The Twelve Nights of Christmas by Nina Mason

on July 17, 2018
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Historical / Regency
Pages: 115
Goodreads

Ten years ago, when his father bankrupted the family, Rollo Gillingham left Penelope Pembroke with his promise to return when he could afford to marry. Despite the length of his absence, he did not expect to find her engaged to a rival upon his return. Rather than step aside, he vows to win her back, but has only twelve days in which to do it. Come Christmas Day, will Penelope choose the man she's always loved or the one her parents want her to marry?

The Twelve Nights of Christmas is a novella by Nina Mason. I thought that the story started strong. Penelope Pembroke has waited for her true love Rollo Gillingham to return from war for ten years. Twelve days before Christmas, she gives up and becomes betrothed to another. Penelope is heartbroken and can’t see a future for herself. But at her betrothal party, an old friend returns and turns Penelope’s world upside down. “All these years, I have loved none but you. You have been my beacon, my touchstone, my symbol of hope. For you alone, I planned my future. For you alone, I carried on through the terrible fighting and longing. You are part of my being…” Intrigue and mystery are woven into this story. I struggled through several of the sexually explicit scenes – they just seemed crass. There were several editing problems, and the quote above reminded me too much of Jane Austen’s Persuasion that borders on plagiarism in my estimation. Here’s that quote: “I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan.” Overall this was a mediocre story in need of a professional editor.