FOUR WEDDINGS AND A SIXPENCE - Julia Quinn, Elizabeth Boyle, Laura Lee Guhrke, Stephanie Sloane
Avon
ISBN:  978-0-06-242842-4
January 2017
Historical Romance Anthology

SOMETHING OLD , Julia Quinn

In Julia Quinn's prologue, SOMETHING OLD begins our journey in 1817.  Four young girls meet at Madame Rochambeaux's Gentle School for Girls:  Miss Beatrice Heywood, Miss Cordelia Padley, Lady Elinor Daventry, and Miss Anne Brabourne.  During one of their nightly girl-talks, they find an old sixpence dated in the year 1711.  Dreaming about their future, they recall the old rhyme:  " Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a sixpence in her shoe ," which leads them to leave Anne with the "lucky" sixpence, as she needs to marry soon or lose her inheritance.  Anne promises to send the coin on to the next girl after her wedding, and they will each use it to find their true loves in turn.

SOMETHING NEW , Stefanie Sloane
London, England, ten year later, approximately 1827

Miss Anne Brabourne must marry before her twenty-first birthday, but time is nearly up and she has no beau in sight.  At yet another boring party, Anne escapes the notice of her chaperone and slips into a nearby library, where she finds a large dog lying beside the fireplace.  As Anne sits to pet the dog, she talks softly to him, telling the animal of her plight, only to be embarrassed when Rhys Alexander Hamilton, the Duke of Dorset, steps out of the shadows, having heard her every word.  Anne does not want to marry at all, and especially for love; love matches never work.  However, she must find a suitable husband soon or she will lose her inheritance.  When Rhys offers to help her do just that, they begin an unlikely partnership amid the task of choosing a husband for Anne, albeit while they are falling in love with each other instead.

SOMETHING BORROWED , Elizabeth Boyle

Cordelia Padley just received the sixpence they found in boarding school.  Anne has mailed it to her and she expects Cordelia to bring it along when she arrives at Anne's wedding, but Cordelia is in a pickle.  She has told everyone that she is engaged to be married, and now her falsehood has caught up with her, for there are no likely prospects in sight.  Just returned from Bombay where she has lived for the last several years, Cordelia is dealing with the weight of her lost fortune after her father's death left her deeply in debt.  So, she does the only thing she can think of, she asks an old childhood friend, Winston Christopher Talcott, the Earl of Thornton, if he will accompany her to Bath and pretend he is her fiancé.  The only problem is:  the Earl, or Kipp as Cordelia calls him, is nearly engaged to Miss Pamela Holt, an heiress who will save his estate from ruin.

SOMETHING BLUE , Laura Lee Guhrke

Lady Elinor Daventry is anxious to get the lucky sixpence from Cordelia so she can save her father from ruin.  Her former fiancé, Lawrence Blackthorne, who tricked her into a false engagement so he could collect evidence against her father for profiteering, must be stopped.  The only way Ellie can think to help is to marry Lord Bluestone, who has the political connections to stop Lawrence.  But when Ellie finally has the sixpence in hand, Lawrence steals the coin!  He refuses to return it unless Ellie makes a bargain with him.  What will she do if her father is guilty?

...AND A SIXPENCE IN HER SHOE , Julia Quinn

Beatrice Heywood believes in science, not in superstition.  But Anne, Cordelia, and Elinor are forcing her to take the dreaded sixpence, claiming she will find her true love.  Bea does not believe in the supposed power of a silly old coin.  Until the day she accidentally bumps into Lord Frederick Grey-Osbourne on the sidewalk outside of Plinkington's Stationary Shop.  Then, a few days later when Fate once again sees the sixpence stolen, it is Bea's luck that Lord Frederick is there to save her from the clutches of a miscreant. 

FOUR WEDDINGS AND A SIXPENCE is a delightful collection of novellas that contains four charming stories of young women who find true love on the heels of a momentous discovery.  And while the sixpence might or might not hold magical powers, Anne, Cordelia, Elinor, and Beatrice have the courage to buck convention in the face of true love.  This is a delightful collection of stories!

Diana Risso