Moonlight by Carolyn Jewel

Moonlight (novella)

A free installment

Carolyn Jewel

Historical Romance

Published in 2011

H/h - Alec Fall, the Earl of Dane/Philippa (?)

Setting: Surrey, 1815.

Read in July, 2011.

My rating: 3 out of 5

                                                       [spoiler alert]

The free installment “Moonlight” talks about incidents on one evening. It was short of course but I felt disappointed and had questions popping up about things, which is why I’m giving it a 3 star.

Alec, the Earl of Dane has just come to his title and his longtime family friend, Philippa is in charge of the recent party he’s thrown in his country house. He sees her and kept thinking of their acquaintance so far, in which their past comes out. Philippa is 6 yrs older than him and a widow. They’d known each-other for forever but never once, there had been a whisper of passion between them. This fact kinda made the whole premise a bit unbelievable for me; that in just one evening, suddenly they want each-other and jumps into bed together? I wasn’t convinced that it was love. It is very plausible to feel ‘lust’ for one evening but love? Don’t think so. She even thought of him as what, a younger brother? :/ Anyway, back to the story, the servants were cleaning away all the remnants of the party that was held that evening and dousing the lights when Alec takes Philippa on the terrace and talks to her. This leads to the discussion of her upcoming marriage to a priggish Captain. And, then Alec starts touching her as he suddenly realizes he wants her more than just a friend, doesn’t matter she’s older and a widow. Philippa was also confused of what to do. But, it all gets sorted out soon with a hot love scene and ends with Alec asking her to marry him (I approve of his method wholeheartedly though! ;) ).

“Moonlight” is a free novella with 5 chapters and one love scene. It can be read at/downloaded from Carolyn Jewel’s website.

This novella is also available in The Mammoth Book of Regency Romance.