Lovely and hot historical novella about a vicar who came to his profession rather unexpectedly and a fallen woman. I wished we would have seen more of how they actually fell in love with each other. They felt instantly lust for each other but the other part was a bit missing for me. I really loved Walther. He was such a fresh breath of air who found his calling with his new profession. Loved seeing his journey!

Favourite quote:

In fact, if it where not for his black coat and necktie, she would not for a moment have believed he was a man of the cloth. He most certainly should not be a man in clothes.

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This is one of those reads where the author's voice made me want to overlook its flaws. Looking at the book now, it's nothing particularly fresh and/or original. She even tosses in a "He wore his hair longer than was currently fashionable," which, now that I've pointed this out, you will notice is in nearly every historical romance ever. While I was reading it, however, I didn't want to put the damn thing down. Something about the characters had me dying to know what happened next. I'd call this somewhere between a three and a four, since the ending is way too neat, but I'll round up. ( )

I won a copy of this from Jackie Barbosa on Twitter...

Many historical romances have a corrupt vicar, usually a man who was the third son and had no other means of income. Not being a religious person at all, I've always been intrigued but that type of character. How must it have been for a person who doesn't have the desire or beliefs for such a position to have no other option to be be a vicar? It's not something I can imagine handling well myself, so it was interesting reading about Walter, a decent man who's making the best of his life as a vicar. And I'm a fan of the "fallen woman" trope, so this story was right up my alley.

Artemesia was a great character. Like Walter, she made the best of a bad situation with limited options. After having a (stillborn) child out of wedlock, there was no hope of her marrying, so she went to London and became a courtesan. When she goes back to care for her father, she has enough money of her own to live independently. She's still a pariah in her town, but she deals with it.

My one big complaint about this story is when Walter and Artemesia meet. Walter almost immediate says, "I want you," and while I, the reader, have enough of his POV to know his intentions, I felt that Artemesia should have been put off. That's the kind of behavior I'd expect of the stereotypical corrupt vicar, you know?

Other than that, I really like the way the relationship developed, and I believed that they could make it in the end, though the resolution was a little to easy for my tastes. But it's a short story, so that's understandable.

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