An Autumn Kiss (Timeless Victorian Collection #7)

The latest Timeless Victorian Collection anthology includes “The Plucky Miss Ruth” in which Miss Ruth Hughes decides her life is stuck in a time loop and only by helping her cousin reunite with her soulmate - with the aid of the handsome Lord Lambert - can the loop end. In “Mr. Dowling’s Remedy”, an heiress is sent to an asylum by her stepfather. At the same time, Crandall Dowling, a medical student, is also sent to the asylum when he develops uncontrollable and shocking ticks. Leaving the asylum and regaining control of their lives seems impossible, or is it? Finally, in “A Railway Through the Roses”, Mr. Adrian Everard is desperate to keep his father’s factory open, but he lacks funds and the railway he needs to build requires cutting through his best friend’s garden. Lady Anne Baxter knows what Adrian wants and why, but even if he won’t ever look at her as more than a rich friend, she certainly won’t give him away to just anyone!

 

A marvelous collection of stories, each novella has a complete story with interesting characters with the most vivid being the second story, “Mr. Dowling’s Remedy” which melds romance with hints of the horrors of being consigned to an asylum in such a dramatic way that the reader will be on edge to discover how the problems are resolved. The emotions in all three stories tug on the heartstrings but also have moments of humor, particularly in “The Plucky Miss Ruth”. While none of the stories have time to develop much depth, each brings the characters together in the kind of relationships that speaks to happily ever afters. Readers looking for uncommon romantic beginnings and lives outside the ballrooms of the Victorian era will find this collection to be a worthwhile treat!

 

Sarah E Bradley