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Carhart #0.5
This Wicked Gift
Lavinia Spencer is too poor to be anything but practical. But when her younger brother lands himself in trouble, she has no choice but to do the unthinkable. She accepts the help of the dishonorable man that she’s always wanted, even knowing that it might mean her ruination…
This Wicked Gift is a novella prequel to the Carhart series. The full series is:
Proof by Seduction
Trial by Desire
This historical romance novella is an enhanced ebook. The unenhanced text was originally published in the anthology "The Heart of Christmas." This work contains pictures, audio, and author commentary. You can read this enhanced ebook on any device, but the audio content may not be accessible on all ereaders. That content has been made available on the web, so you won't miss anything if your device doesn't support audio.
This Wicked Gift is a novella prequel to the Carhart series. The full series is:
Proof by Seduction
Trial by Desire
This historical romance novella is an enhanced ebook. The unenhanced text was originally published in the anthology "The Heart of Christmas." This work contains pictures, audio, and author commentary. You can read this enhanced ebook on any device, but the audio content may not be accessible on all ereaders. That content has been made available on the web, so you won't miss anything if your device doesn't support audio.
126 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 7, 2014
59 people are currently reading
568 people want to read
About the author
Courtney Milan
68 books5,486 followersCourtney Milan writes books about carriages, corsets, and smartwatches. Her books have received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. She is a New York Times and a USA Today Bestseller.
Courtney pens a weekly newsletter about tea, books, and basically anything and everything else. Sign up for it here: https://bit.ly/CourtneysTea
Before she started writing romance, Courtney got a graduate degree in theoretical physical chemistry from UC Berkeley. After that, just to shake things up, she went to law school at the University of Michigan and graduated summa cum laude. Then she did a handful of clerkships. She was a law professor for a while. She now writes full-time.
Courtney is represented by Kristin Nelson of the Nelson Literary Agency.
Courtney pens a weekly newsletter about tea, books, and basically anything and everything else. Sign up for it here: https://bit.ly/CourtneysTea
Before she started writing romance, Courtney got a graduate degree in theoretical physical chemistry from UC Berkeley. After that, just to shake things up, she went to law school at the University of Michigan and graduated summa cum laude. Then she did a handful of clerkships. She was a law professor for a while. She now writes full-time.
Courtney is represented by Kristin Nelson of the Nelson Literary Agency.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 161 reviews
July 11, 2018
I loathed the main male character from beginning to end. LOATHED. He was described in such a way that in any other book he’d be a villain or a source of . . . satiric humor. Satire-ic. Bah.
The woman? The main quality about her that I disliked was . . . that she was interested in this jackass. Otherwise she was a great character. That’s a massive thing to overcome, though, liking this miserable piece of shit – that male lead character.
Right, so, this is a 100 something prequel to a series I’ve not read yet. It stars people that made me add a shelf – though I’d thought I already had that one. Instead of the normal ‘rich-rich’ that most English historical fiction feature (or, at least, ‘titled-titled’), this book actually featured two people who can be called poor (or working class; technically the lead male character talked about himself in such a way that he sounded like he had the worst lowest of the low jobs on earth and was in hell – except the job in actuality was more middle class – professional class, but whatever, didn’t pay a lot and didn’t require an advanced degree. Jackass McJackass (his name is not in the book description; it’s not, but it is something like ‘Jonathan Q. Smith’) works as a finance guy for a titled person – one of whom will feature in the series proper (Carhart).
Jackass fancies a particular woman – that woman is the female lead in this book. Figuring he’s a piece of shit, working a hell job, and has no future, he mostly ignores her when he’s in her store (she runs a bookstore/lending library for her ailing father). Also because of the aforementioned believe that he, himself, is shit, he decided to ‘take advantage’ of the woman because obviously she’d not want anything to do with him otherwise. So he blackmails her/coerces her. She . . . has lusted after him for a long time, finds his methods and actions pathetic, in a sad way, and . . . fucks him (not because of being blackmailed, but because she’s horny – this is part of what I meant in my status updates that the man was melodramatically doom and gloom and had a virgin fetish (more in the ‘oh god I’ve ruined her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ way, than in a ‘must fuck all virgins’ way); while she’s all ‘I was horny, I wanted to fuck, fuck you and your virgin fetish/ruined what’s-so-call-it, I’m no lady looking to land a titled man; nor am I servant whose reputation can be blackened to the point of being unable to secure work; etc. etc.etc.’).
I fear I’ve gone too far down a particular path. I just found the lead male character so loathsome that he is overwhelming my ability to think in a rational and coherent manner. Not loathsome in a ‘bad boys are hot’ way, but loathsome in ‘I’m a shit, a large turd, I know this, my life will always be like this, so I’ll act like it . . . poorly’* way.
‘*’ – even when he tries to act poorly, he is loathsomely rotten at it. The guy is a massive loser . . . who is handsome . . . enough for the lead female character to become tongue tied around him. At least until he opened his mouth and revealed he’s a jackass mcjackass. Whereupon she handily handled him. Handily.
Right, so, horrible loathsome book.
Rating: oh. I did not remember I rated this 1.75 stars until just now. So, apparently that’s the rating I gave. 1.75 stars.
June 10 2018
The woman? The main quality about her that I disliked was . . . that she was interested in this jackass. Otherwise she was a great character. That’s a massive thing to overcome, though, liking this miserable piece of shit – that male lead character.
Right, so, this is a 100 something prequel to a series I’ve not read yet. It stars people that made me add a shelf – though I’d thought I already had that one. Instead of the normal ‘rich-rich’ that most English historical fiction feature (or, at least, ‘titled-titled’), this book actually featured two people who can be called poor (or working class; technically the lead male character talked about himself in such a way that he sounded like he had the worst lowest of the low jobs on earth and was in hell – except the job in actuality was more middle class – professional class, but whatever, didn’t pay a lot and didn’t require an advanced degree. Jackass McJackass (his name is not in the book description; it’s not, but it is something like ‘Jonathan Q. Smith’) works as a finance guy for a titled person – one of whom will feature in the series proper (Carhart).
Jackass fancies a particular woman – that woman is the female lead in this book. Figuring he’s a piece of shit, working a hell job, and has no future, he mostly ignores her when he’s in her store (she runs a bookstore/lending library for her ailing father). Also because of the aforementioned believe that he, himself, is shit, he decided to ‘take advantage’ of the woman because obviously she’d not want anything to do with him otherwise. So he blackmails her/coerces her. She . . . has lusted after him for a long time, finds his methods and actions pathetic, in a sad way, and . . . fucks him (not because of being blackmailed, but because she’s horny – this is part of what I meant in my status updates that the man was melodramatically doom and gloom and had a virgin fetish (more in the ‘oh god I’ve ruined her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ way, than in a ‘must fuck all virgins’ way); while she’s all ‘I was horny, I wanted to fuck, fuck you and your virgin fetish/ruined what’s-so-call-it, I’m no lady looking to land a titled man; nor am I servant whose reputation can be blackened to the point of being unable to secure work; etc. etc.etc.’).
I fear I’ve gone too far down a particular path. I just found the lead male character so loathsome that he is overwhelming my ability to think in a rational and coherent manner. Not loathsome in a ‘bad boys are hot’ way, but loathsome in ‘I’m a shit, a large turd, I know this, my life will always be like this, so I’ll act like it . . . poorly’* way.
‘*’ – even when he tries to act poorly, he is loathsomely rotten at it. The guy is a massive loser . . . who is handsome . . . enough for the lead female character to become tongue tied around him. At least until he opened his mouth and revealed he’s a jackass mcjackass. Whereupon she handily handled him. Handily.
Right, so, horrible loathsome book.
Rating: oh. I did not remember I rated this 1.75 stars until just now. So, apparently that’s the rating I gave. 1.75 stars.
June 10 2018
December 3, 2014
4.5 stars
This is, I believe, Ms 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. There's also the fact that he's a despairing and bitter man, who has lost his way in life – and that he 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. It undoubtedly helps that her narrator in this audiobook version of the story is once again the wonderful Rosalyn Landor, whose portrayal of William is particularly sympathetic and, it has to be said, sexy, his soft and slightly accented speech revealing much about his true nature.
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 still a sight better than most of the other novellas I've read – and many full-length books and audios, too!
This is, I believe, Ms 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. There's also the fact that he's a despairing and bitter man, who has lost his way in life – and that he 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. It undoubtedly helps that her narrator in this audiobook version of the story is once again the wonderful Rosalyn Landor, whose portrayal of William is particularly sympathetic and, it has to be said, sexy, his soft and slightly accented speech revealing much about his true nature.
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 still a sight better than most of the other novellas I've read – and many full-length books and audios, too!
July 17, 2014
Dismal, Depressing, and Absolutely Creepy
Dismal, Depressing, and Absolutely Creepy
Lavinia Spencer discovers that her younger brother has stolen and lost her savings. She has taken over the family business, because her father is ill. The lending library she manages only supports the most meager existence. The theft means no Christmas niceties at all. One of her customers, William Q. White, was in the library when he accidentally overhears the conversation between Lavinia and her brother. This prompts William to take advantage of the situation.
I was so disappointed in this book. I was excited to find a new author. I never dreamed that I would be taken down a path of extreme desperation and poverty, plus have to contend with a very dishonorable "hero". The actions of the hero were absolutely creepy. The fact that Lavinia decided to love him anyway, despite only seeing him a few times in her library, where he refused to speak to her, did not make this plot line any more palatable to me. Courtney Milan can write. I just don't like this "everything is dismal and depressing, so rape and blackmail is okay" storyline, which is wrapped up in one afternoon into wealth and power. Huh? I could have lived much better without this story in my head.
Dismal, Depressing, and Absolutely Creepy
Lavinia Spencer discovers that her younger brother has stolen and lost her savings. She has taken over the family business, because her father is ill. The lending library she manages only supports the most meager existence. The theft means no Christmas niceties at all. One of her customers, William Q. White, was in the library when he accidentally overhears the conversation between Lavinia and her brother. This prompts William to take advantage of the situation.
I was so disappointed in this book. I was excited to find a new author. I never dreamed that I would be taken down a path of extreme desperation and poverty, plus have to contend with a very dishonorable "hero". The actions of the hero were absolutely creepy. The fact that Lavinia decided to love him anyway, despite only seeing him a few times in her library, where he refused to speak to her, did not make this plot line any more palatable to me. Courtney Milan can write. I just don't like this "everything is dismal and depressing, so rape and blackmail is okay" storyline, which is wrapped up in one afternoon into wealth and power. Huh? I could have lived much better without this story in my head.
September 27, 2014
This prequel of a series seems to follow similar pattern as the one from Brothers Sinister: an impoverished girl, a working class young man, one has to convince the other of love or something like that, obstacles and so on. While I really liked The Governess Affair because the characters were great, these two are really bland. Either this was too short to develop their characters, which wouldn't be the case since The Governess Affair is shorter than this, or they are simply not as striking as Hugo Marshall and Serena. That, and certain actions didn't exactly endear them to me.
February 26, 2022
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥
Humor: Just a touch
(These are all personal preference on a scale of 1-5 (yours ratings may vary depending what gives you feels and how you prefer you sex scenes written, etc) except the Steam Scale which follows our chart from The Ton and Tartans Book Club )
Basic plot:
Lavinia runs the family business, a circulating library, pretty much by herself. Her father is ill and her brother is rather young, naive and lacking responsibility. She’s carefully saved most of the year to make this Christmas one to remember, but her brother ruins her plans by losing the money.
William Q White has wanted Lavinia from afar, but he knows he doesn’t have the means to provide a real life for her. He dreams of a night though, and that becomes possible when he overhears a conversation about debts owed.
Give this a try if you want:
- Late Regency (1822)
- Low steam – 1 full scene and 1 short that I didn’t count
- Christmas time novella
- Ditch the nobility – working class hero and heroine
Ages:
- I have the heroine at 19 but don’t have an age for the hero. I’m thinking mid 20s?
My thoughts:
I thought this novella was interesting. I enjoy Milan’s writing, she’s one you get very sucked into her world and just fall in with the characters. She has a way with character depth that I enjoy. I think it’s hard to get that feeling in a novella but I felt like I knew the characters here.
There’s some feelings of dubious consent here with the hero buying the debt and coercing the heroine into a sexual act with him – though it’s really not that simple. I can see some people strongly disliking this hero because of that. I don’t mind stuff like that and overall enjoyed the plot of the book. Especially the twists Milan put on about halfway through the story.
I liked that nothing really went as was expected. I read almost exclusively historical romance so I see similar plot lines a lot and I didn’t find that here.
I’m going to start book 1 of the series soon!
Here’s a few random parts that I wanted to note from the book
Content Warnings:
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥
Humor: Just a touch
(These are all personal preference on a scale of 1-5 (yours ratings may vary depending what gives you feels and how you prefer you sex scenes written, etc) except the Steam Scale which follows our chart from The Ton and Tartans Book Club )
Basic plot:
Lavinia runs the family business, a circulating library, pretty much by herself. Her father is ill and her brother is rather young, naive and lacking responsibility. She’s carefully saved most of the year to make this Christmas one to remember, but her brother ruins her plans by losing the money.
William Q White has wanted Lavinia from afar, but he knows he doesn’t have the means to provide a real life for her. He dreams of a night though, and that becomes possible when he overhears a conversation about debts owed.
Give this a try if you want:
- Late Regency (1822)
- Low steam – 1 full scene and 1 short that I didn’t count
- Christmas time novella
- Ditch the nobility – working class hero and heroine
Ages:
- I have the heroine at 19 but don’t have an age for the hero. I’m thinking mid 20s?
My thoughts:
I thought this novella was interesting. I enjoy Milan’s writing, she’s one you get very sucked into her world and just fall in with the characters. She has a way with character depth that I enjoy. I think it’s hard to get that feeling in a novella but I felt like I knew the characters here.
There’s some feelings of dubious consent here with the hero buying the debt and coercing the heroine into a sexual act with him – though it’s really not that simple. I can see some people strongly disliking this hero because of that. I don’t mind stuff like that and overall enjoyed the plot of the book. Especially the twists Milan put on about halfway through the story.
I liked that nothing really went as was expected. I read almost exclusively historical romance so I see similar plot lines a lot and I didn’t find that here.
I’m going to start book 1 of the series soon!
Here’s a few random parts that I wanted to note from the book
Content Warnings:
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
August 24, 2021
Quizá 2 y medio.
Novela corta de CM, bien escrita, apasionada.
Lo bueno: personajes comunes, nada de lores ni ladies. Candente. La chica la tiene clara.
Lo malo: el chico... Si no fuera por él serían por lo menos 4 estrellas. Pero su actitud... fea. Podría haber actuado de otra forma y que ella lo presionara. Directo al psicólogo. Como mínimo.
Novela corta de CM, bien escrita, apasionada.
Lo bueno: personajes comunes, nada de lores ni ladies. Candente. La chica la tiene clara.
Lo malo: el chico... Si no fuera por él serían por lo menos 4 estrellas. Pero su actitud... fea. Podría haber actuado de otra forma y que ella lo presionara. Directo al psicólogo. Como mínimo.
November 10, 2014
Generally I love what Courtney Milan writes, but WTF is up with this novella?
Hero: I like her, but I’m pretty damn poor and she’ll never consider me so why don’t I spend the last 10 pounds I have so that I can coerce her into bed. Only night and I”m ruining her, but it’ll be worth it.
Heroine: Yeah, so he’s coercing me into bed. But I have the hots for him and really want to, so what they hey. Let’s do it, it’s not coercion if I’m willing even if he’s acting like a douchebag.
So, you lost me. 2.5 on my five star romance scale.
Hero: I like her, but I’m pretty damn poor and she’ll never consider me so why don’t I spend the last 10 pounds I have so that I can coerce her into bed. Only night and I”m ruining her, but it’ll be worth it.
Heroine: Yeah, so he’s coercing me into bed. But I have the hots for him and really want to, so what they hey. Let’s do it, it’s not coercion if I’m willing even if he’s acting like a douchebag.
So, you lost me. 2.5 on my five star romance scale.
December 1, 2015
And last night, I fell asleep with the biggest smile on my face.
“So it’s nonsense, what I owe you. But what you owe me is a tremendous burden, one that can never be repaid? Love is not about accounting. It’s not lines on a ledger. You cannot store up credit and redeem yourself at some later date, not with gifts or deeds or any number of coins, no matter how carefully you bestow them. You repay love with love, William.”
“So it’s nonsense, what I owe you. But what you owe me is a tremendous burden, one that can never be repaid? Love is not about accounting. It’s not lines on a ledger. You cannot store up credit and redeem yourself at some later date, not with gifts or deeds or any number of coins, no matter how carefully you bestow them. You repay love with love, William.”
July 14, 2014
Another fantastic novella from Milan. I've said it before and I'll say it again; her novellas are superb. I often enjoy them more than her full length novels. Perhaps because the tension isn't drawn out quite so far. As with any of Milan's work, the characters in This Wicked Gift are believable and likable, the prose is phenomenal, and the plot is engaging.
October 2, 2015
Skillfully written, as expected :)
But seriously, what the eff was the plot all about? The hero, too poor to take a wife, literally coerces the heroine to his bed. The heroine has too good a head on her shoulders to actually fall for this, but pretends to and sleeps with him anyway.. Is this supposed to negate his selfish intentions and make this romantic?!
But seriously, what the eff was the plot all about? The hero, too poor to take a wife, literally coerces the heroine to his bed. The heroine has too good a head on her shoulders to actually fall for this, but pretends to and sleeps with him anyway.. Is this supposed to negate his selfish intentions and make this romantic?!
August 6, 2019
I applaud the author for trying something different with her main characters in this novella. They live in a Dickensian London where the poor struggle daily and the rich exist only to grind them down further. I think Milan's strength as a Regency writer are that her characters are different from the usual and she makes them come alive for you. Unfortunately here the "hero" is a man I can't respect.
After that I expected to see a story of redemption, which could have been great. However, this hero is severely depressed and spends the first 90% of the book telling himself what a blackguard he is and how he deserves all the nasty things that are happening to him. It was very hard not to agree with that estimation. Add in the fact that the couple decided to have sex before they'd spoken more than two sentences to each other, and there were just too many obstacles in my mind to overcome.
I recommend that you don't read this story unless you're a genuine fan of the author. For a great novella by her with less-than-typical MCs that really works try A Kiss for Midwinter instead.
After that I expected to see a story of redemption, which could have been great. However, this hero is severely depressed and spends the first 90% of the book telling himself what a blackguard he is and how he deserves all the nasty things that are happening to him. It was very hard not to agree with that estimation. Add in the fact that the couple decided to have sex before they'd spoken more than two sentences to each other, and there were just too many obstacles in my mind to overcome.
I recommend that you don't read this story unless you're a genuine fan of the author. For a great novella by her with less-than-typical MCs that really works try A Kiss for Midwinter instead.
April 24, 2016
oh yikes. i understand what milan was going for here? but like. even if it wasn't the ~reality~ william def thought he was coercing lavinia into having sex with him and did it anyways? WHAT THE HELL HERO?
if you can get past that this has some kind things to say about hope and choosing to be a good person no matter your circumstances! but. YIKES
2.5 stars
if you can get past that this has some kind things to say about hope and choosing to be a good person no matter your circumstances! but. YIKES
2.5 stars
October 10, 2020
Lovely Holiday novella by the amazing Courtney Milan. The heroine and hero are working class people, and we see them grapple with some serious ethical and financial issues. I did enjoy it, especially since I knew that in a romance novel, good will prevail and doing the right thing will be rewarded.
September 21, 2024
Both MCs are working class - Lavinia runs a circulating library with her family and William is an accountant for a marquess. I think there could have been one or two more chapters here to help with some character development but otherwise this was a really good novella and I read it in one sitting.
August 10, 2021
2.5 stars
December 22, 2023
I see what other reviewers have issues with, but I truly enjoyed this lovely Christmas historical novella about two working-class people in London. It was deceptively simple, a most of Milan's books are, I was invested the entire way through.
September 15, 2017
I enjoyed this early Milan novella and it made me realize that as I await a new historical romance from her in 2017, I need to read the Carhart books.
The themes Milan explores in This Wicked Gift at times stay a bit too much at the abstract level, and in this respect it's easy to see how much she has grown as a writer over the years. The main idea permeating the story is the hero's self-loathing and anger at his dismal prospects in life given the rigid class hierarchies of London society, and how much William allows his cynicism to inform his pining for Lavinia. As the story begins, Lavinia has taken over maintaining her ill father's book store while William visits it daily, more to take in the sight of his unrequited love for Lavinia though than to find reading material. (Looking back on this story, I kind of wish the art of reading was developed more because I love bookshops as settings.) One day, William just happens to overhear Lavinia's conversation with her brother in which he tries to explain to his sister how he managed to squander the small sum of money Lavinia had managed to save up for Christmas. William's quandary is established from the start: should he use some of his own paltry salary to help Lavinia or should he bargain with her to get her into bed with him instead. He opts for the latter, making him a very unlikely hero for a romance. Lavinia, however, recognizes in her negotiations with William that he has allowed himself to sink into despair and misanthropy, and though she has options other than William's money to get out of the bind she finds herself in, she decides to have sex with William to teach him the valuable lesson that not all things in life have a price tag on them. It's a complicated metaphor that I'm not sure completely works out here, and it's an important one because both characters' integrity depends on reader sympathy and understanding. William is a cad for blackmailing Lavinia, but he's also a victim of other cads who have mistreated him. I'm not sure I completely bought the idea that the love of a good woman saves William, but I do think that Milan's efforts are transparent and I did want to believe that William is redeemed in the end. Given the condensed space to unravel the issues, I wonder if a longer story would have worked better here. I'm curious also to see if William's employer features in the Carhart series too, as I was intrigued by Gareth.
The themes Milan explores in This Wicked Gift at times stay a bit too much at the abstract level, and in this respect it's easy to see how much she has grown as a writer over the years. The main idea permeating the story is the hero's self-loathing and anger at his dismal prospects in life given the rigid class hierarchies of London society, and how much William allows his cynicism to inform his pining for Lavinia. As the story begins, Lavinia has taken over maintaining her ill father's book store while William visits it daily, more to take in the sight of his unrequited love for Lavinia though than to find reading material. (Looking back on this story, I kind of wish the art of reading was developed more because I love bookshops as settings.) One day, William just happens to overhear Lavinia's conversation with her brother in which he tries to explain to his sister how he managed to squander the small sum of money Lavinia had managed to save up for Christmas. William's quandary is established from the start: should he use some of his own paltry salary to help Lavinia or should he bargain with her to get her into bed with him instead. He opts for the latter, making him a very unlikely hero for a romance. Lavinia, however, recognizes in her negotiations with William that he has allowed himself to sink into despair and misanthropy, and though she has options other than William's money to get out of the bind she finds herself in, she decides to have sex with William to teach him the valuable lesson that not all things in life have a price tag on them. It's a complicated metaphor that I'm not sure completely works out here, and it's an important one because both characters' integrity depends on reader sympathy and understanding. William is a cad for blackmailing Lavinia, but he's also a victim of other cads who have mistreated him. I'm not sure I completely bought the idea that the love of a good woman saves William, but I do think that Milan's efforts are transparent and I did want to believe that William is redeemed in the end. Given the condensed space to unravel the issues, I wonder if a longer story would have worked better here. I'm curious also to see if William's employer features in the Carhart series too, as I was intrigued by Gareth.
April 17, 2025
I LOVED this Christmas novella by Courtney Milan. When I read it this holiday season, I knew I wanted to do a longer post because this book had me truly feral, frothing at the mouth, etc., and it’s been a while since I had a book hit quite this hard. Here are a few more reasons I loved this book:
1) The very lower middle class Regency milieu it depicts. These characters are NOT rich and while they gain more material comfort by the time we reach the epilogue, they start out from a very modest place and it’s a very historically accurate depiction of this reality. We don’t see a lot of heroes in historical romance who have real financial constraints on them and I LOVE when an author captures a working-class or middle-class hero of this period with care and precision. The fact that William is not a rich man just makes this so much hotter—for him, the ten pounds he spends to buy Lavinia’s debt is EVERYTHING but that’s how badly he wants her.
2) The Christmas Carol vibes. It would be wrong to say that this book is A Christmas Carol retelling but it’s just short of that. The milieu of this novella (see above) is very much that of A Christmas Carol and William feel like a young Scrooge. It’s heartwarming in the same way too. It just hits all the right winter/Christmas notes.
3) The twist. When Lavinia reveals that she never had to sleep with William at all to pay the debt AFTER she has done so….I want more table turning of this variety in historical romances. It worked so well and made clear that she always had control of her sexuality and had agency. It was such a great flipping of the scripts re the themes of patriarchy, capitalism, and power we so often see in historical romance.
4) It’s just so well-written. Ofc, this is Courtney Milan so what do you expect, but I was really blown away by this one.
Anyway, I completely recommend THIS WICKED GIFT if you’ve never read it. One of my new all-time favorites!!
1) The very lower middle class Regency milieu it depicts. These characters are NOT rich and while they gain more material comfort by the time we reach the epilogue, they start out from a very modest place and it’s a very historically accurate depiction of this reality. We don’t see a lot of heroes in historical romance who have real financial constraints on them and I LOVE when an author captures a working-class or middle-class hero of this period with care and precision. The fact that William is not a rich man just makes this so much hotter—for him, the ten pounds he spends to buy Lavinia’s debt is EVERYTHING but that’s how badly he wants her.
2) The Christmas Carol vibes. It would be wrong to say that this book is A Christmas Carol retelling but it’s just short of that. The milieu of this novella (see above) is very much that of A Christmas Carol and William feel like a young Scrooge. It’s heartwarming in the same way too. It just hits all the right winter/Christmas notes.
3) The twist. When Lavinia reveals that she never had to sleep with William at all to pay the debt AFTER she has done so….I want more table turning of this variety in historical romances. It worked so well and made clear that she always had control of her sexuality and had agency. It was such a great flipping of the scripts re the themes of patriarchy, capitalism, and power we so often see in historical romance.
4) It’s just so well-written. Ofc, this is Courtney Milan so what do you expect, but I was really blown away by this one.
Anyway, I completely recommend THIS WICKED GIFT if you’ve never read it. One of my new all-time favorites!!
October 27, 2017
This Wicked Gift (A Carhart Series Novella) (Entangled Edge) - Courtney Milan 7 January, 2017
It's a snowday, which is only a delight on schooldays, not on weekends, which are properly devoted to doing a vast number of things. Not me, I'm perfectly happy to spend a day reading and napping with cats. But for two highschool students who have active social and extracurricular lives, there is consternation. All day long.
And then, after supper, there was terrific drama: a loud noise, cats running, blood on the floor. It was necessary to catch the cat, and hold him still, and find a clean washcloth, and run warm water on it, and try to get him to hold still by constant bribes of cat treats, and try and locate the source of the blood, and try to put a spot of antibiotic ointment on a twenty-two pound cat, and then trying to figure out a way to bandage the tail, which clearly wasn't bothering the cat, but was leaving tiny blood smears every where.
Fortunately Calder did not lose half his tail in a violent accident, just the merest square centimeter of skin and fur from the pointy tip. It's only funny if he's fine. But now I have a moment of quiet and I don't have the energy to hunt down something new. So this is good.
10 July, 2015
It's a snowday, which is only a delight on schooldays, not on weekends, which are properly devoted to doing a vast number of things. Not me, I'm perfectly happy to spend a day reading and napping with cats. But for two highschool students who have active social and extracurricular lives, there is consternation. All day long.
And then, after supper, there was terrific drama: a loud noise, cats running, blood on the floor. It was necessary to catch the cat, and hold him still, and find a clean washcloth, and run warm water on it, and try to get him to hold still by constant bribes of cat treats, and try and locate the source of the blood, and try to put a spot of antibiotic ointment on a twenty-two pound cat, and then trying to figure out a way to bandage the tail, which clearly wasn't bothering the cat, but was leaving tiny blood smears every where.
Fortunately Calder did not lose half his tail in a violent accident, just the merest square centimeter of skin and fur from the pointy tip. It's only funny if he's fine. But now I have a moment of quiet and I don't have the energy to hunt down something new. So this is good.
10 July, 2015
December 31, 2020
Some good Milan hallmarks are evident here. Unique characters with pain and angst that is piercing, heroine agency, family connections enough to make you weep-and of course, some of the lines to make you swoon
But..this is missing the polish, spark. And it’s a tough read. It’s...just a tough read and the hero is willing to coerce the heroine-to the point of him believing she wouldn’t have much of a choice, and eh...it isn’t executed the best. She has better heroes who are cowards. But novellas.
Lavinia is another great heroine for the collection-I think with a little more flesh this could have been something but it just wasn’t there for me, only echoes of the writer she’s become.
But..this is missing the polish, spark. And it’s a tough read. It’s...just a tough read and the hero is willing to coerce the heroine-to the point of him believing she wouldn’t have much of a choice, and eh...it isn’t executed the best. She has better heroes who are cowards. But novellas.
Lavinia is another great heroine for the collection-I think with a little more flesh this could have been something but it just wasn’t there for me, only echoes of the writer she’s become.
November 4, 2017
Cute little novella. The H/h are both poverty stricken and just hanging on to respectability. Her family owns a lending library and the hero works as a clerk for the Marquess of Blakely. He is pretty immature and bitter at the beginning - despondent actually. He makes some questionable choices. Lavinia helps him to be a better person; William in turn helps Lavinia's rather spoiled little brother see that he should help his sister more. The story ends with William getting a job with the Marquess's grandson that will allow him to support a family, so a true HEA.
December 30, 2019
I did not like this. Sure, it follows the classic romance novel formula and ends happily, but the story itself is pretty...icky. Particularly the male protagonist. He’s OBSESSED with virginity as a thing that can be “taken” from a woman, and simultaneously coerces a woman into a sexual relationship. Oh, it turns out that she wasn’t ACTUALLY forced, but he doesn’t understand that and is content to force her anyway. In the end, we’re supposed to understand his actions and pity him for his low self-esteem? Nah, bro.
November 1, 2019
Refreshingly non-aristocratic characters: William is a clerk and Lavinia runs a lending library for her ill father. At first it seems money is the big barrier to their romance, but this is Courtney Milan so even in a short novella we dive deeper.
October 12, 2018
Any Courtney Milan is a good Courtney Milan.
January 5, 2020
Quite an intriguing novella with an unusual pair but very satisfying! Now I want to read the rest of the books in the series!
January 5, 2018
This one was cute, but I thought the beginning extremely unrealistic. By the end, however, I was cheering William on as he learned to believe in himself and got himself a job in the process. Looking forward to reading the rest of this series.
September 2, 2024
When Lavinia’s family bookshop, and little brother, are in trouble, she goes to a regular customers and makes an arrangement.
This novella was Milan’s debut book in 2009.
You get glimpses of the power house she is now plus the MCs are both working class and Milan excels here.
The connection between the MCs wasn’t totally realized and the MMC is wildly unlikeable but I’m certain William walked so Hugo Marshall could run.
Also, this book is hot, and Lavinia (FMC) has absolutely zero not like the others girls energy despite being totally original.
The MMC believes he coerces the FMC into sex. She’s actually doing it quite willingly but it left a bad taste in my mouth.
This novella was Milan’s debut book in 2009.
You get glimpses of the power house she is now plus the MCs are both working class and Milan excels here.
The connection between the MCs wasn’t totally realized and the MMC is wildly unlikeable but I’m certain William walked so Hugo Marshall could run.
Also, this book is hot, and Lavinia (FMC) has absolutely zero not like the others girls energy despite being totally original.
The MMC believes he coerces the FMC into sex. She’s actually doing it quite willingly but it left a bad taste in my mouth.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 6, 2023
Milan had not yet found her mature author's voice when she wrote this, but it's still good. For most other authors it would be great, but Milan gets much better. As with Proof by Seduction, the male lead in this book is just too much of a dick at the beginning to get me fully engaged.
October 29, 2024
1.5/5
Incredibly disappointing and far below the standard set by Milan in her other books and novellas. Giving White a backstory was intriguing and Lavinia managed to come alive in just a few pages. That said, the consent issue is massive and kinda ruins William White as a character. One and a half stars because I liked the sibling relationship and Lavinia. The rest is… dross.
Incredibly disappointing and far below the standard set by Milan in her other books and novellas. Giving White a backstory was intriguing and Lavinia managed to come alive in just a few pages. That said, the consent issue is massive and kinda ruins William White as a character. One and a half stars because I liked the sibling relationship and Lavinia. The rest is… dross.
September 17, 2014
From most other authors, I doubt I would have been able to enjoy this story. In fact, part of me finished it feeling like I really should have disliked it. After all, the hero was willing to essentially force himself on the heroine. It wasn’t actually rape; and despite his intentions, it wasn’t even extortion. But the point is, he was willing to do it and that’s a pretty substantial thing to overcome.
I suppose I should start at the beginning. Lavina runs her father’s bookshop now that he is ill and her mother has passed away. Money is tight and she must scrimp and save every penny for even the smallest luxuries. So when her immature and self-centered younger brother blows their savings on a stupid scheme, things look pretty bleak. That’s where William comes in.
William White barely has two pennies to rub together. He lives on the pittance that he makes as a clerk; that and the hope that one day he’ll get the inheritance promised him –and one day, he’ll know Lavina’s kiss. When he hears of her predicament, he figures he can finally get one of the two things he has wished for. Using what little money he has, he buys her brother’s debt and offers her an indecent proposal to forgive the note.
Unbeknownst to William, Lavina does have other options, but she gives in to his demands. She has always wanted him too –and she wants to teach him about the value of love given freely. Here’s the thing. William thought he was taking her against her will. I have big issues with non-consent and even though it technically wasn’t, that’s a pretty big offense to forgive of the hero. And yet, I did. I don’t feel very evolved about it. And some readers may be really turned off. But I still enjoyed the story. Maybe it was because we started from Lavina’s perspective and I felt how she pined for him. Maybe it was because William loathed himself enough for the both of us. Either way, I found myself rooting for them to be together.
As always, Courtney Milan draws me into her characters and their circumstance. And with this enhanced edition novella, I enjoyed getting a little extra perspective on her thought process. Overall, I liked this one, but I think others make take issue with the hero’s actions, regardless of his remorse.
Rating: B
*ARC provided by author for review
I suppose I should start at the beginning. Lavina runs her father’s bookshop now that he is ill and her mother has passed away. Money is tight and she must scrimp and save every penny for even the smallest luxuries. So when her immature and self-centered younger brother blows their savings on a stupid scheme, things look pretty bleak. That’s where William comes in.
William White barely has two pennies to rub together. He lives on the pittance that he makes as a clerk; that and the hope that one day he’ll get the inheritance promised him –and one day, he’ll know Lavina’s kiss. When he hears of her predicament, he figures he can finally get one of the two things he has wished for. Using what little money he has, he buys her brother’s debt and offers her an indecent proposal to forgive the note.
Unbeknownst to William, Lavina does have other options, but she gives in to his demands. She has always wanted him too –and she wants to teach him about the value of love given freely. Here’s the thing. William thought he was taking her against her will. I have big issues with non-consent and even though it technically wasn’t, that’s a pretty big offense to forgive of the hero. And yet, I did. I don’t feel very evolved about it. And some readers may be really turned off. But I still enjoyed the story. Maybe it was because we started from Lavina’s perspective and I felt how she pined for him. Maybe it was because William loathed himself enough for the both of us. Either way, I found myself rooting for them to be together.
As always, Courtney Milan draws me into her characters and their circumstance. And with this enhanced edition novella, I enjoyed getting a little extra perspective on her thought process. Overall, I liked this one, but I think others make take issue with the hero’s actions, regardless of his remorse.
Rating: B
*ARC provided by author for review
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