In Her Regency Era (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781802502930)

WANTED: Energetic, outgoing, flexible female singer for popular, award-winning professional caroling troupe...

Carol Swinton has just been promoted to lead call center manager for Homework Helpers, a phone bank for struggling college students. New to Birchwood, North Carolina, she excels at her job while, alas, her personal life consists of microwave popcorn dinners and binge-watching sappy Christmas movies until she zonks out under her favorite snowman throw. When she sees a flyer in the employee breakroom about a group needing carol singers for the upcoming holiday season, the former campus acapella aficionado leaps at the chance to audition for the town's most popular troupe, Victorian Voices.

Gabe Maxwell is an almost anonymous townie who barely graduated high school but, by hook or by crook, has amassed a chain of popular local ice cream parlors called Soft Swerve. Busier than Santa on Christmas Eve, Gabe nonetheless looks forward to being part of the Mistle Tones every holiday season, a popular carol-singing group that is usually neck and neck against Victorian Voices, its closest caroling competition. Dressed in traditional old-timey caroling garb, he can let his deep, rich baritone voice ring out loud and proud without any of his regular customers recognizing him.

But when Carol stops in for a little pistachio and eggnog swirl cone one night, dressed in her own caroling garb, Gabe is not only entranced but dismayed-how can he fall for the newest, hottest and most talented member of the Victorian Voices? Carol is equally vexed. Even under his towering top hat and brocade riding jacket, she quickly recognizes the youngest, cutest and most talented member of none other than...the Mistle Tones! But how can she resist temptation when the Jingle Jangle Competition is just around the corner and her overactive imagination has her and Gabe hitting the high notes...in the bedroom? There is only one solution, obviously. Rather than sleep with the enemy, Gabe and Carol will have to join forces and branch out on their own, giving their former caroling troupes a run for their money as they enter the Jingle Jangle-and the holiday season-as a last-minute duo.