A review by yourbookishbff
A Kiss For Midwinter by Courtney Milan

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This was a beautiful and well-deserved happily-ever-after for Lydia, best friend to our female main character (Minnie) in The Duchess War. I knew going in this would be heavy (because we already knew a good bit of Lydia's backstory from the previous book), and I was grateful that this story is as much about her recognition of her own trauma as it is about her finding a partner she can love and trust. Our good doctor is plain speaking and honest and consistently respectful of Lydia - and a real grump. This is an interesting twist on grumpy x sunshine, where our sunshine character has a traumatic backstory and is only ever grumpy with the grump. I really appreciated how natural this felt for these characters.

And once again, Milan's novella pacing is so well done, and she manages to weave in meaningful backstory for our male main character and his own family as well. Readers should note the content warnings, as this is a heavy read, but it's affirming and redemptive, too (and who does healing sex scenes better than Courtney Milan? perhaps no one).
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