This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.
My Review:Title: A Kiss for Midwinter
Author: Courtney Milan
Series: Brothers Sinister #1.5
Published by: Indie
Release Date: December 16, 2012
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 96
Genres: Historical Romance
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2022 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2022 COYER Summer
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:
Blurb:Miss Lydia Charingford is always cheerful, and never more so than at Christmas time. But no matter how hard she smiles, she can't forget the youthful mistake that could have ruined her reputation. Even though the worst of her indiscretion was kept secret, one other person knows the truth of those dark days: the sarcastic Doctor Jonas Grantham. She wants nothing to do with him...or the butterflies that take flight in her stomach every time he looks her way.
Jonas Grantham has a secret, too: He's been in love with Lydia for more than a year. This winter, he's determined to conquer her dislike and win her for his own. It all starts with a wager and a kiss...
3.5 stars — I definitely enjoyed this one, but man Lydia was hard for me to connect with. I think I had a hard time making the connection that she saw Jonas’s attentions and sweet words as reminders of *false* sweet words she got from another. But since I kept forgetting that, her reactions would just come across as mean and shrewish. I legit HURT for Jonas. Yeah, he was abundantly awkward and made the worst verbal faux pas, but because we could see inside him, we knew his heart. And so when she would take out her fear on him, it started to become unbearable. I think in hindsight I can understand her, but not as easily as I understand other flawed and damaged characters for some reason. Maybe it’s me. But either way, it was much easier for me to fall in love with Jonas than Lydia. I’m not sure if I rooted for them as a couple so much as just wanted Lydia to make her breakthroughs (and faster than she did).
There were a lot of little things I appreciated in this story — like the way Jonas valued truth, the fact you could TELL how smart he was, and how compassionate (even if others might not see it). I LOVED the way Lydia’s family loved her — her relationship with her father in particular was pretty awesome given the time period. I thought it was interesting to see Jonas’s struggles with his father…I ached for the weird position he was in, and his inability to navigate it well.
And as I’ve come to appreciate with this series so far, I appreciate the author’s notes at the end that address some interesting things that come up in the story from that time period.
Definitely still enjoying this series, this one just needed something extra.
Leave a Reply