I loved this! At just under 200 pages, it's a longer novella, which enables the time jump from the prologue and our second-chance-meets-sex-lessons-meets-Christmas set-up. The character arcs felt authentic within this timeframe, and the dark edge of longing counterbalanced the levity of the 12 days of Christmas, making this a perfect holiday read for my fellow Meredith-Duran-loving masochists. This is a debut, and I cannot wait to read more by Colleen Kelly.

Also, for my fellow histrom readers, my favorite microtrope moments: he bathes her (the caretaking!), explicit declaration of fidelity, and use of a nickname (Lyddie! My heart.).