Joy to the Duke is a wonderfully written romance perfect for the holiday season. It takes a clever spin on Christmas Carol without trying too hard. After reading The Gift of the Marquess I was really interested to find out what Calder and Felicity's story was. I loved that Felicity wasn't afraid to stand up to Calder and didn't give up on him no matter how hard he fought it. The theme of the importance of family was carried on through this book and it was lovely to see Calder and his sisters reuniting as well.

Calder Stafford, the Duke of Hartwell, pushes everyone away to the point that he is left alone, exactly what he wants, or is it? Calder suffered greatly at the hands of his cruel father, including losing the girl he loved when he was 20. Now he tries to do everything the opposite of what his father did, including withholding funds from the celebrations and charities his father loved. Felicity Garland fell in love with Calder at 18, but when he rejects her for her low birth, she's devastated and marries an older man. Now widowed, Felicity returns to the her hometown village after 10 years away to nurse her mother back to health. When she runs into Calder, she's astonished at how cold he's become. Can she melts Calder's heart and find the joyful young man she fell in love with?

Ms. Burke has written another entertaining tale, loosely based on 'Christmas Carol.' Calder is a scrooge when the book opens up, but when he runs into Felicity, the feelings he's long since buried surface again. I liked seeing Calder's sisters appear in this book as well as they try to reach Calder as well. While the ending is entirely predictable, it was a pleasure to read to the happily ever after ending for everyone.

Joy to the Duke is the third and final installment of the Love is All Around series by Burke. Featuring Calder and Felicity, readers are treated to a Christmas Carol sort of tale centering on the couple’s second chance romance and redemption. While I did enjoy the ghosts of Christmas past and future inclusion in the storyline, ultimately my lower rating comes down to my inability to connect with the characters.

Felicity lacked dimension while Calder, with a more complicated history driving his actions, was a bit confounding with his blanket approach to life contrary to his father’s wishes. I enjoyed Calder’s chapters more, but I am still wasn’t convinced that there was true passion between the two. Their dialogue, in particular, tended to be stilted.

Unfortunately, this one was a miss for me which is a shame because I love a lot of Burke’s other work. It is a shame that my lack of connection to the characters significantly impacted the enjoyability of this book for me. I suspect with a bit more length and time for character growth for both hero and heroine would have helped my investment. I will definitely continue to read Burke’s work, but I will definitely put Calder and Felicity’s romance on the no-go pile for this romance reader.

**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'm very glad to have read this series. I really enjoyed the character development.
I think that as short novellas they were all great.

Denied the woman of his dreams by his father’s meddling, Calder Stafford, has spent the last decade proving himself to be self-sufficient, austere, and utterly uninterested in joy. Now that he is the Duke of Hartwell, he’ll enact his revenge by abolishing the holiday traditions his father loved so well.
Returning to Hartwell to care for her mother, widow Felicity Garland is delighted to be back home, especially for the holidays. However, the jolly festivities she expects are nowhere to be found. When she goes to the source of the problem—the duke—she’s astonished to see how much the young man she once loved has hardened.
This is an appropriate ending to this trilogy of Christmas novellas. We all know in our hearts that the reason behind Calder's sudden misery is a woman but who is it and why is he acting so vengeful?
I loved this series. This is possibly the best one of the three. The characters are well drawn and believable.
I gave this final book in this trilogy 4.6 of 5.0 stars for story line and characterization.
I received a complimentary digital ARC of this book to read. This in no way affected my opinion of this book which I read and reviewed voluntarily.

Calder, oh Calder, how I've been waiting for you!

Joy to the Duke is the 3rd and final installment in Darcy Burke's Love is All Around series. I've been waiting since The Red Hot Earl for Calder's story. Good gracious he was always such an ass!

So, this story has a take of the Charles Dickens novel, A Christmas Carol. Calder, or "chill" as he was known has recently inherited the title Duke of Hartwell. He has very mixed feelings about this title since his father did nearly everything to ruin any joy he ever had, including his chance to marry the woman he loved. Since he has nothing left inside, he hopes to destroy any chance to carry on the things his father held dear (the Hopewell House for Impoverished Women and the annual St. Stephen's celebration in particular).

Felicity Garland has returned to Hartwell to care for her sick mother and is shocked to find that her once love has canceled all the holiday celebrations she was expecting. She's even more surprised to see how much the man she used to love has changed.

As Felicity helps to talk with Calder and aid with reinstating the St. Stephen's celebration and aide to the Hartwell house she also hopes to clear the air between the two of them. I must say, I really liked that the airing happened within 1-2 paragraphs and that misunderstandings and half conversations did not prevail for like 50 pages. Calder or "chill" slowly thaws throughout his interactions with Felicity and they slowly start to see if they can pick up where they left off.

I really liked the take on A Christmas Carol but I wished we would have had more dreams or impressions (I know, it was a novella... to want more is kind of the point, blah!) I like it, I liked the series. I wish we could get some more!

This ARC was generously provided in exchange for an honest review.

Sweetly thrilling, sexy fun, action packed and engaging journey filled with relatable charters, witty banter and undeniable passion... a great read from beginning to end. Really enjoyed this heartwarming adventure!

Ten years ago Felicity and Calder were in love and ready to build a life together. Expecting a proposal upon his return from Oxford, she is then shocked to receive a letter from him instead, a letter detailing the reasons why he should not and would not marry her. Feeling heartbroken and betayed, she accepts her fathers offer to remove to York. For the frist time in ten years, she returns to Hartwell in order to care for her ailing mother and she is shocked to find her lost love to be a much changed man.

Cut off by his cruel and negligent father, who treated him so much differently from his sisters, Calder has since had to rebuild himself. Mistreated and mislead, denied the woman he loves, he has become a cold and solitary man, one who cuts himself off from all sentiment and feeling.

Horrified to find him changed so and treating those around him so coldly, Felicity is determined to help him find his way back to the man he used to be and as a result bring the holiday spirit back to the town of Hartwell.
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This is the third book in Darcy Burke's Love is All Around series, and is a retelling of A Christmas Carol. This story was quite enjoyable even though it was a bit predictable, but this was to be expected as it is a retelling of another, quite famous story. It is unique enough to stand seperate though.

Believing her to be too good for the man he has become, Calder repeatedly teeters on the border of redemption and reclusion, but when he does finally turn toward redemption it is hard to believe he flipped from a cold and harsh man, set in his ways over the last decade to a sweet and compassionate man, almost like someone hit a reset button. It's hard to believe they are one and the same man.

I thought the book started off very strong, but thought the second half was a little prone to cheesiness. That being said though it is a perfectly sweet book for the holiday season and I will be going back to read the previous two books in the series. If you're a fan of the holiday classics or just sweet holiday romances then you should check out this series.
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Many thanks to NetGalley and Darcy Burke for sharing an electronic copy of this book with me for reviewing purposes.

Another great addition to the series “Love is all around”. The book follows Calder, the Duke of Hartwell who has decided that he will not host the annual event of St Stephen’s Day at his estate. Much of the change to Calder’s manner has stemmed from events occurring ten years earlier when Felicity Garland, left him to marry another. The cruel yet subtle behaviour of his father, together with the loss of Felicity’s love, has made Calder determined to be what all of the ton call him ‘Chill’. Yet when Felicity returns, Calder begins to question everything that he had once believed.
Whilst a quick read, this is an entertaining read, filled with such intense emotions. After such a long time apart, Felicity manages to break down Calder’s icy manner, and we see the person that he once was. Together with Calder’s two sisters Bianca and Poppy, this love story will warm your heart, particularly with Christmas approaching. Whilst this is a stand alone book, do yourself a favour and explore the earlier two books in the series.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Joy to the Duke is the final book in the Love is Around series.
This was a great story! Calder Stafford, Duke of Hartwell fell in love with Felicity Templeton when they were very young. He had decided to make her his duchess, but unfortunately his dad played the villain and separated them. Ten years later Calder has become a cold, bitter man and Felicity is back in town. They always had feelings for each other. When they reunite, Felicity sees a very different man. She realizes that the Calder she fell in love with is still there, so she decides to bring him out little by little. I liked how the misunderstanding of their separation was not dragged. Very early on in the story they tell their side of their story and both realize that their parents were at fault.
Calder struggles for most of the book with his feelings towards Felicity and even his sisters. His father was a very cruel with him. Therefore it takes a great effort and planning on Felicity's part to slowly melt the ice that surrounds Calder's heart.
I liked seeing those moments when he finally begins to see the error of his thoughts and behavior towards those that did not know how his father really was. His small smiles and cough-covered laughs were nice to read.
I highly recommend this series!
Thank you to the author for providing me with an ARC through NetGalley for an honest review.

I love a good second-chance story, and the added bonus of this being inspired by A Christmas Carol made this one very enjoyable story, and my favorite of the three Christmas themed stories in this series.

"All I do since you returned is feel things. I don't like feeling things."

I adored our Scrooge, Calder. Raised by a cruel father, abandoned (or so he believed) by the woman he loves, and finally cut off by his father and left to make his own destiny, he has made it his life's work to depend on no one and remain alone. When his first and only love returns to the village, he is determined to stay away from her. But the woman seems determined to talk, find her way back into his life, and bring joy back to his existence.

I loved Calder and Felicity together. She was adorable and I loved that she was mature enough to talk instead of clinging to old grudges, and his thawing was just lovely to watch. Of course, as this was a novella, it was a fairly fast journey from cold ass back to his old self, but I for one believed it. And, the nods to A Christmas Carol were a lovely touch! I really enjoyed this last entry in the series.

The third book was the one I was most apprehensive about, as it focuses on the eldest Stafford sibling, Calder, who has recently become the Duke. He has been the main antagonist in the previous two books, refusing to host the annual St Stephen's Day ball, withdrawing his support from the local home for women and children, and generally being a horrible, cold man. His sisters can't understand why he has changed so much from when they were children, but Calder is struggling to overcome the years of abuse he suffered at the hands of his father, who doted upon the girls but physically and verbally abused his son. 

This story is loosely based on A Christmas Carol, with Calder obviously taking the role of Scrooge, but as with the first book in this series, the connection is not so overt as to overpower the plot. What we do get is an insight into how Calder has become so uptight and mean, and a redemption arc as he manages to work through his trauma and remember how to love himself and have fun again. Felicity, the heroine, is instrumental here, as she is absolutely determined to break through his shell to find the man that she loved ten years ago; she is kind, but refuses to let Calder ruin his life and those of the people around him. It's nice to see his icy exterior melt, and I thought that once he started to let his guard down, it was clear to see that the two of them were well-suited. 

We finally get to see the resolution of the series plot surrounding the party, and the ending is satisfying both for this book and for the series as a whole. It's lovely to see the family come back together after the troubles they've been through!

[.gif from a Muppet Christmas Carol]

This was a cute, super loose nod to a Christmas Carol. I loved the family themes, especially (Spoiler on Goodreads); it showed a surprisingly nuanced, impacted portrait (Spoiler on Goodreads) for a slim little story that focused on other things, and I really liked how it affected Calder's character.

I did wish Felicity's character was a little more developed? But for 150 pages, it wasn't bad. I liked The Red Hot Earl more and I skipped #2 for personal triggers/reasons, but overall, this is a cute, festive little series. My only real complaint is my usual whine for Darcy Burke novellas: I wish she'd write more full-length stuff. 😭


tl;dr: 3.25 for holiday cuteness and complicated family matters.

Another book that I enjoyed, it had strong characters especially the Duke and Felicity. There was a good story that kept me interested. Felicity would not give up on the Duke. I enjoyed the ending when everything came together. I recommend that you read this book .

I was looking forward to finally finding out why Calder was so mean and unhappy! I didn’t think that the reasons, an abusive father and being jilted, were enough to justify why he behaved the way he did. Felicity did manage to get through to him. I enjoyed this series and look forward to more from the author. I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review.

I received an ARC of this book to read through NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. Joy to the Duke is the 3rd and final novella in Darcy Burke’s regency Christmas trilogy Love Is All Around. This one is a second chance at love story featuring the Scrooge like Calder Stafford, Duke of Hartwell. Desperately unhappy but determined not to do anything his cruel father would have approved of Calder Stafford is becoming more and more isolated from his friends and his sisters because of his refusal to host the annual St. Stephen’s day festivities at Hartwell or to support a local children’s home as they were his father’s pet projects. When he meets his first love Felicity Garland once again and they realise that the reasons they separated were all due to his fathers machinations his heart begins to melt but it’s been 10 years and he’s not sure he could ever be the person he once was again. I recommend reading the books in this series in order. Medium Steam Publishing Date November 12, 2019 #NetGalley #DarcyBurke #RegencyChristmas #ChristmasNovella #HistoricalRomance #Bookstagram #JoytotheDuke

Calder Stafford, the Duke of Hartwood is a heartless miser who since inheriting his father’s title, has hoarded his wealth, refused to support a home for unfortunate women and children, has turned his back on his sisters and refused to give his youngest sister Bianca the portion her father set aside for her because he doesn’t approve of her husband, in fact, he refused to attend her wedding. His sisters have tried reasoning with him, but he is cold and unresponsive – nothing seems to trigger emotion in him at all – that is until Felicity Garland nee Templeton returns to the village after a ten year absence.

Felicity never thought to return to Hartwell and she certainly never expected to see Calder the man how cruelly broke her heart again. But see him she does and she is shocked to learn that the sweet, loving young man she knew is gone and a joyless, miserly cad has taken his place, she is even more upset to learn that he thinks SHE broke his heart. It doesn’t take long for them to figure out that his father manipulated them both. She also learns that her father played a part in her heartbreak and she sets out to prove to Calder that her love was and still is true.

Calder accepts that his father was the driving force in their breakup, but he refuses to try to recapture what they once had, he feels that too much time has passed and he is no longer the man she remembers. But he can’t seem to stop wondering about her and she won’t quietly walk away.

Slowly Felicity begins to crack through the ice encasing Calder’s heart and he is changing for the better, so much so that she has high hopes that they can have a future together, but Calder’s hurts run deep and his stubborn refusal to let her love him may cost him everything…

This was a well written, sweet second chance story with hero that has been portrayed as a “villain” in the previous books and who was pretty difficult to like for a very large portion of this story as well, but the book’s saving grace is definitely Felicity, who sees the truth and refuses to lose her love a second time. I thought the story was paced nicely, had just the right amount of passion, heartache and joy to produce a very nice “make you feel good” Christmas novella. This was the third book in the series, but it can easily be read as a standalone without any problems.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that was provided to me by NetGalley and the Publisher.*

We finally find out what made Calder, Duke of Hartwell, become such a Scrooge. We know it had something to do with his young love, Felicity, leaving 10 years prior. Now we know why she left and the horrible life Calder had growing up as the heir to the dukedom.
Felicity is back in the village to help her mother recover from an illness. After running into her one-time love, Calder, she insists on getting to the bottom of things in regard to his behaviour. He is living up to his nickname of Chill a little too much.
I loved how determined Felicity was. She would not let Calder alone and kept on him until he finally broke and confessed his troubles. When Calder finally let go of his past and believed in a future he turned into the lovable Calder that Felicity and his sisters remembered.
I really enjoyed this slight retelling of the Christmas Carol with Calder as Scrooge. If you are looking for a quick Christmas read then I highly recommend this one. The whole trilogy is wonderful.
I received an advance reader copy for an honest review.

What a fascinating twist on A Christmas Carol. Calder and Felicity had the last ten years of their happiness stolen from them when his father schemed to keep them apart. My heart broke for this pair over the grief and pain caused by the old duke, but I loved watching all the trouble Felicity went to in order to thaw Calder’s heart back out. And in a scene worthy of The Grinch, we even witness Chill’s heart grow three sizes by the end. Now I’m kind of sad to say “goodbye” to these siblings and their extended families.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley.

Since his father's interference ruined his chance to marry the woman he loved, Calder Stafford has spent a decade proving himself to be aloof, uninterested in happiness, and certainly not in need of anyone's help. Now the Duke of Hartwell, he's determined to have his revenge by doing away with anything his father loved, especially the village's annual Christmas celebrations. No one will change his mind, not his sisters, and certainly not the newly returned woman who stole his heart.

Now widowed, Felicity Garland has returned to Hartwell to care for her sick mother. She's shocked not to find the holiday celebrations she was expecting and whens he learns the duke is the reason, she's even more surprised to see how much the man she used to love has changed. Now both the town festivities, and Calder himself, need Felicity to save them.

I really loved this book. It may be quick but it was heavy on the emotions and so sweet. I'm typically not a huge fan of the second chance trope but this one really worked well. It was nice to see Calder get some much-needed redemption after he was so awful in the first two books of this series and to get insight into why he was the way he was. This was the perfect addition to this sweet series.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.