This is a lovely story about Gracie, the Pitts' former maid/housekeeper. Gracie is happily married with three children. It is near Christmas when a friend of Gracie's, Millie, comes to her for help. Something is going on in the house where Millie works. Food is going missing, nice food like cakes, pudding, and cream. All the servants are scared. Millie asks Gracie to take her place and find out who is taking the food and why. Gracie takes Millie's place and is able to solve the mystery of the missing food. Since Gracie is just temporary, she is able to ask questions that will help her to solve the problem that is scaring the other servants.
I highly recommend this wonderful story. It is a feel-good mystery story with a lovely ending.

A Christmas Legacy was a short but interesting Christmas read with a little bit of mystery and a satisfying ending.

This Christmas book is part of a series by Anne Perry. It is not necessary to read the series to enjoy this Christmas offering as I have not read any of the books in the series.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group, for access to a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed above are my own.

Gracie Tellman, mother of three and wife of a police constable, is tasked with going undercover as a servant to unravel the mysterious happenings at the Harcourt household in turn-of-the-20th-century London. As Gracie delves further into the gloomy atmosphere, she makes a startling discovery. Will she be able to get help before it’s too late? Written especially fir fans of the author’s earlier mysteries involving the Pitt family and Gracie, this cozy holiday mystery is perfect for an evening at home with a cup of tea.

This is a seasonal treat, catching up with some of the secondary characters from the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt Victorian era Mysteries. Gracie, their former housemaid, is now grown up and married, with 3 children. In the days leading up to Christmas, a young girl (Millie) who is about the same age she was when she entered service, comes to the door asking for help. The house she works in has things going missing, food from the homeowners’ table, and everyone is afraid that they will be accused and dismissed from service. Gracie knows the girl from a case of Thomas and Charlotte. She agrees to go to the house as a replacement servant for Millie who is “sick with a cold”. She will attempt to find out what is going on. Gracie has the advantage that she is not afraid of being dismissed as she has a home and family to go to.
What she finds is a house with two homeowners and ten servants. The servants are mostly tense and some outright hostile. Gracie does some discreet snooping and finds out that there is another person in the house that nobody talks about. The missing food is taken to her by a young housemaid who feels pity for her. Gracie overhears a conversation revealing that money is short and they hope to see a resolution soon. They also discuss which servants they can dismiss without affecting their own comfort and social status. When she discovers that the hidden person is the parent of one of the homeowners who is seriously neglected, she does her best to offer some comfort.
When the old woman dies in her sleep, Gracie and the servants band together to ensure that nothing is removed that might allow the homeowners to accuse them of theft. The lawyers summon them to the reading of the will, and it is discovered that the old lady was not so powerless after all. Everyone gets what is coming to them and Gracie gets to go home for Christmas with her family.

I had an ARC from NetGalley..This book was good once I got into it maybe 30 pages or so. I thought it might be a cute Christmas mystery but it was sad. Elder neglect a mystery at a fancy house and servants feeling stuck about helping. It was mysterious for a small bit, then just sad. But the old lady prevails in the end and helps those who help her.

There's nothing like an Anne Perry Christmas novella to start getting in the holiday spirit. This one is the 19th installment in her Christmas novella series. I've read all of them, either before or right after each comes out, and this one, in my opinion is the best one of them all.

In this one, Gracie, former maid to Charlotte and Thomas Pitt (characters in another Anne Perry series), is asked by Millie, an old friend and one of the maids at a home where odd things are happening, food is disappearing, and other strange things are going on, to look into what's happening. Gracie agrees to take Millie's position on a temporary basis, right before Christmas, and quickly gets to the bottom of it all.

This is yet another heartwarming, feel good Christmas book. I absolutely loved it. Highly recommended!!

Anne Perry’s annual holiday offering, A Christmas Legacy, is certainly a special gift for readers and fans of period dramas set in 1900, London. From Anne Perry’s Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Series comes now married, former maid Gracie Tellman with her own story.

Millie Foster, housemaid at the Harcourt estate, reports to her friend Gracie Tellman that cakes, pudding, and chicken are going missing; none of the staff says a word, because all are afraid someone will be ‘sacked’; and right before Christmas! Gracie, now married to an Inspector, trades places with Millie to discover what’s happening. As the mystery unfolds readers are treated to the now familiar pecking order of the “downstairs” staff due to six seasons of Downton Abbey! Anne Perry slowly builds suspicion and casts doubt on the Harcourts and the servants; between conversations with butler, Mr. Denning and housekeeper, Mrs. Jenkins, along with love secrets shared between Mrs. Harcourt’s lady’s maid, Nora and Walter, Mr. Harcourt’s valet. Perhaps most endearing is bright, red headed Archie, the footman, that Gracie encourages to learn to read so he can “go anywhere…, anywhere real, or not real.” Readers learn along with Gracie that facing challenges and struggles brings people together. At the end of A Christmas Legacy there is great “satisfaction in realizing that kindness is noticed.”

Who doesn't love a Christmas time novel Backdrop old English home snow all around the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Grace Tellman knows what it means to get a home in order for the holidays. This holiday is different. Grace and her husband Samuel have three beautiful children Charlie, Tommy and Vic.Grace used to work for the Pitt family and she adored Mr and Mrs Pitt. So when little Millie came to her to say someone is taking food from the Hardcourt family home Millie is worried they will think its her and dismiss her from the home.. Millie works for the Hardcourt family and has nowhere to go if she is dismissed. So she came to Grace for help since Grace was a friend of her mothers who has since died. Grace agrees to help and promises to be home for Christmas. Once Grace is employed by the Hardcourts she starts to see what Millie was talking about. Things have been missing from the home and all the servants are to afraid to say anything. Mr. and Mrs Hardcourt are not the nicest people and once Grace finds out what is going on she finds herself in a bit of trouble.
I loved the characters in this book. They remind me of Downton Abbey characters. All colorfully written, all with a few hidden talents all trying to protect someone they all care about. This is a feel good story, that while reading it i wanted to curl up in front of a roaring fire with a nice cup of tea, even though I read this book in the dead of summer.
I have read other Anne Perry books and after reading this one she has become one of my favorite authors. The story was heartwarming, funny at times because of Graces children and a little heartbreaking since the Hardcourts were not nice people. Loved the ending especially since it was a Christmas themed story.
Thank you Random House Publishing group=Ballantine Publishing and NetGalley for this wonderful read. Hope we can do it again.

As a huge fan of Anne Perry I was chopping at the bit to read her newest Christmas book. I have to say that this is the best one yet. With the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series done it was nice to hear their names again in the story. It brought back a sense of comfort and familiarity. What a wonderful story for Christmas. One where we should relearn to put other first in love. Highly recommended!

This book was sent to me on Kindle by Netgalley for review. I enjoy reading this author and this story did not disappoint…try it..

This was not my favorite Christmas story, but it was suspenseful with a satisfying conclusion. Since it's more like a novella, I finished it in one sitting. A nice holiday story.

This was a great, cozy fast paced little mystery. I haven't read anything by Anne Perry until now and I will continue to pick up more of her books!

The mystery was fun and the characters are all charming. I really loved Charlie and Gracie and would love more stories with them!

Thank you Random House and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Another wonderful, heartwarming story from Anne Perry.

She continues to create characters who are so very real, you feel that you could know them — or their descendants since these folks are from a different time.

A mystery in the house? Missing food? The lady upstairs? Easily explained, but hard to accept from family.

And a perfect ending! Can’t wait for her next one.

I am a long-time fan of Anne Perry’s work, particularly of the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt novels. In this latest offering, A Christmas Legacy, Thomas and Charlotte’s former maid Gracie takes center stage. Gracie, now married and with children of her ow, goes back into service to help a friend. The fact that this takes place just two weeks before Christmas adds a sense of urgency to solving the crime.

Perry is a master of the Victorian era and transports the reader back to another time and place. Gracie and her daughter Charlie are delightful characters, and this is a most pleasant read.

A Christmas Legacy is scheduled for release November 2, 2021, just in time for the holiday season.

Many thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for providing me with a copy. The opinions are my own.

My thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Publishing, as well as to NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of A Christmas Legacy!

This is the first book I've read by Anne Perry and I absolutely loved it! It tells the story of Thomas and Charlotte Pitt's former maid, Gracie, as she does her level best to solve the mystery of why things are going missing from the kitchen in the household where her friend's daughter, Millie, is employed. How better to do that than to take on Millie’s job, herself, claiming Millie is sick and needs a few days to recuperate?

I fell in love with nearly every character in A Christmas Legacy but especially with Gracie and her "very almost six" year old daughter, Charlie!

Quite the satisfying ending, too!!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to choose the next Anne Perry book I want to read.😉

When Millie approaches Gracie shortly before Christmas, she is distraught. The household where she works has a rash of thefts from the kitchen. Millie knows she will be blamed and sacked and cast out on the street with no references. Gracie, a former maid in the Pitts household, knows she can help out Millie. So she goes to work at Millie's job, while Millie cares for Gracie's children. Things seem fairly normal in that household, even if the elderly lady upstairs never comes down for meals and none of the maid seem to be taking food to her on a regular basis. Gracie becomes aware that several of the maids are creeping up the stairs with small amounts of food, and Gracie realizes this is where the missing food is going. Granny, suffering from neglect, needs help. How can Gracie help out? And how can she help the people relying on her?
A Christmas novella, done only as Anne Perry can.

Quick read and a bit of a mystery for Gracie as she helps a friend that she has known for a long time. The characters have been featured in the Pitt series, but it works well as a standalone. Enjoyable story as Gracie joins a household staff to help them against their employers with a constant threat of being fired and turned out on to street in winter. She finds the mystery and helps to solve the staff problems without the fear of being fired as she has her own family to go home to, but the staff is a family of itself and Gracie doesn't want to rock that balance either. Very satisfying ending. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this Christmas read.

Another excellent book from Anne Perry. I love reading these 'side' stories giving us more insight into characters from the main books. The story involves Gracie, who used to be a house maid for the Pitts, but left to get married and have a family. This book had me intrigued right from the start, then as I read on, it made me really mad (I wish I could say why, but I don't want to spoil the book), and then it made me jump for joy at the end (Karma will come back to bite you, and I wish I could say more here). Definitely read this book, even if you're not a big Christmas book fan. This one will not disappoint on many levels.

When I started this novel, I thought this was a standalone tale, but as I read the back story for the main character, I realized other tales came before this one. Pieces of information were shared like how the main character Gracie met her husband, Samuel Tellman, when she’d worked in service to a prominent family, Sir Thomas and Lady Charlotte Pitt. Then, how she knew the young lady, Millie Foster, who came knocking at her door in Chapter 1 when the conflict for the plot was revealed. I looked at the list of past titles from Anne Perry and found the “Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series.” That’s one way to get me to read more from this author!
I must have read the first sentence several times though. I didn’t immediately catch on that Gracie and Charlie were mother and daughter for some reason. The year is 1900, Grace mixed a cake for Christmas, and Charlie wanted to lick the bowl and spoon. A knock on the door from Millie, a housemaid at the home of the Harcourts, interrupted the cozy scene and presented the main conflict. Decadent food items were disappearing from the house, and the servants were afraid of blame for fear they’d be turned out before Christmas with no recommendation. Millie had heard of Gracie through her mother. In another story, her mother had been wrongly accused of theft and deemed an unfit mother. Gracie and now-husband Samuel had proven her mother’s innocence. Gracie decided to take on Millie’s case. She told her husband to watch the kids while she took Millie’s place as housemaid to the Harcourts. With just days before Christmas, she hoped to solve the mystery of the missing food and save Millie’s position.My first thought was that the book needed a better jumping off point. The “must-plunge-character-in-deep-water-immediately” mantra popped into my mind. Instead of the cozy baking scene, open the story with with a nervous, but brave Millie standing outside Gracie’s door where through a window she can see mother and daughter in the kitchen baking. I won’t give away why the food items went missing at the Harcourts, but I will say the mystery rather was about where it was going and why. The fear that staff would be blamed and let go into the frigid-cold streets of London right before Christmas ran throughout. I’m a Dickens fangirl; I knew that meant the dreaded workhouses.
Gracie had a home and family to go home to and this was brought up to her often by the senior servants. They worried she’d do something that would get the youngest staff turned out. The worst would be to lose their position without a recommendation. Talk of brothels was thrown in and may have been meant to frighten Gracie. Workhouses were often where young people were sent. Whether workhouse or brothel, quality of life would be poor with disease and early death following. The fear was real. But then the servants were willing to protect another. They fought that fear so as not to lose the best part of themselves, the part that loved others and wanted to fight for them to keep their dignity.
"A Christmas Legacy” reminded me of “Upstairs, Downstairs” and the more-recent “Downton Abbey.” The servants were their own below-stairs family. Despite my early confusion, I enjoyed this Christmas tale and now have new books to add to my to-read list. I did wish it hadn’t ended so abruptly without much room for goodbyes, but then it was an uncorrected proof. I look forward to reading the finished book in November. Thank you to Netgalley.com for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this story.

I've been reading Anne Perry for years, so it was really good to revisit characters in the Thomas Pitt series! I probably enjoyed this more than any of Ms Perry's other Christmas selections, as I believe I own them all. Gracie, the former house girl of the Pitts is now grown up with three children of her own when an acquaintance, a young teen now serving, herself as a maid, comes to her for help. There is some kind of mystery at the home in which she works, and she is frightened. Gracie agrees to step in and take her place for a few days to see what she could find out.

As plots go, it wasn't the most original in the world, but it held my interest right from the beginning! I can heartily recommend it.