An Affair Before Christmas - Eloisa James

Magic under
the mistletoe...

One spectacular Christmas, Lady Perdita Selby, known to her friends and family as Poppy, met the man she thought she would love forever. The devilishly attractive Duke of Fletcher was the perfect match for the innocent, breathtakingly beautiful young Englishwoman, and theirs was the most romantic wedding she had ever seen. Four years later, Poppy and the duke have become the toast of the ton... but behind closed doors the spark of their love affair has burned out.

Unwilling to lose the woman he still lusts after, the duke is determined to win back his beguiling bride's delectable affections…and surpass the heady days of first love with a truly sinful seduction.

The second book in the Desperate Duchesses series, this book tells the story of Poppy and her husband the Duke of Fletcher.

When Poppy got married her husband was very much in love with her but it’s not really clear whether Poppy was in love with him or with the idea of being a duchess. Either way they knew each other very little and soon it became apparent to Fletcher that Poppy did not seem to enjoy bedroom activities. Raised by a strict (crazed?) mother Poppy was unable to do much more than the well known “close or eyes and think of England thing.

A few years have passed and they have drifted completely apart. Poppy is now determined to change her life and conquer her husband.

As in the first book of the series the secondary characters take up a lot of space and now as it was then I again was much more interested in those secondary characters than the main couple.

I really want to know more about Jemma and Beaumont. He seems such a nice guy, what really happened that day when Jemma saw him with his mistress. And what about Villiers? It seemed a relationship was developing between him and someone else but in the end nothing comes about. Who is in store for him I wonder?

I will keep on reading the series to know the answer to these questions but the main story here was totally forgettable.

Grade: 3/5