The Arrangement by Sylvia Day, Minerva Spencer, Kristin Vayden

February 24, 2020

Warning: A Hippity-dippity alert.
https://www.sylviaday.com/
https://minervaspencer.com/
http://kristinvayden.weebly.com/
It’s been awhile since I have read a Romanceland book from the Erotica/Romantica /Whatever genre, but The Arrangement had some author’s in it I’ve been meaning to read: Sylvia Day, Minerva Spencer, and Kristin Vayden. So, I thought I’d give it a try. I don’t like to put authors into categories, however I know that Sylvia Day usually has a little bit more hot dippity-do in her books than, oh, let’s say Wanda Brunstetter. In fact, if one does any lurking at Fantastic Fiction, one also knows that Sylvia Day has an Adults Only designation on her page. So when I selected The Arrangement to read this month, I suspected that because Sylvia Day was the head-liner on the book cover, the other two author’s writing styles were probably similar to her.  A random thought: wouldn’t it be interesting if publishing houses mixed genre categories in compilation/anthologies/novella’s? Say for instance, if Ms. Day and Ms. Brunstetter were in the same anthology book. That would be kind of amusing, or not. Anyway, back to The Arrangement.

As I said, I selected The Arrangement knowing that it was probably an E-rot-i-ca. On top of that, the three stories in this book were novella/short stories. What does that mean? Well it means that there might be a chance the characters and/or the story-line would not be fully developed. However, since I am always on the look-out for a new author I took the plunge. It didn’t take me too long to discover that I was getting about what I expected. 

Sylvia Day is first with Mischief and the Marquess. A word of warning: if hot, hot, moist dippity-do is what you want in a story, then this one is for you. Ms. Day has constructed the story rather well, but I did have an issue with it. What might that be, you ask. My issue with this story is the copious amount of mind-numbing sex, and hardly any character development. Oh sure, there are a hero and heroine. They have a history. There are secondary characters, and matchmaking mothers. There is even an illegitimate child. But there is no story connecting them!  It isn’t long before the couple are forced together, and then they begin peeling the banana allll over the place. I have nothing against a hot book, but there has to be a good narrative to go with the extracurricular activity, or it alllll becomes just meaningless cucumber stuffing. 
Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Numbing
C-

The second story is Minerva Spencer’s, The Duke’s Treasure. I could probably just do a copy/paste of my thoughts about the Sylvia Day story. Once again, this short story has an abundance of dippity-do scenes, and no narrative. But this one also throws in the “let me tie you up so you can trust me” scene. I’m not a big fan of ropes.
Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Find Another Way to Trust 
C-

The third story in this group is The Inconvenient Countess by Kristin Vayden, and at last we have a short tale that balances the wall-banging with the storytelling. This one is about Diana and Brook. There are actually words that do character building. We are presented with sentences that allow us to care about the people on the pages. Do not worry; there is plenty of carrot-top trimming to satisfy our needs. Ms. Vayden was able to achieve in her short story what the other two were not: a balance. 
Time/Place Regency England
Sensuality: Warm/Hot
B

Overall: for me, there was only one short story in this book which left me satisfied, and that was Kristin Vayden’s, The Inconvenient Countess. Her writing was fully-developed, and I was interested in what was happening with the characters. I will also probably take a look at Ms. Vayden’s other books.

PS: I think I might have been hungry when I wrote this review.