A Holiday by Gaslight: A Victorian Christmas Novella by Mimi Matthews

Pretty Cover? Checked!
A Christmas theme Historical Romance book? Checked!
HEA? Checked!

I have to admit that the first thing that caught my attention about this book is the cover. Being a great fan of historical romance genre, this book is just calling out to me.

Sophie Appersett is quite willing to marry outside of her class to ensure the survival of her family. But the darkly handsome Mr. Edward Sharpe is no run-of-the-mill London merchant. He’s grim and silent. A man of little emotion—or perhaps no emotion at all. After two months of courtship, she’s ready to put an end to things.

But severing ties with her taciturn beau isn’t as straightforward as Sophie envisioned. Her parents are outraged. And then there’s Charles Darwin, Prince Albert, and that dratted gaslight. What’s a girl to do except invite Mr. Sharpe to Appersett House for Christmas and give him one last chance to win her? Only this time there’ll be no false formality. This time they’ll get to know each other for who they really are.

I love how the book started with Sophie rejecting the courtship from Edward. No long and draggy information about how, who and what led up to this event. This is one of the reason why I love historical romance genre. The book always give us what we want right from the beginning.

Sophie might not be the prettiest daughter of the Appersett family but she definitely is the most charming to me. My favorite type of heroine who knows what she wants but always spare a thought for her family first.

Edward on the other hand was something fresh to me. Not one born with a title to his name but yet he worked his way up the social ladder, turning himself into a wealthy man whom others respect.

This is a clean romance book. We get sweet kisses between our hero and heroine and nothing too erotic. For someone like me who is not a fan of erotic novels, the premises of this book is perfect.

The book is fast paced as we read about preparation of Christmas at the Appersett House also getting to see how Sophie and Edward slowly learned more about each other and growing closer as Christmas approaches.The tiny surprise during the Christmas Ball is sweet and it was a nice to see Edward and Sophie faced their true feeling after.

In addition to romance, it can be noted that there are reference to real historical event like the passing of Prince Albert in 1861 and seeing how something that came natural to us such as gaslight was a luxury back in those days that it could possibly bankrupt a family. Although there can be a tad too many references to it throughout the book.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and actually finished it in two sittings (rarely I do so since I like to take breaks between my reads). I will definitely recommend it to all historical romance lovers out there.

This book will be published on 13th November 2018 and you can pre-order it now on Amazon for US$2.99! (Price accurate as at 6 October 2018).