Rating: 
Summary: For Dedicated Regency Readers!
Review: I almost gave this 3 stars because it's one of the weaker Signet Regency anthologies I've read. But I'm a Regency addict and I enjoyed it but it's not a keeper. It's appropriate for light summertime reading. I liked the common plot lines that ran throughout each story, although characterization is still the most important thing in a romance. I enjoyed the first 4 stories but I could never really get into Allison Lane's story because the hero had no character development to speak of. I can recommend this book for the truly dedicated Regency reader!
Rating: 
Summary: So-so anthology - throwaway beach reading
Review: The Grand Hotel is an anthology based around a single setting: a hotel in London, where the various characters either work or are guests. It's an interesting concept, and one which should, in theory, make the stories appear less as unconnected vignettes and more as 'chapters' in one longer story. But in practice, The Grand Hotel didn't turn out that way. It's something which could have been achieved quite easily, had the authors been given a plot thread which would weave throughout the individual stories and be resolved in the final one. As it was, the stories were very much stand-alone, with only brief references to common characters.Carla Kelly's The Background Man is probably the best of the bunch, which is hardly surprising. Charles Mortimer, the assistant manager, is rarely noticed, because of his ability to blend into the background. However, substituting for his superior, he comes to the notice of Miss Carrington, a somewhat unusual guest. He falls in love with her immediately, and barely dares to hope that she will return his feelings. She does... but she's hiding a secret from him. Will this destroy any chance for them? My problem with The Background Man was mainly that it was too short, a common problem with anthology stories. The relationship really didn't have enough time to develop, and I wanted to see more of Charles and Millie together. In Elisabeth Fairchild's Love Will Find A Way, Lieutenant James Forrester is about to meet, for the first time, the widow of his late commanding officer. Yet he feels as if he's known Annabelle Grant all his life. (Incidentally, Annabelle is a widow. Why does Fairchild refer to her as 'Miss'?). James, we see, had to read all her letters to Archie, her late husbamd, and once Archie was too ill to respond on his own, James wrote to her. He fell in love with her from her letters. Now, he has a few days only to get to know her and persuade her to consider marrying him. This is an interesting idea, and a nice, gentle love story - but again rushed by the pressures of coming in at under 65 pages. Anne Barbour's The Castaway is the most disappointing, given Barbour's undoubted talent. A woman called Martha Finch arrives at the hotel to keep an appointment with Lord Branford, acting on behalf of the Marquess of Canby, the man whose granddaughter she claims to be. The reader is shown very soon that Martha is lying about her claim, and Barbour does not give her particularly sympathetic motives. I was hoping throughout that she would be exposed and that Branford, the hero, would reject her. Her lie is, of course, found out, but a far too convenient solution then emerges. This is one heroine I did *not* want to see end up with the hero. Next, we have Barbara Metzger's The Management Requests. Captain Arthur Hunter (who should, in fact, be Captain Viscount Huntingdon, if Metzger paid proper attention to protocol) needs a room on the ground floor because of an injury. None is available, so he persuades the manager to let him have the room behind the reception desk. Because of this, a guest - Hope Thurstfield - mistakes him for the manager, a misapprehension Arthur chooses not to correct. (Why?) The secondary characters in this vignette almost drove me crazy, and I didn't especially care for Hope. Another miss. And finally, we have Allison Lane's Promises to Keep. Maggie Adams has arrived from America to try to make peace with her father's family, from whom he was estranged after eloping with her mother. She bumps into a Marcus Widner at the hotel, who just happens to be related to her mother's family and who offers to help her in her quest - but who warns her off making immediate contact with her father's family. Lane lives up to her usual standards here by inventing the usual crop of one-dimensional villains, completely unbelievable in their audacity and villainry. I liked Marcus, but that's about all I can say for this story. All in all, not worth the new purchase price, unless you're desperate to complete a Carla Kelly collection. My copy is going to the next charity shop collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Only Kelly is Grand
Review: The only reason it rated as high as 3 stars is due to Carla Kelly's short story. It was fabulous. She has a gift for opening a window to the lives of ordinary people - proving that ordinary romance can be the most magical of all. However, the rest of the stories were sadly flat and shallow by comparison. Still it's worth buying just for the Kelly story.
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