A Return Engagement (Originally in the anthology, Royal Bridesmaids)

Stephanie Laurens

Release Date: August 27, 2013

Blurb:

A delightful novella from #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens.

Everyone’s eyes are on a royal couple, but there is more behind the scenes than they’ll ever know.
Lady Nell Daughtry is certain her sister will be a perfect princess, if only she gets the reluctant bride safely to the church to marry Prince Frederick of Lautenberg.

But what she doesn’t know is that, in the wedding party, she’s been paired with her former fiancé, Robert Knightly … and now she’ll be face-to-face with the man who walked away.

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Review:

I have been waiting to read this novella from Stephanie Laurens. More like, waiting to read the whole anthology in which it was published with! But still this works to my liking.

This was a fast, short, and loving romance. It’s vastly different from her usual works of hot sexy alpha males, saucy strong heroines, and very steamy love scenes. And I know because I have a whole bookshelf full of Laurens’ works!

Lady Cornelia Daughtry, Nell, has positioned herself as her sister’s companion and chaperone during her sister’s preparation for her wedding. She’s in charge of keeping her sister on track and from wedding nerves of any kind. Least to other’s knowledge the ladies of her mother’s blood line all carry a curse. The Vayne curse. Every Vayne lady has befallen to its failing upon their wedding week, leaving them with nerves, panics, and jilting runaway thoughts. So to keep her sister from it’s grips she has vowed to stand near to prevent it from ruining the wedding. She is also partnered up with her long lost love. Whom she planned to keep clear of if anything is to be done.

Robert Knightly is on diplomated work preparing for his friend Fredrick’s wedding and surprise to see Nell attending to her sister’s needs, or more like hiding something from drastically ruining the wedding plans! When he learns of its curse within the family, he couldn’t help but think of nine years past when Nell herself had shown signs of its curse. Now that he’s older and wiser, he’s even more determined to never let her go again, even if the curse comes creeping back.

This was a very different experience for me reading this type of romance from Laurens but I really enjoyed it.

Though we didn’t get into a lot of the character developments that Laurens is great at we still saw a lot of their personality through their actions, words, and thoughts. I was also very surprise that she didn’t have any of her very descripted and long love scenes. Although they were nice in some of her novels and not in others, I though it was very well, unused in this novella.

I know that that’s the whole point of novellas, that they have to be short but I thought it was great that Laurens didn’t add her steamy love scene because, come on, we know what goes on already. A tumble of naked bodies and bedsheets are all we need to get our fantasies and imaginations going. Well, some of the time. Teehee