Book Review
Apr. 16th, 2025 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThis Wicked Gift
by Courtney Milan
This short historical romance novella was charming, if slight. Lavinia Spencer runs her family's subscription lending library since her mother died and her father fell ill. She struggles to finish raising her adolescent younger brother and to care for her father. Poor clerk William White is one of the library's subscribers and frequent customers. He and Lavinia have each been nursing a secret attraction for the other. When Lavinia's brother is scammed by a grifter, she accepts the help William offers even though it might compromise her reputation. Rather than ruination, she instead finds love.
Since it was a novella, this romance was pretty slight, but I like the way Milan addresses a variety of historical realities while still writing a love story for modern readers. William does act badly at the beginning of the story, but it is out of very complicated emotions and a less-than-healthy mental state that he does do the work to resolve. I loved that the hero and heroine were not even close to aristocracy - they were people who had to have jobs in order to support themselves. The threat of abject poverty was a real concern and a serious barrier to their relationship. I loved how it was resolved not by the revelation of secret wealth or nobility for either Lavinia or William, but by William serendipitously landing a really good, high-paying job.
by Courtney Milan
This short historical romance novella was charming, if slight. Lavinia Spencer runs her family's subscription lending library since her mother died and her father fell ill. She struggles to finish raising her adolescent younger brother and to care for her father. Poor clerk William White is one of the library's subscribers and frequent customers. He and Lavinia have each been nursing a secret attraction for the other. When Lavinia's brother is scammed by a grifter, she accepts the help William offers even though it might compromise her reputation. Rather than ruination, she instead finds love.
Since it was a novella, this romance was pretty slight, but I like the way Milan addresses a variety of historical realities while still writing a love story for modern readers. William does act badly at the beginning of the story, but it is out of very complicated emotions and a less-than-healthy mental state that he does do the work to resolve. I loved that the hero and heroine were not even close to aristocracy - they were people who had to have jobs in order to support themselves. The threat of abject poverty was a real concern and a serious barrier to their relationship. I loved how it was resolved not by the revelation of secret wealth or nobility for either Lavinia or William, but by William serendipitously landing a really good, high-paying job.
