn't jump around. I like this in any author. Sophie heart reminds me of her youngest brother Valentine. If you've read The Heir, then you'll understand my comparison. Great Job Grace, can't wait to read Valentine story that comes out in Novemeber.

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  • Posted September 28, 2011

    delightful read

    Alone for a few days in the family's opulent ducal mansion in London, Sophie sets out to do one of her good deeds and ends up in a crowded stage station with an abandoned, crying baby. Its cries bring Wilhelm (Vim) Charpentier into Sophie's life and her dreams and wishes long put away bubble up with new hope. This kind man who understands babies and looks at six-month-old baby Kit with affection and approval makes Sophie long for things no "decent" woman would admit to.

    Twenty-seven-year-old Sophie Windham is the sensible daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Moreland. Her exemplary ladylike behavior and her charity work with both people and animals are well-known. But restlessness had prompted her to beg off going to the family's country home in Kent along with her parents. She promised to travel with her three brothers who would be going in a few days.

    As a savage snow storm brings all activity to a halt in London, Sophie ends up with two male houseguests-baby Kit and Vim who is stranded and without lodging while on his way to spend Christmas at this estate in Kent.

    Sophie and Vim do not use their titles when they introduce themselves, so neither is aware of the others station in life. In the cozy servants' parlor of the mansion with a demanding baby to tend, they get to know each other without the usual pomp and circumstance associated with lords and ladies. Even though the mansion is without servants or family, the six-month-old baby makes a super chaperone as Sophie and Vim tend Kit's needs, cook, and do mundane household activities while unintentionally quietly fall in love.

    In the quiet still of night, Vim wakes to the sound of Sophie singing a lullaby to the fretful baby in her room. A peace, sweet and warm, gladdens his weary spirit, quickens an erotic pleasure in his body, and brings to life emotions that are new to him.

    His oppressive loneliness for his "half-family" in Cumbria and his dread of going to his estate and its responsibility (that he had avoided for so long) abates. A sense of well-being bubbles up. Vim decides this may not be the depressing Christmas holiday he'd feared he'd have at his Kent estate Sidling where he is known as Lord Sindal.

    The arrival of Sophie's three brothers changes the human dynamics. While the brothers interrogate Vim, they can see their sensible sister has a special affinity for this man and agree, they will travel to Kent together and concoct a story to keep the parents happy about Sophie and Vim's meeting. Each of the brothers recalls that they have Sophie to thank for helping them in times of great need. She'd helped them get their lives on track to a brighter future-a future that had looked black until she stepped in with her intelligence and common sense to set things straight. Their loyalty to her runs deep.

    Grace Burrowes writes with an understanding of her characters that make them totally believable. She shows how their flaws and virtues war for supremacy and she does it with incredible tenderness and humor. She creates dialogue that brings life to the story as she quietly moves the plot along as she ratchets up the conflicts then bit by piece eases the tension as the characters face troubles and overcome them. Each character comes to know him or herself better as work through old hurts and move on toward a happy-ever-after.

    Read the full review at the Long and Short of It Romance Reviews

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  • Posted September 20, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    A fun read - mistaken identities, mutual desire for anonymity, refreshing innocence!

    A duke's daughter with a heart of gold, Sophie's grown up protected by privilege, wealth and her loving family. She's also a bit of soft touch. When their maid runs off leaving her baby with Lady Sophie at a stagecoach station, Sophie is at a loss. It's fortunate for her that the young Vim Charpentier knows quite a lot about babies and helps her. Sophie somehow invites him to her family London home and as he helps with the baby Kit, Sophie offers him shelter from the storm. Without having made arrangements for a place to stay in London, Vim agrees against his better judgment. He finds himself drawn to the mysterious Sophie who appears to be a trusted servant, possibly a housekeeper. As he teachers her how to care for the baby, they fall in love.

    Add to the mix a mutual desire for anonymity, a case of mistaken identities, lack of caution and judgment. Things take a turn when Sophie's three brothers appear and Vim learns her true identity. Though Vim has a title of his own, he never expected to woo a duke's daughter.

    Full of missed chances and misunderstandings, these star-crossed lovers make for a fun read.

    ISBN-10: 1402261543 - $7.99
    Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (October 1, 2011), 416 pages.
    Review copy provided by the publisher.

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