Warned to keep his opinions to himself, Jonas feels unable to intervene in the treatment proposed, although he does not agree with the medication prescribed – a decision he forever regrets.

In the company of this physician is a young man named Jonas Grantham, about to embark on his medical training and accompanying the elderly doctor to gain experience. So much packed into this heart wrenching, sensitively executed short story.Īt the tender age of fifteen, Lydia Charingford is diagnosed as being pregnant by a narrow minded, unsympathetic doctor, who advises her parents to have her put away because she is ruined. If only his plans didn’t so often go awry…Ī Kiss for Midwinter is a historical romance Christmas novella in the Brothers Sinister series. This winter, he’s determined to conquer her dislike and win her for his own. Jonas Grantham has a secret, too: He’s been in love with Lydia for more than a year. She wants nothing to do with him…or the butterflies that take flight in her stomach every time he looks her way. 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.

But no matter how hard she smiles, she can’t forget the youthful mistake that could have ruined her reputation. But everything I have read by Courtney Milan so far has pulled me in and made me invest in characters in a way I rarely do with books I am lazily devouring on a day off.Miss Lydia Charingford is always cheerful, and never more so than at Christmas time. It's a genre I generally read for its simple, escapist fun, or for its formulaic plays to smooth my own insecurities in short, light, easy reading. Milan creates extremely unique, complex and engaging characters, and she is quickly becoming a favorite historical romance author for me. Another beta hero, I loved his lack of social graces and his frankness about medicine, but more than anything, I loved his forward-thinking, downright feminist analysis of sexual education and birth control. And reading her story and the impact of that experience makes that point well. But she was lied to and seduced as a very young girl - practically a child - so in my mind, it is not consensual, given her age and inability to truly make an informed decision. Lydia's tale is less understood to be abuse in society, Victorian or contemporary. Most of the heroines of my favored trope were violently assaulted and their story is about recovering from the trauma of it. This belongs on the abused heroine shelf, though Lydia doesn't resemble a lot of the women there.

A Kiss for Midwinter by Courtney Milan