Review originally posted on Quinn's Book NookI first read The MacGregor Brides by Nora Roberts when I was in college and discovered the Romance genre. I’ve since read this book too many times to count. In fact, if you saw how beat up my copy was, you’d totally understand. There is something about The MacGregor Brides that just puts me in the holiday spirit and makes me feel very warm and fuzzy inside.The MacGregor Brides is a collection of three novellas about three of the MacGregor cousins. Each cousin (Laura, Gwendolyn, and Julia) get their own story and they all take place during the winter and Christmas. My absolutely favorite part of The MacGregor Brides is Daniel MacGregor, the grandfather of Laura, Gwendolyn and Julia. He is such a character, and there isn’t anything he loves more than his family. But Daniel feels like it’s high time his granddaughters get married and give their grandmother (really, himself) babies to love.Daniel is quite clever, but also a bit devious in his methods to get his granddaughters married. He obviously wants them to marry someone they will love and be loved in return. He knows they won’t go for being set up , so Daniel has to be devious to find a way for them to meet, and boy is that fun. I think it best to rate each novella separately because they are different stories.Laura’s story is my second favorite in the book. Laura is a lawyer, and she works with her parents at their Boston Law firm. When Daniel arranges for a new security system to be installed in the house that Laura, Gwen and Julia live in, Laura meets Royce. Their first encounter is so funny, and I definitely laughed out loud. I did get a little bored with the Lawyer talk, but overall I enjoyed this story. It’s very easy to see what Royce and Laura would make a great couple.Gwendolyn’s story is my least favorite. I would give it 3 stars. Gwen is a doctor, and she’s very focused on her career. Daniel arranges for Gwen to meet a famous author of mystery novels, Branson. I liked Branson a lot. He’s friendly, and smart, and he really understands Gwen. Gwen, though, was a bit too pragmatic for me (which is saying something because I’m a very practical person). But even so, I still wanted Bran and Gwen to get together. There is this Big Gesture at the end of this story, and I’m not really a big fan of those, so that is part of the reason I don’t love this story.Julia’s story is absolutely my favorite story in the book, and the one I’ve read the most. There is so much personality and banter in Julia’s story, and I can never get enough of it. Julia buys and rehabs houses and then sells them. She loves doing it and she’s very good at it. She usually works with a construction company that does great work. But this time around she has to work with the son of the head of the company, and she’s never gotten along with Cullum. I loved watching these two come together.One thing that always makes me roll my eyes a bit in all the stories is how open the girls are with their parents and grandparents about their sex lives. I mean, it’s not bad at all, but I can’t imagine being that open with my parents. Not that they wouldn’t listen if I did want to talk about it, but oh my gosh, I would be way too embarrassed, even as an adult.But, I enjoyed The MacGregor Brides as much as I always do this time around. It’s an easy read, and it helps me de-stress. If you like cute holiday novellas, I think you would enjoy The MacGregor Brides, even though parts of it are a bit dated.
Bagi Daniel Duncan Macgregor, keluarga adalah segala2nya bagi dia, setelah berhasil menjodohkan ke3orang anaknya, tanpa merasa perlu menerima ucapan terimakasih, kali ini, setelah cucu2nya menjadi dewasa, terutama cucu perempuannya, dia mulai sibuk memikirkan jodoh yang pantas, darah hebat, keturunan kuat, Hah!Laura adalah putri tertua dari Caine dan Diana, merupakan cucu perempuan tertua bagi Daniel dan Anna, memiliki 2 hobby utama, makan dan tidur, dan bekerja sebagai pengacara muda di kantor milik orangtuanya. Daniel dengan liciknya mengirimkan Royce Cameron untuk mengusik cucunya, dengan dalih untuk melindungi mereka, sang kakek meminta perusahaan security milik Royce untuk memasang alarm bagi rumah tempat tinggal Laura, Gwen dan Julia. Royce yang mantan polisi, terpesona pada pandangan pertamanya terhadap Laura yang mengenakan kaos tidur dan celana biru sutera, bergoyang mendengarkan musik sambil memasukan kepalanya kedalam kulkas mencari makanan, juga pada Laura yang saking kagetnya memegang pisau sambil mengancam Royce saat dia menyadari bahwa ada penyusup di dapurnya. Tanpa mereka sadari rencana sang Kakekpun berhasil. Caine hanya merasa tidak rela putrinya sudah dewasa, dan berkencan dengan pria, dan dalam pertengkarannya dengan laura karena memergoki Laura sedang berciuman dengan Royce di ruangannya, Caine melemparkan isu bahwa ayahnya yg berperan dalam perjodohan ini, dan menyayangkan kesempatan untuk menyaksikan ayahnya dibantai oleh Laura putrinya. Dan bukan Daniel Macgregor, jika sang kakek tidak bisa berkelit dengan lihainya.Gwendolyn, putri Serena dan Justin yang kali ini menerima kejutan dari sang kakek, setelah sang kakek dengan bangga menikahkan cucunya Laura dengan Royce.Gwen yang sudah mengantisipasi akal licik sang kakek, dengan mengancam Branson saat pertama mereka bertemu di UGD rumah sakit tempat dia bekerja sebagai dokter, bahwa dia tidak akan mengikuti permainan kakeknya. Tetapi Bran menjelaskan bahwa dia hanya membutuhkan bantuan Gwen untuk mendapatkan informasi bagi buku yang akan ditulisnya tentang dokter yang psikopat. Dengan perasaan bersalah krn telah menuduh Bran bersekongkol dengan sang kakek, Gwen membantu Bran untuk mendapatkan informasi yang dia butuhkan. Gwen memiliki karakter yang sangat mirip dengan Anna, Bran dengan penuh kesadaran, mendatangi Anna dan Daniel untuk mendapatkan informasi mengenai Gwen. dari 3 cerita dalam buku ini, saya paling menyukai cerita tentang gwen, apalagi ditambah dengan rayuan Bran yang mendasarkan pada lagu twelve days of christmas.Tentang Julia, cucu dengan watak yang sangat mirip dengan Daniel, mewaris kelihaian Daniel, sehingga Daniel membutuhkan bantuan dari Murdock, bahkan untuk Julia, Daniel sudah jauh2 hari menyusun rencananya, sehingga tanpa Julia sadari, dia jatuh cinta pada Cullum Murdock, dan sangat marah pada Cullum hanya karena jatuh cinta tidak masuk dalam agenda hidup Julia. Bahkan akhirnya Julia memutuskan untuk menjual rumah yang dia renovasi bersama Cullum hanya karena rasanya berbeda jika mereka tidak tinggal bersama dalam rumah tersebut.Daniel cukup bangga karena berhasil menikahkan 3 cucu perempuannya.
What do You think about The MacGregor Brides (2002)?
This was my first time meeting anyone from the famous MacGregor clan so I cannot be sure if I would've enjoyed the read a little more if I had followed the series from the beginning. To me, this felt too short. Since this was a 3-in-1 novel, every character's love story was crammed into their respective allotted pages, and while it was nice to be given three storylines neatly packaged in time for Christmas (where each story ends), I would've appreciated more time with the characters, perhaps with more details and a greater opportunity to be fleshed out. I also didn't like the way each story ended, which was rather abruptly for my tastes. It could be chalked up to just not having enough time to explore each section and I think having read standalone Nora Roberts books before, even in trilogies, may have spoiled me enough to expect more...buildup.It's a cute mini trilogy all in one, and definitely worth picking up if you've read the previous MacGregor novels and want to get a sneak peek at where past MacGregor clan characters are now. When compared to other NR books though, don't expect too much from this one.
—Pooja
Novels like these ease my stress and to think some people told me that I ought to cut down my reading leisure.And I'm reading MacGregor stories, again!But who wouldn't want to hear about this family?--------------------------------------------------Time passes by so quickly (*sniff) and now, I'm reading about the grand daughters. It's really a feat to also hear about their parents (and grandparents) and undying love. And sometimes, I tell myself that families like these are too good to be trueI love Daniel (THE MacGregor), his plots, his plans. And he certainly had those for Laura, Gwen and Julia.And as a habit of mine I have my favorite: Gwen's story. I love the 12 days of Christmas part. :3Okay, truth be told, I think all the stories were a bit fast paced (since there's 3 of them in one book). As much as I don't want a dragging story, I felt like everything was, as Julia put it, "going to fast."I hope a Grandpa like Daniel decides to make me a part of that kind of family :)
—Edan Marie Esquibel
Daniel MacGregor yearns for great-grandchildren before he passes away, but his granddaughters are taking far too long to settle down. So what does he do? Begin meddling, of course! However, Laura, Gwen and Julia aren’t going to make it easy for him. Can Daniel do it – and not suffer their raging wraths?I really, really enjoyed this book. Well, the three novellas it included (yes, there are three separate stories within this novel). So I’ll work in chronological order.First up was Laura’s story. Now, she was my favourite character. Perfectly feisty, witty and hilarious, I really enjoyed reading about her and was sad when her story ended. I think hers should have started first, to be honest; in my opinion, Gwen and Julia didn’t quite live up to her. Her story, concerning a certain Royce, was romantic even though they initially, of course, didn’t like each other, and they had plenty of hurdles from Laura’s lawyer-ship and her parents going a bit nuts when they, er, caught them together, to the alarms going off and Royce being attacked with snowballs.Second was Gwen, the doctor. Her relationship with the Irish novelist Branson was interesting, to say the least. Branson, originally there to do research on Dr Gwen’s ward, soon began to like her more than he perhaps should. I thought he was the perfect man and kinda fell in love with him a little. I mean, how more romantic can you get? Besides his rants about writing and just in general were pretty cool, and he seemed to live to wind Gwen up. However, I thought Gwen was a bit cruel to him and strung him along a bit. Lastly was Julia, and her beau Cullum. Cullum and Julia had the perfect sparky relationship everyone wants, and her uncertainness in the relationship contrasted brilliantly with her otherwise collected persona. Their relationship was hot and sexy but then turned out to be more romantic, if a little high-school-ly with them fighting over who said the three little words first. I really liked Roberts’ writing style; fast paced and witty, and the characters were unique and had their own relationships but seemed to fit together like a very large MacGregor jigsaw puzzle. However, I thought that the relationships would have been better if they had been intertwined rather than written in separate time frames. And they all finished, stereotypically, at Christmas time, although I kind of already knew that considering the ‘Christmas Fairytales’ title and the romance genre! But, I really adored Daniel MacGregor as a separate character and his relationship with his wife, so I guess that helped me a lot; and the MacGregor Christmas lunches are clearly an affair to behold!I would recommend this read to those who like fluffy Christmas-y romances, although this does contain some steamy sex scenes, so beware of that if that’s the type of stuff you’d rather avoid. A light-hearted read!
—Hannah Brown
