Bonus Book Review: A Candlelight Courting

It's a cold and dreary day today so I snuggled up with a good book and it was so good I want to tell you all about it.

It's A Candlelight Courting: A Short Christmas Romance by Joyce DiPastena.  As you all know I'm a big fan of Joyce's medieval romances.  She transports you back in time and is such a skilled storyteller I will gladly give up sleep or food to see what happens next in her books.  This one is no exception, but since it's a short story, I didn't have to give up either sleep or food and still had all the benefit of getting lost in a story.

Meg has decided to become a nun, but her father disapproves and wants her to marry.  He takes away her rosary and prayer table and brings a man to her chamber to change her mind.  Burthred wants to marry Meg, but is unsure of how to approach her since she has refused to see him to this point.  I loved the characters and the story between them and it's true, I sighed a bit over Burthred (in spite of his name.)

This book will definitely make it to the stockings of my romance-loving friends and family as well as have a place on my keeper shelf.

Here's the back copy:

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.