Short Story Review - Lauren Willig's Away in a Manger: A Very Turnip Wedding Night
Away in a Manger: A Very Turnip Wedding Night by Lauren Willig
Published by: Amazon
Publication Date: July 25th, 2011
Format: Kindle, 14 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
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Turnip and Arabella are tra la la-ing their way to Parva Magna. They have just been married from Girdings, with the Dowager Duchess of Dovevale as witness no less, and Turnip is taking his hours old bride home. There's only one problem. It's started to snow. A lot. Then there was a fork in the road. They chose the wrong road. Things are looking bleak when they spot a barn. This wasn't the wedding night Turnip wanted for Arabella but at least she won't freeze to death. Especially as she's so industrious she uses all the warm bricks and blankets Turnip had enrobed her in for the ride to make a fire and a bed. And that's the worst part. Hay could technically be construed as a bed, or at least a bed in it's composite parts. Turnip wanted a real bed and a roaring fire for his bride's first time. He didn't want to have to keep running out of the barn and sticking his head in a snowbank just to bank the flames of his own desires. At the rate things are going he's going to actually have to freeze his limbs to keep them away from Arabella. But Arabella is also feeling the flames of desire. Turnip working up a sweat while chopping wood, eventually with the correct end of the ax, was almost more than she could bare. His shirt clinging to his well toned body has her ready for her wedding night, even if it is in a barn. Plus, Turnip has always had a thing for milkmaids, it seems almost destiny that a Christmas romance would end in a barn. Plus, the barn is so comfortable, who could object to them staying other than his sister Sally and his valet Gerkin?
The books in Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation oeuvre have never shied away from having a little sexy sexy in them. In fact, Lauren herself has said that when writing her first book, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, she was under the delusion she was writing a romance, not historical fiction. So there's a little steamy, a little sexy sexy, in boats no less! As each of the succeeding volumes came out there where varying degrees of steam, some, like The Mischief of the Mistletoe, nary a naked body in sight. There was some steamy kissing, but fully clothed, drat those clothes, and a desk, and everything else that got in their way, including puddings. The Mischief of the Mistletoe with Turnip Fitzhugh has become my favorite book Lauren has written and it has easily made itself mandatory Christmas reading. Some people might say though we where denied the wedding night, being only given the "happily ever after." Well, at the RITA awards she had stuck a bargain to write Turnip's "Amorous Addendum" if she won. And she won. This chapter picks up after Turnip has hastily married Arabella before even leaving Girdings, he doesn't want her coming to her senses, and he valiantly heads forth into an oncoming blizzard. The blizzard that makes them lost and snowbound, but luckily there's a barn. And nice warm hay... And of course, pudding. You can imagine there's much sexy sexy, but Turnip being Turnip, there's prevarication and talking and much jumping into snowbanks and finally, she doth stop his mouth with a kiss. Despite the steam, this was nothing but sweet. Even if Sally would disagree. They ate the entire hamper of food that she was looking forward to! And Gerkin is despondent about Turnip's coat.
Oh, Lucifer, you devil. Or should I say, oh, Tom Ellis, you devil. Because the number one reason I first turned into Lucifer three seasons ago was because of Tom Ellis. As Gary on Miranda Hart's TV Series Miranda, he was the loveable yet romantically inept cook who won Miranda's heart and hand. Yes I enjoyed him on Merlin as well, but as for The Secret of Crickley Hall, a miniseries with so many of my favorite actors that I thought I would love it, well, it's best avoided, as I realized once again late one night recently catching part of an episode on PBS. But surely, you're thinking, that I MUST have really turned into the show because it's based on Neil Gaiman's interpretation of Lucifer Morningstar in his Sandman comics? Honestly? No. And to now shock you further, while I love Neil Gaiman, and I adored his voicing of God in the season three bonus episode set in an alternate timeline, "Once Upon a Time," I can't stand the Sandman comics. I've tried people, I've really tried. But I just couldn't take anymore after the sixth collection and now it's been six years since I read those six volumes and I'd have to re-read them before finishing the final four volumes, and I'm sorry, there are just too many other books I want to read. Some of them even by Neil! Back to the show. Lucifer is a wonderfully almost wacky reinterpretation of what a procedural show can be, what with Lucifer's brother trying to get him to go back to hell, Lucifer's therapist who after thinking for a very long time that Lucifer was delusional, now gets that this is all too real. There are demons and love interests, and an ex who really loves his pudding. I mean, seriously, Dan loves his pudding. When Netlfix saved the Satan, I don't think my heart could have been happier.
Ravenscliffe by Jane Sanderson
