“This novella is everything a Christmas romance should be. It’s sweet, it’s cozy, and it’s a warm fuzzy story.”

Review by Rayleigh Setser

Mary Beckwith lives in a magnificent English castle during the twilight years of the gilded age. With the help of an American millionaire, she has succeeded in renovating her beloved Whitefriars castle into a splendid estate just in time for Christmas.

From across the ocean, millionaire Everett Wooten has spent a fortune propping up Whitefriars to add modern conveniences and rebuild crumbling old walls. Even though he’s never met Mary, they have enjoyed a lively business correspondence over the nine years they have been working toward a renovation. Now he has finally come to see Mary and the castle in person, but nothing is as he was led to believe.

Mary and Everett try to find a way forward, but red-blooded American entrepreneurship doesn’t always mingle with blue-blooded English tradition. Can a Manhattan business tycoon and an English lady come to an accord, or will their joint venture in Whitefriars result in heartbreak for them both?

I received this book from the author/publisher for free. All comments and opinions are entirely my own and this review is voluntary.

This novella is everything a Christmas romance should be. It's sweet, it's cozy, and it's a warm fuzzy story.

Technically, this is a tag-along novella for the Empire State series, but it can stand alone without any problems. I haven't read any of the full-length novels (though I seriously want to now) and had no issue engaging with the characters or following the story.

Mary was such a delightful heroine! She was timid, yet passionate about her home. She was careful and cautious about her health, yet also courageous. And she was incredibly friendly. She had her flaws, but that made her feel even more human and honestly, I loved her fiercely from the first chapter.

Everett was equally delightful. His American, businessman tendencies made him intriguing and attractive. He was confident, yet not cocky or careless of other people's feelings. He was decisive, but also open-minded to Mary's ideas. Their attraction felt incredibly natural and made me smile like a loon as I listened to the audiobook!

The castle was stunning! Imagining looking at it decorated for Christmas, smelling the food prepared, and listening to the music played...gosh, it was exactly what I was looking for in a Christmas novella. No cringe pick-up lines, just a sweet story set during Christmas time with two adorable characters. I wish this had been a full-length novel, but it is quite perfect. Leave it to Elizabeth Camden to pen a perfect Christmas romance :)

Content Ratings:

0. None.

2. Mild content (holding hands and mild kissing).

0. None.

Other Trigger Warnings:

N/A

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