Review: When Strangers Meet by Mary Jo Putney (part of A Yuletide Kiss anthology)

               

Print Length: 336 total pages

Publisher: Kensington Books (September 28, 2021)

From Goodreads.com: Kate McLeod is shocked to find that a fellow guest in the snowbound inn is the dashing sea captain who may or may not be her husband. Captain Ramesh Langdon barely remembers that night in Bombay, but the desire they discover now will be impossible to forget, or to ignore...

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My Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

The final novella in the A Yuletide Kiss anthology was the hardest for me to get into and enjoy. While it was a well-written story some of it was just too "out there" to be believable. I wish there had been more between Kate and Daniel (I have no idea who the synopsis is referring to as the Hero of this was named Daniel Farrington who was actually a newly inherited Lord). On their own they seemed interesting characters, but very one-dimensional as we were missing a lot of important background information on them. 

I also found it a bit unbelievable that Kate could have ever seriously considered Edmund as a potential second husband when they too knew so little about each other (for example how did he not know she intended to keep working once they married? How did she not know he didn't like animals?). It was little things like this that gave me pause.  I also wish that we would have gotten an epilogue or something showing the lovers a year or two down the road. To see how they navigated their marriage now that they decided to actually live as man and wife. 

Sadly, as this was the third novella it was also hit with the same curse as the second; the re-telling of scenes we have already seen. Now while I understand why that was done (to show the same scene from the perspective of the new characters), I feel like it would have been a better use of the author's time to give us more private moments between the characters to make their love story seem more believable. 

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

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When Strangers Meet is available from Amazon.com as part of A Yuletide Kiss Anthology