I had promised myself a reread of A Kiss for Midwinter this Christmas, however I didn’t get to it until this weekend, but that doesn’t matter since its a very quick read. It is Mrs. Julien’s favorite novella, possibly of all time, and one that I really enjoyed, but always felt like I was missing something. I think I’m still missing something, but this is definitely a 4.5 star book for me, and proves that Milan is fantastic at novellas (not that I didn’t already know that).
Quickly, A Kiss for Midwinter is the story of Dr. Jonas Grantham and Miss Lydia Charingford. Jonas has decided to get married (for safe access to intercourse, I kid you not) and has fallen for the eleventh most beautiful woman in Leicester (his ranking). Unfortunately for Jonas, Lydia’s foremost thought of him is that he was present for her greatest shame, and she cannot see him without remembering that terrible Christmas.
For those that have read the Brothers Sinister series (and seriously, everyone should) we meet Lydia as the best friend of Minnie in The Duchess War and this story takes place in the months following the end of that book. When I first reviewed this book I was struck by Milan’s ability to give her characters incredible depth in a few short pages, and I was struck by that again. We are plunged into Lydia’s backstory of her being taken advantage of by an older man and left pregnant and unmarried. We are also brought into her inner workings, as she battles with truly making peace with what happened to her. We are also introduced to Jonas and his particular set of constraints and practicalities. He is a doctor on the forward edge of science (he won’t wear gloves because they could be germ factories) but his default practical nature often catches others completely off guard. That in combination with his dark sense of humor makes most people, including Lydia; write him off as making fun of them when in fact he is almost always telling them the truth he cannot let go unsaid.
This novella is at its top quality in the quiet moments between Jonas and Lydia. The scenes at the Christmas Tree and the Churchyard will make your heart swoon. They certainly do mine (other cannonballers refer to this as being hit in the swooners).
What do you feel like you are missing?
I don’t *love* the characters as much as some others. I have the swoons over their interactions, but I find the first 50 is pages to be a bit of work to get to the back 75 or so.
I also think that my preference for The Governess Affair keeps me from falling head over feet for this one.
Give it up for the contrary ladies who prefer Serena and Hugo! That’s my exact “problem” with this one as well.
Serena and Hugo are lovely, and I love their appearances in later Brothers Sinister books, but they’re no match for Jonas and Lydia. To me, The Governess Affair is a 4.5 star and A Kiss for Midwinter is a 5 star. The Suffragette Scandal with its thimbles and puppy cannons blows up the scale and gets 6 stars.
This Beth Ellen, is how I feel about us on this topic:
http://giphy.com/gifs/disney-90s-goofy-movie-6anU1eU1z0wCY
Oooooo….I had told myself I was going to re-read this one over the holidays and never got around to it. Since the cold weather just showed up where I live I think I can still get away with this. Thanks for the reminder!
I think this may be my favourite romance novella too. I just love Jonas so damn much, possibly because he’s so unforgivably blunt and honest and has such a horrid sense of humour. The hero of the new Loretta Chase reminded me a lot of him, and it’s one of the highest compliments I can make. Lydia’s no slouch either. I love how she tries so hard to see the bright side in every situation, without that becoming annoying or overly twee. I get so angry when I think about what happened to her and am glad she got such a satisfactory happy ending.
I have a question Malin… do you remember which of the two novellas you read first? I’m wondering if Beth Ellen and I vs you and Mrs Julien on the ranking of these could be due to that? Because I read Serena and Hugo first, and while I love Jonas and Lydia (but mostly Jonas) I think that might really have something to do with it.
(You know you’re an addict when you are wondering over a silly half star difference, but I swear these things matter!)
Being a total Milan fangirl already by that point, I started at the beginning, with The Governess Affair as soon as that became available. I really liked it, but thought it was just a little bit short. Then I read The Duchess War, followed by A Kiss for Midwinter, which was the first Milan I loved unreservedly since Unraveled. I actually love A Kiss for Midwinter more than Unraveled for all that I adore Smite and Miranda – there’s just a bit too much of the silly conspiracy stuff in that book, and in a novella, there’s no space for that sort of distracting digression.
I think you may be on to something with this. The Governess Affair was my first Milan and it holds a special place in my heart because of that. She completely blew my mind with all the flipping of tropes and such insanely good characters. At the end I sat back and thought “I didn’t even know you could DO that with a romance!”
Oh faintingviolet you just get me :-)