She’s far above his touch…but has always remained in his heart.Lady Eliza Kent, the only child of the Earl of Leith, is a wild beauty. Since birth, she’s broken nearly every rule. Catching frogs on the banks of the Thames. Riding bareback. Memorizing Shakespeare. Adoring the vicar’s youngest son.Octavian Simms never conformed to his father’s rigid expectations. He loved wrestling, … marksmanship, mathematics, French…and the local earl’s hellion daughter. During the wars, he put his talents to best use and disappeared into France to help his country defeat the tyrant Napoleon.Home now that Napoleon lives in exile in St. Helena and weary of fighting, Octo ponders how to live the rest of his life. Then Eliza appears at his employer’s house party and challenges him to change his life completely.Can he seize dream he’d lost amid the turmoil of war? Or will he lose the one woman whose love he’s always craved?
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The Butler’s Forbidden Fancy is a wonderful and final addition to what has been such an enjoyable series to read. Cerise DeLand offers us a bright, lively heroine who charms everyone who meets her. Lady Elizabeth/Eliza Kent is on a mission when she arrives at the Countess of Marsden’s December house party celebrations. She has searched for months and nothing will stop her from gaining the man she has always loved since childhood. Octavian Simms is the Countess’ butler. He has known Eliza since childhood and has also loved her for years. As the son of a vicar, he knows there are rules to live by, and marrying gentry is not one of them. Eliza has to convince him that he needs to give up those rules so they can make their own rules to live by. Read this fun, charming and sweetly seductive offering by Cerise DeLand. You’ll love the whole tale as I did. And the perfect epilogue is the frosting on the cake!
Starring, Lady Eliza Kent and Octavian Simms. Childhood friends, unrequited love, butler and lady tropes.
Cerise DeLand always writes delicious characters…. and Octavian and Eliza were certainly yummy. He is a wonderfully moody and broody hero who distances himself from the woman he loves because of their class differences… and he’s never felt worthy of her. She’s the ray of sunshine that comes to melt the ice around his heart and show him that love has no boundaries. I loved Eliza’s determination and the antics she uses to get Octavian’s walls to crumble…. she made me laugh and smile a lot. And Octavian was truly sigh-worthy… gotta love a hero who makes your toes curl. These two were fun and sensual and I thoroughly enjoyed their journey towards HEA. This is a stand-alone story, but it does interconnect with the other books in the series.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. I voluntarily reviewed it and the comments are my own.
My star system…
4 stars: Book was great… loved the characters… will definitely be re-reading this story… but didn’t make me cry.
EQUALS
Octavian Simms is comfortable in his job as the butler for The Countess Marsden. Organization is his motto. Everything has it’s place and it’s his job to make sure everything flows smoothly. Nothing instills more turmoil, emotionally and physically for Simms, than a certain young lady who shows up for the Countess’ Christmas party. Simms has known Lady Eliza Kent since he was a young lad and she was in swaddling clothes. She’s the daughter of an Earl, he’s the youngest son of a vicar. Overcoming class as adults has always been a problem, until they decide on a solution for a life together. Very entertaining characters and their doings at a Christmas party.
Author Cerise Deland’s fifth book in the Christmas Belles series has brought love to the Countess of Marsden’s efficient and mysterious butler, Octavian Simms. Having fought in he war to help defeat Napoleon, Octavian intends to live the rest of his life in peace. That is until the only woman he has ever loved shows up at the party. Lady Eliza Kent is attending the Christmas house party for reasons other than celebrating the holidays, her ulterior motives include the handsome Simms. Will Simms be able to ignore the beautiful Eliza or will the love he has always felt for her become too much to bear alone? Will Simms let his pride get in the way of the only happiness he has ever known? This is a magical series that will have even the faintest of hearts believing in true love. Author Cerise Deland has written a series that is filled with love, intrigue, and a little mystery thrown in for good measure. I will miss the antics of the guests of the Countess’s house party but knowing Author Deland, there is more excitement right around the corner!
The Butler’s Forbidden Fancy
Christmas Belles, Series #5
Cerise DeLand
https://www.facebook.com/CeriseDeLandAuthor/
Release date 11/15/2019
Publisher W.J. Power
Blurb :
The vicar’s son and the earl’s daughter always broke the rules.
Now they must break bigger ones to win each other.
Do they have the courage?
She’s far above his touch…but has always remained in his heart.
Lady Eliza Kent, the only child of the Earl of Leith, is a wild beauty. Since birth, she’s broken nearly every rule. Catching frogs on the banks of the Thames. Riding bareback. Memorizing Shakespeare. Adoring the vicar’s youngest son.
Octavian Simms never conformed to his father’s rigid expectations. He loved wrestling, marksmanship, mathematics, French…and the local earl’s hellion daughter. During the wars, he put his talents to best use and disappeared into France to help his country defeat the tyrant Napoleon.
Home now that Napoleon lives in exile in St. Helena and weary of fighting, Octo ponders how to live the rest of his life. Then Eliza appears at his employer’s house party and challenges him to change his life completely.
Can he seize the dream he’d lost amid the turmoil of war? Or will he lose the one woman whose love he’s always craved?
My review:
When a woman in love seeks the man she always cared for, will he finally give in their affection or still follow the rules …
So it is the final installment in this series, outside the sixth one withAunt Gertrude’s story in the bundle Snowed in with A Rogue which was released last month. During my read of different romances, it is true I wondered about this very intriguing Butler, so young, handsome and multi-talented.
One more time Mrs Cerise DeLand outdid herself, she again surprised me with this tale of breaking the old rules to built new foundations on them, and also by giving the louder progressive voice to a woman of society instead of the commoner who loves her.
Octavian and Eliza have loved one another but their different place among society that torn them truly apart, Octavian is a rules’ follower why he sees him not fit to share Eliza’s life when she likes to play and break them, and while she tries to conform to them for a while, she has reached a point where she knows whom she is and what she seeks. Up to her to convince the man she loves, she is worth every broken rule.
For such a short story, it was one with so many layers, one of finding its true place among the others, one of accepting what was more precious than anything.
I’m just wondering if there will be a story for Lord Riverdale?
5 stars for this emotional read.
https://www.facebook.com/429830134272830/posts/504469473475562?d=n&sfns=mo
I think Cerise saved the best Christmas Belle for last. This story has forbidden love, second chance, class system, secrets, heartache and loads of sexual tension. I am so happy for Octavian and Eliza. They push past all of the barriers with a little manipulation by Eliza. Romance at it best. The ending is just so perfect. Yep, kind of needed the tissues.
My question for the end of the story is what happens to Riverdale? I think we need a story!!
I received a complimentary copy from the author.
Some rules cannot be broken. Octavian was determined to remember that and stay away from Eliza, who was an Earl’s daughter and he was the youngest son of a vicar. He’d known her since she was one day old and him six. She’d been his friend, charmer, taught him to gamble and he’d taught her to wrestle…and how to kiss. Yes, he had loved her forever. But some rules cannot be broken.
Lady Eliza had finally found Octo. He had been away in the war but when he came back, she had been determined. But here he was, the butler for the Countess of Marsden and she was holding her Christmas House Party!
Inspiring, delishous and possitively heartwarming, I adored this story! Two people, opposite in rank, but so in love with each other since youth. Now She was determined to win him over. But could she? She had a plan and hopefully it would work!
Perfectly Perfect!!
The Butler’s Forbidden Fancy is the fifth book in author Cerise DeLand’s Christmas Belles series. This was an enchanting read for me. I liked how the heroine, Lady Eliza Kent showed great determination to make the love of her life, her youthful best friend Octavian Simms believe that it was not only okay to be together; it was destined. The fuddy-duddy rules of London society were of no interest to her. She loved Octo and if he loved her then they should be together. All the books in this series have been fun reads and this story joins them as excellent entertainment.
I could cut this short: if you love Regency romances, you owe it to yourself to read this outstanding novella! It is phenomenal!
For those of us who have followed the Christmas Belles series, this is the enigmatic Simms’ story, butler extraordinaire. I couldn’t wait to read this story, and it’s so much more than I’d ever dared hope. Octavian Simms and Lady Elizabeth Kent – Eliza – have been in love for years, but their unequal social statuses prevented them from courting. At Lady Marsden’s Christmas house party, Eliza plans to finally claim her man.
THE BUTLER’S FORBIDDEN FANCY is everything I want in a Regency romance and then some – the latter, courtesy of the fabulous epilogue. Even at around only 100 pages, nothing is missing: fully fleshed out characters, complete backstories (Simms’ alone could fill half a book, and he is amazing), and the knowledge of a love that will conquer all. Eliza is a sun: she is light and energy, she is the flawless personification of what a proper but strong-willed historical romance heroine should be. Octavian is my kind of hero: fearless, loyal, honest, proud, and also a reasonable and kind man. Cerise DeLand displays an impeccable sense of time and place, of historical accuracy, and the dialogues are smart, witty, and era-appropriate.
THE BUTLER’S FORBIDDEN FANCY is, simply put, sheer bliss! An engrossing and believable story, charming and seductive characters, blazing passion, chemistry that jumps off the page, true love, and all this told in a prose that is close to absolute perfection! If you read only one historical romance novella this year, make it THE BUTLER’S FORBIDDEN FANCY, it is sublime!
The vicar’s son and the earl’s daughter always broke the rules.
Now they must break bigger ones to win each other.
Lady Eliza Kent, the only child of the Earl of Leith, is a wild beauty. Since birth, she’s broken nearly every rule. Catching frogs on the banks of the Thames. Riding bareback. Memorizing Shakespeare. Adoring the vicar’s youngest son. Octavian Simms never conformed to his father’s rigid expectations. He loved wrestling, marksmanship, mathematics, French…and the local earl’s hellion daughter. During the wars, he put his talents to best use and disappeared into France to help his country defeat the tyrant Napoleon. Octo is now a butler whilst he ponders how to live the rest of his life. Then Eliza appears at his employer’s house party and challenges him to change his life completely.
This is the fifth book in the series & it could be read on its own but the whole series is brilliant & as all the books take place during the Christmas house party in Brighton events do overlap. I’d been looking forward to the butler’s story as teasers had appeared in other books & I wasn’t disappointed. Childhood friends meet again & sparks fly but can Octo put away his feelings that his station in life is so inferior to Eliza’s. Strong characters & a very well written & well paced story had me devouring this novella in a sitting