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This Wicked Gift

Courtney Milan

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This Wicked Gift is, I believe, Courtney Milan’s first published work, and is an introductory novella to her Carhart books. In it, Miss Lavinia Spencer is caring for her sick father and her younger brother as well as running their family business, a circulating library. Money is incredibly tight, but Lavinia has been scrupulously saving pennies here and there, because she wants her family to have a wonderful Christmas complete with a goose, spices for mulled wine and the few other trimmings they can afford.

But the money she has worked so hard to scrape together is lost when her younger brother James uses it to buy into a fraudulent business venture – and even worse, he owes ten pounds to the man who has cheated him.

The conversation in which James confesses his predicament is overheard by one of the library’s regular customers, Mr William White, who has, unbeknownst to her, been hankering after Lavinia for the last year. William has come down in the world – an inheritance he had hoped for seems farther away than ever, and he makes a pittance working as a clerk in the offices of the curmudgeonly Marquess of Blakely. He’s tired and he’s bitter, and when he sees the chance to have something he desperately wants, the chance to have one bright memory amid the drudgery of his daily existence, he grabs it, no matter that it’s completely underhand and dishonourable. He finds out to whom James’ debt is owed, buys up the note of hand, even though it practically beggars him to do it, and then proceeds to – he thinks – blackmail Lavinia into his bed.

He has no idea that Lavinia is just as smitten with him as he is with her, or that she has other options for paying the debt. Even as he seduces her with a great deal of care and tenderness, he hates himself, telling himself that what he is doing is despicable – but he does it anyway. I’m sure this is a bone of contention for many, the hero of a romance forcing the heroine to have sex with him, but the point is that Lavinia is not coerced or forced – she wants to make love with William, and also to show him the value of those things that can’t be bought with money. The fact that he’s a despairing and bitter man who has lost his way in life – and who loathes himself so thoroughly for what he does – that it’s almost impossible not to feel sorry for him.

Lavinia is perhaps just a little too good to be true. I felt that she should at least have bawled William out about his intentions, even if the act was something she desired as much as he did. But then, she’s capable of tremendous insight, realising he’s beating himself up about it more than she ever could, and it’s her loving forgiveness that sets William back on the right path and enables him to find the decent man buried under the layers of bitterness and resentment.

There aren’t many authors who could take a story that deals with people living on the bread-line and turn it into an uplifting story, or who could make a hero out of a man who stoops to blackmail the heroine into sleeping with him, but Courtney Milan manages it. This Wicked Gift is perhaps not Ms Milan’s best novella (that honour belongs to either The Governess Affair or A Kiss For Midwinter) but it’s nonetheless extremely well-written and unusual story, and is defnintely recommended.

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Book Details

Reviewer: Caz Owens
Review Date: December 18, 2019
Publication Date: 07/2014
Grade: B+
Sensuality Warm
Book Type: Historical Romance
Review Tags: Carhart series | Christmas romance | Holiday romance | librarian | Novella | working class historical

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P
Guest
P
12/19/2019 11:40 pm

I would have enjoyed this novella more, had the heroine disclosed that she was fully consenting, rather than being blackmailed into a one-off sexual relationship. Milan has written some stellar novellas that explore consent – The Governess Affair, A Kiss for Midwinter – that I would recommend instead. Also, Mrs Martin’s Incomparable Adventure was an absolute joy!

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MMcA
Guest
MMcA
12/19/2019 6:29 pm

I don’t think I’ve read this one: so that’s exciting.

I’m probably an outlier in that while I’ve enjoyed her historicals very much – she just writes well – I’ve reread the Cyclone books far more often. Holding my soul in patience for the next one: something I’m not great at.

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Blackjack
Guest
Blackjack
12/19/2019 6:59 pm
Reply to  MMcA

I haven’t read Milan’s contemporary novels but I’m glad you posted this about them, as I forgot about the Cyclone series. I will give them a try. I see from her website that she expects to have a new one out soon.

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Lynda X
Guest
Lynda X
12/19/2019 1:58 pm

Yes, I agree with you all. I don’t think I even finished her last couple of books, but this one looks like it might be a throwback to her past keepers. Frankly, I think it’s a rare author who can continue to write great books for decades. I suspect that her interest in writing romances is waning. I do home she has one more great book–at least–still in her and it gets out.

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Em Wittmann
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Em Wittmann
12/19/2019 9:27 am

Milan was never on my auto-buy list, but I do tend to click when a story of hers sounds interesting to me. I’ve ruthlessly culled my social media feeds and tried to separate my personal feelings about opinions/advice shared by some authors from the work they produce. That’s been a very good thing & probably why I’m still willing to read this author despite her anti-AAR stance. I’ll be reading this on an airplane on Sunday.

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Dabney Grinnan
Dabney Grinnan
12/19/2019 10:06 am
Reply to  Em Wittmann

I’ll read any author I think writes books I’d enjoy no matter what their stance on AAR or politics. I haven’t enjoyed Milan’s work for sometime but that has nothing to do with her politics or her dislike of AAR. I do love this story and I hope you enjoy it!

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Nan De Plume
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Nan De Plume
12/19/2019 1:52 pm
Reply to  Dabney Grinnan

When I looked on Courtney Milan’s website a few minutes ago, she said she likes reading reviews at AAR. But that may have been an old posting.

I totally agree with you about a writer’s politics. When I read a book or watch a movie, I try to become immersed in the world the author or actor has created- not what the person believes in real life.

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Blackjack
Guest
Blackjack
12/19/2019 5:30 pm
Reply to  Em Wittmann

I follow Courtney Milan on Twitter and I did not get the sense that she is anti-AAR. In fact, she says very little about romance writing or any review site. She is anti-racist, a feminist, and a voice for marginalized peoples though and those views most definitely permeate all of her writings. I think they always have though from the very beginning of her publications.

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Usha
Guest
Usha
12/19/2019 12:39 am

More HR authors are falling off the list than getting on Caz. My HR tbr pile is diminishing!

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Caz Owens
Author
Caz Owens
12/19/2019 8:49 am
Reply to  Usha

Yep. I think the only author I’m excited about right now is Mia Vincy – I’m still reading some of my favourite authors, but it’s an ever diminishing number :(

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Blackjack
Guest
Blackjack
12/19/2019 5:58 pm
Reply to  Caz Owens

I love Mia Vincy’s writing, but this year I also really enjoyed Evie Dunmore and Diana Biller in historical romance. Julie Anne Long is back writing historical romances too and her books are fun. I miss Meredith Duran and hope she returns as she has long been my favorite HR writer. I’m also loving historical mysteries with romances like Deanna Raybourn’s series.

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Lynda X
Guest
Lynda X
12/18/2019 6:52 pm

Milan was supposed to have a new book out late this year. She hasn’t, to my knowledge, written anything about it and when we might actually read it. I know she is notorious for promising a book for a due date, sometimes months and mon