Review: Mary's Christmas Knight (A Rougemont Novella) by Moriah Densley

Print Length: 74 pages

Publisher: esKape Press (November 6, 2013)

From Goodreads.com: Could a rogue be her knight in shining armor?

Mary Cavendish’s corset is already too tight. All the lovely Christmas food is tempting her, and that’s bad news for her dream of attracting a “knight on a white charger” — not that volunteering at the parish hospital is how she expects to meet him. Enter a mysterious Christmas Eve patient, who is none other than the famous Shakespearean actor Sir Wesley Samuel Darcy. Mary finds him arrogant, too forward… and maddeningly handsome.

When Mary learns Sir Wesley has been invited to spend Christmas with her family at Rougemont, she vows to resist the charming London rogue. Wesley thinks finding the perfect present for Miss Cavendish will tempt her — she’s not as prim as she pretends to be. Mary turned down six proposals last Season, and she’s not about to give in to a rake. But if Mary can’t resist the sugarplums, how can she resist the dashing Sir Wesley?

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 My Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

I have so many feelings about this novella that I hardly know where to begin this review! 

To begin with, I enjoy the works of Ms. Densley. Her Rougemont novel Song for Sophia is one of my favorites, and I was thrilled to see some of the characters from there appear in this one as well. 

I immediately felt a connection with Mary. She's a nurse, helping to care for sick and injured people, and you can immediately tell that she cares deeply about the people she comes into contact with. She sings for a dying man, even though she thinks her voice is insufficient. She sutures a mans wounds even when the man is being insufferable. I wanted to know everything about her, how she was, what made her tick, etc. 

Mary is also heavily self-conscious about her body. And while some people may not agree with a character with such a series complex, I found it refreshing. No one is perfect, every body is different. And no, I may not agree with a young woman thinking herself too "heavy", but I do agree with that being an issue facing many women, even today, and I while I appreciate Sir Wesley not seeing her that way, I wish it would have been addressed. I wish Mary could have seen herself the way he saw her, or if he had at least brought it to her attention. 

However, I would not call this a novella. I would call it a "teaser" or a "jumping off point". There were so many details that I felt were left out. To start with, even being billed as a novella, this left me with too many unanswered questions. What was Sir Wesley like before his fiance' died? How did he cope with her death? What made him propose to Mary after only knowing her for a couple of days? Why did Mary turn down six different marriage proposals during the last season? There were so many things that could have been expanded on, that I felt the story was missing a lot of good detail.

 The ending wasn't even much of an ending, leaving his proposal (as quick as it came), unanswered. I was taken by surprise when the book came to an abrupt ending the way that it did. 

Thankfully, Ms. Densely will be giving these two their own story entitled Married Quite Contrary, which I can't wait to read! I need to know what happens between these two! 

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 Mary's Christmas Knight (A Rougemont Novella) is available from Amazon.com