Millie Jenkins's family is thrilled to think she might gain prestige and a bigger salary as lady's maid to the newly engaged Lady Cynthia, but Millie can't help feeling restless. Though she knows it's a good opportunity, when her old friend Justin turns up, now a handsome navy captain, Millie's heart is torn.
This is the charming, sweet sequel to The Lady's Choice, full of fun and the promise of adventure.
The Review:
Millie and Justin were childhood friends, but now they're all grown up and she is a lady's maid, while he is a captain. Reunited as adults, their childhood friendship might be something more, but the divide of their new positions makes romance seem unlikely.
This is a short, sweet romance that follows The Lady's Choice, but it can definitely be read as a standalone. The Lady’s Maid follows Millie and Justin as they reconnect after years apart. We get a lot of background at the beginning, introducing us to Millie’s childhood and snippets of her mischievous friendship with Justin. This is cute background that adds some nice color, but given the brevity of the story, I think it might have been better to start at the point when they meet again as adults – from this point the novella really takes off and it’s pretty adorable really!
Millie is a lady’s maid, but she’s long been a reader and a dreamer. She’s a friend of her lady, Cynthia, who has given her a great new opportunity, but Millie has always wanted more – to be a pirate, or at least see the world. She knows her dreams are impossible, though, as her family needs the security of her position. Justin has returned home for a visit from being a ship’s captain. He’s living the life Millie longs for and he wants a wife to bring along for the ride. So they are pretty much the perfect potential couple.
Pirate dreams aside, it’s the remnant cheekiness from Millie and Justin’s childhood friendship that makes their romance super cute. They have some adorable moments together mixed in with a developing, much more adult, steaminess.
The conflict for these two comes from Millie’s insecurity around her class divide from Justin, and her fears that he is after a higher class of woman, but it’s not really a high conflict story. This is the type of novella I’d recommend for when you need a quick smile from falling in love with characters who are perfect for each other from the start.
The Lady’s Maid by Celia Swift is a historical romance, released December 29 2013.
Book Links: Amazon | Amazon UK | Goodreads | Author Site
