A Candlelight Courting: A Short Christmas Romance by Joyce DiPastenaMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Source: Took advantage of a Free Promotion!
Genre: Christmas/Historical romance
Book Description: When Burthred comes courting on Christmas Eve, Meg rejects his advances. She has her heart set on becoming a nun and insists that he call her Christina, the spiritual name she has chosen for herself. She tries to make him swear on her box of holy relics that he will not pursue her, but he carefully words his oath to allow him to stay in her candlelit chamber and try to change her mind.
What Meg does not confess is that her reliquary box holds a secret.
Burthred needs a wife, and no one will satisfy him except Meg. He swore on his father’s deathbed that he would marry her. But Burthred has a secret, too. When they come together before the Yule fire, their shared revelations will either join their hearts together or tear them apart.
My thoughts: Meg is a young woman living with her parents, hoping to join a convent. She excuses herself from the Christmas festivities, trying to live a pious life.
Her solitude is interrupted when her father thrusts her betrothed into her room, demanding that Burthred change her mind. Her fathers plan backfires, Burthred is a kind man who courts Meg by candlelight and shows her that her dreams can be fulfilled without joining a convent.
Joyce DiPastena is meticulous in her research and does a wonderful job at creating a realistic historical fiction story. Even in this short Christmas story, her love for the medieval times shines through.
I loved the compassion and consideration that Meg and Burthred showed one another. This is a wonderful short story to read on a cold winters day.
* 
This is one that's been on my TBR. Thank you for the review! It sounds really good.
ReplyDelete