Heroine Dylan was a prima ballerina dancing a very sensuous role when her to-be husband, Ross, spots her and instantly wants/must have/dazzled by/passionately attracted to her. Dylan feels the same way. She quits the ballet company – leaving her good friend, costar and choreographer in the lurch – and marries Ross within a few weeks of meeting.

Ross works for a commercial forest company near York; his house is surrounded by evergreens and miles from anywhere or anyone. Dylan is a city girl and finds it hard to cope, and other than their intense physical passion they have nothing in common. Ross wants his wife to be friends with his best friend’s wife, Suzy but the two ladies do not hit it off and are not going to be friends. Suzy treats her own husband badly, mocks him, is sarcastic, that’s repulsive to Dylan.

Dylan gets pregnant right away and has morning sickness, backache and all the usual problems exacerbated by the fact Ross no long touches or kisses her, never mind sleeps in the same bed nor makes love. He never had much to say and he doesn’t explain why the embargo on physical contact (supposedly because his sister told him not to ???) nor does he spend time with Dylan. They barely even eat together.

Ross thinks he would like Dylan to be more like Suzy, down to earth, upbeat, wishes he had known Dylan better as he regrets marrying her and taking her so far from her milieu. He recognizes it’s hard for her to live in the forest.

Dylan sees him with in his car alone with Suzy with their heads together and wonders. A month before her due date, and just before Christmas, Ross has to go to York for a business meeting and will stay overnight, and NO, Dylan can’t come. No wives you see. Yeah, right. Dylan is frightened because the weather looks like a blizzard is on the way but Ross will neither stay nor take her with him. He grudgingly gives her his cell just in case.

Ross asks her for her three wishes from York and isn’t too pleased when Dylan shouts that 1) that she never met him, 2) that they never married and 3) that she wasn’t pregnant. Ross is furious and leaves.

His cell rings and Dylan doesn’t have a chance to say hello. It’s Suzy, all full of darlings and oh, I can’t wait to meet you tonight and I can’t leave because I don’t want hubby to know. Dylan has had it. All suspicious are now on red alert. She leaves a note, drops her wedding ring on it and takes off in her flower-painted car to visit her sister in the Lake District. No wonder Ross wouldn’t take her with him! No Wives??? Hah!

Blizzard starts and Dylan takes a wrong turn, crashes into a stone wall. She’s not badly hurt but the car isn’t going anywhere. She manages to get to a nearby farm house, escorted by Fred the resident goat, and welcomed by Ruth, the 40-something owner and Cleo, Ruth’s cat. Dylan is bruised and cut and her ankle is swollen and she is very pregnant. Ruth’s good friend and doctor, Harry, sees the car smushed into the wall and checks it out. Dylan is OK, no serious problems, and he has other people to see but will be back.

Meanwhile Dylan’s sister tracks Ross down. Dylan is late, very late, and she’s worried with the snow she may have had an accident. Suzy is coming to Ross’s hotel room (platonic of course) and Ross manages to catch her there to tell her he’s leaving to go look for Dylan.

Ross finds Dylan at Ruth’s, the baby decides it time, eventually Harry comes too. Harry’s wife dumped him about 2 years prior to run off with a younger golf pro. Ruth really likes Harry, she had been engaged when younger but her fiancé drowned and she went to London for a career until her mom got too sick to live alone. Harry and Ruth are very good friends and Ruth would like a warmer relationship. Harry appreciates that Ruth never alludes to his wife nor conveys sympathy nor mocks him.

Ross claims to Dylan that he was meeting Suzy because they were having a surprise birthday party for her husband that night – to which his 8 month pregnant wife was NOT invited nor aware of – and they were planning the party and the darlings and sultry voice are just the way Suzy is. Ross claims he doesn’t want Suzy, isn’t attracted to her, doesn’t like that she talks all the time or plays loud music. (This is the same Ross that just a few days before wished his wife was just like Suzy.) Dylan isn’t too sure she believes him but she’s having her baby so that’s taking precedence.

Meanwhile Ruth and Harry realize they each love the other, Harry proposes and Ruth accepts. Dylan names her new baby Ruth and asks them to be godparents and the story ends.

Happy Ever After or Fizzle?

Ross and Dylan are excited by their new baby and Ross is once again attracted to his wife. Everything is rosy and just peachy with them. At least for that day. I wonder how they will cope when baby Ruth keeps them up at night, when Dylan is run off her feet, tired, exhausted with caring for the baby and recovering and Ross once again neglects her for his forest and Suzy.

I do not believe Ross’s explanation. If there was a birthday party, then why not bring Dylan? She offered to wait in the hotel for him to finish his work meetings, why could she have not waited in the hotel then joined the party? I don’t think there was a party, I think it was just what Dylan suspected, an affair.

We’re supposed to believe that Ross shifted from wishing he had a wife like Suzy to not liking Suzy and only wanting his beautiful Dylan. It looks to me like Ross is physically attracted to Dylan but that’s it, no other depth of commitment nor love. When Ross told Dylan he wasn’t having an affair he said he wouldn’t do that to Suzy’s husband. Not a word that he would not do it to his wife!

Give it a few months and these two will separate. It’s probably too late for Dylan to recapture her prima ballerina role but who knows. Ross will happily go look for someone with Suzy’s personality and Dylan’s body, or he’ll show up from time to time to claim his marital rights. Dylan is just as attracted to him, so maybe that’s what they will end up with, passion.

Ruth and Harry are quieter but they look to have a true Happy Ever After.

Overall

I did not like The Yuletide Child. Liked Ruth, liked Cleo who was the best character, liked Harry, but did not care for Dylan and even less for Ross. Dylan should have found out more about Ross before tossing everything and going with him, or once she married, she should have found a way to make it work. She was completely sincere when she said she regretted marrying and being pregnant, the baby was much too soon for her to adjust to Ross’s life while feeling awful.

Ross made no concessions that we readers see to having a wife. He wouldn’t spend time with her, wouldn’t explain why he no longer wanted any physical contact, wouldn’t even take her to mythical party! He mocked her when she was afraid to stay alone with a blizzard coming, after all the weatherman wasn’t forecasting a blizzard, and he was not convincing with his denials of the affair nor avowals of love.

Ross tells Dylan he loves her, wants only her, finds her nearly perfect, but his love didn’t come through when she was suffering a hard pregnancy. Seems like he loves her when the going is easy, not when it’s hard.

Nonetheless, Charlotte Lamb writes well and certainly shows us two marriages, one in fact and one to come. She creates a nice contrast between Harry and Ruth’s quiet devotion and the ultimately selfish wants of Ross and Dylan.

3 Stars

I got my paperback copy used from Thriftbooks. Amazon has it in Kindle and paperback and you can likely find used copies at most online sites.

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