I wanted to like Twelve Nights much more than I did. I love the idea of historical Blazes. I like Christmas settings. And usually love triangles are among my favorite plot-lines. This book had all that going for it, but the purple prose and occasionally annoying characters made it fall a little flat for me.

Lady Alys has recently undergone a dramatic reversal of fortune. As a penniless widow, she was forced into prostitution to support her young son. He was kidnapped, and Alys was assisted in retrieving him by Lady Brianna MacLeod, whom she now serves. Brianna, the heroine of a previous novel (Bound to Please), is married to Laird Callum Fraser’s brother Ewan. As the book begins, Callum and Alys are betrothed. In order to wipe away the stains of her past and start her marriage on the right foot, Alys requests that they wait seven months to marry – and wait to consummate their union until they are legally wed. They are both crazy for each other; Alys is exactly what the wild Callum needs, and his love is sure to heal her past heartaches. Still, Alys has a sense of foreboding, which worsens when her maid casts the runes on her wedding eve and sees disaster in her future.

Disaster comes in the form of Alex Field, Alys’s first husband, who shows up very much alive during the wedding feast. He’s not exactly a pretty sight; a bout with small-pox has left him riddled with scars. And with her new maturity and insight, Alys suddenly understands that he was always a real jerk. Nonetheless, vows are vows, and she is his wife in the eyes of God. So she takes off with him the next morning, leaving a bereft Callum behind.

Part way through their journey, they are overtaken by a messenger who tells them that Brianna is in the midst of pre-term labor. Though Alex objects, Alys comes running to Brianna’s side. It turns out to be a false alarm, but it throws her back into Callum’s path (he’s there as well). Though at first their situation seems hopeless, Callum realizes that there may have been some irregularities with Alys’s wedding ceremony. Could it be that she was never married to Alex after all? And will they be able to prove it and discover Alex’s real motives?

I liked the idea of this book, and many of the aspects of the plot as well. I’ve never been able to adequately explain the attraction, but I love to read about a heroine married or engaged to the wrong man. And I love to see how she’s going to get out of it honorably. So I was predisposed to enjoy this plot, and at first I really did. Clearly Alys and Callum love each other, and clearly they are destined to be together. And Alys is steadfastly resolved to be moral. As a medieval heroine, she’s realistic in that respect; she worries not only what people will think of her, but about her immortal soul as well. I also thought the love scenes were well-written and hot.

I had two main problems with the book, however. The first is that the prose is purple. And it’s not just in the love scenes; every time Callum opens his mouth, he seems to declare his love in some treacly, overly-sappy way. At first this made the book something of a guilty pleasure, but after awhile I just got tired of it.

The bigger problem for me was the suspense aspect of the book. It is clear that Alex is up to no good. He lied about his own death, abandoned his wife to prostitution (and his son to abject poverty), and seems to have little tolerance for either Alys or his young son. Why, then, does he tell her that he wants his son? Alys shows an amazing lack of curiosity about this question. Then she compounds the issue by leaving for a little rendezvous with Callum, placing her son in the care of her elderly maid – even though the situation with Alex is not resolved. Spectacular sex is pretty tempting, but I can’t imagine any mother putting it above the safety of her child. Especially if her child appears to be in imminent danger. The fact that Alys was too oblivious to notice that her son was in imminent danger didn’t really excuse her in my eyes.

So, this one is a pretty mixed bag. it has some promising aspects and some annoying ones as well. I wouldn’t rule out reading another of Tarr’s historical Blazes, but I wouldn’t recommend rushing out to buy this one either.