Rating: 4 stars
Sylvia Ray was married to a charming, persuasive man, who died and left her destitute. Because he lied to his family, they believed she was the reason he had ended up with massive debts, so they refused to give her any financial assistance after his death. After years of trying to support herself and keep herself from starvation, she's found a man who wants to marry her, and who can give her a secure future.
Isaac DeWitt went to see as a young boy and was forced to leave his career in the navy when he damaged his leg. Now he works as an investigator and would like to settle down with a wife - but having grown up surrounded solely by men, women are a complete mystery to him. He enjoys flirting, but has absolutely no idea how to go about actually kissing or wooing a woman - what if he turns out to be disappointing?
Sylvia discovers Isaac's dilemma, and though she knows she shouldn't, she makes him a wicked proposal. The man she is marrying is sickly and her future union is unlikely to be passionate. Having one final fling before she marries again may be irresponsible, but she can't help herself. Isaac is more than happy to take her up on her offer, he'll get experience and confidence enough to find himself a wife, and she'll get some pleasant memories to think back on once she's married in the countryside, taking care of a hypochondriac.
It's been a few years since I read any romances by Mia Vincy, but she always writes her characters so well. In this holiday novella, which was free on her website, we meet the younger brother of Joshua DeWitt, the erstwhile grouchy hero of A Wicked Kind of Husband. Here he is an affectionate older brother and dotes on his wife and children.
Several of my reading challenges for December asked for books set around winter and/or holiday time. This seemed like a good fit (and made me realise I probably want to re-read some of Vincy's novels). The older, experienced partner who offers to tutor the younger, virginal character in the amorous arts isn't an unusual trope, but the gender reversal where the woman is the experienced one and the man is the virgin is not one I can remember coming across very often. Of course, Sylvia is a widow and all of 33 years old. That's an OLDER woman in historical romance. I'm basically a crone now.
Isaac and Sylvia have excellent chemistry and of course, start to fall for one another. The main conflict in the story is Isaac's inability to understand why Sylvia is determined to go through with her marriage to a sickly man who will never appreciate her, and why lust, and even love, isn't going to be enough to make her change her mind.
If you haven't read any Mia Vincy, this is a nice place to start. While there are cameos from other couples from her books, you don't need to have read any of their stories to enjoy this one.
Judging a book by its cover: Mia Vincy's covers always seem to be done in gentle watercolours, with one specific colour dominating. On her other covers, there's pink, yellow, purple, and blue, while here the dominant colour seems to be a sepia-tinted orange. The covers always seem to suggest much more gentle stories than Vincy often delivers, but they are pretty.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read
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