Mary Balogh is one of my favourite authors. While I enjoyed 'A Handful of Gold' and Nicola Cornick's 'The Season for Suitors', my favourite piece was Courtney Milan's 'This Wicked Gift'. Milan succeeded in painting interesting, sympathetic working-class characters -- a refreshing change from the usual historical romances! The story was well paced and written with feeling and intelligence. Am looking forward to reading more of her work! ( )

This is an anthology of regency romance stories with a Christmas theme.

The first two stories, A Handful of Gold, by Mary Balogh, and The Season for Suitors, by Nicola Cornick, have been published before. They are good, solid stories from well-established authors, neither brilliant nor disappointing.

The third story, This Wicked Wish, by Courtney Milan is not what I was expecting. I found it to be very well-written and complex, without being unnecessarily complicated. The first thing I did when I finished it was to check to see if there were more works by Milan available. I found only a novel (Proof by Seduction) coming out in the spring, so this seems to be her debut. If this is where she starts out, I cannot wait to see what happens when she has a few more years of experience under her belt. To say I am very much looking forward to reading the upcoming novel (and anything else she writes) is an understatement. ( )