A perfect balance of holiday coziness and actual tension.
Plot: Sylvia is a widow. On the one hand, her husband turned out to be a major dud, so no great loss, on the other hand, he also left her with zero means of supporting herself and poisoned his family against her so they wouldn’t support her either. Facing a paid vacation to a workhouse, Sylvia has accepted a proposal by a hypochondriac with lots of money and a big house. Sure, he sucks, but she’ll never be hungry again. Fortunately, she has one last hurrah in the form of a house party over Christmas before she goes off to become a nurse/housekeeper/therapist. There, she meets young Isaac, who was relieved of duty from the navy a couple of years ago because of a broken leg that never healed properly. He is charming and fun and unfailingly honest. What harm could there be from having a little fun before her dreary future starts in earnest? Shenanigans ensue.
There are so many things to like about this book. For one, it effectively starts on Christmas eve, which means it’s a holiday book you can enjoy reading in the limbo period between the 25th and the 1st. For two, we have an older heroine. Granted, she is only 33, but Isaac is not only younger (he’s 27), he feels younger. This isn’t one of those “age is just a number” books, but rather a book about peoples’ hard earned experience being valuable regardless of the gender of the person. And that you can have lots of experience of one type and none of another. Sylvia has a lot to teach Isaac, but he has a few things to teach her right back. Vincy also doesn’t give up an opportunity to use their age (and that of her fiancé) to make some important points about age (one of my favorite quotes is “Some were were ancient at fifteen, and not in the calm, wise way, but in the rigid, peevish way”). It’s also surprisingly funny (see “In memory of the final erection of Isaac DeWitt. Alas, let us weep, for never will he cometh again”).
This book is a wonderful way to cap off the year – a sweet story of second chances, of finding the courage to ask for what you want, and then to pursue it.