Unlocked by Courtney Milan
My rating: 5 of 5 flames
—SPOILER FREE—
I first heard about this book on twitter. Jane Litte (yes, THE Jane, the one from Dear Author) was saying how wonderful it was. And as I hustled over to allromanceebooks.com to buy it, Jane did the coolest thing ever-she bought 20 copies of the ebook and gifted it to the first 20 responders from twitter. I was lucky enough to be one of those 20.
That being said, Courtney Milan is a new author to me. With the cruel actions of the hero, I honestly thought he’d be hard to like, but Courtney Milan made a believer out of me rather quickly.
The hero, Evan, was a jerk to the heroine, Elaine, during her coming out. He was the typical little boy who pulled the pigtails of the pretty girl he liked. But with him being 19, and Elaine being 17, he was much crueler than just tugging her hair. By page 13 I had tears in my eyes for what had happened to Elaine. Lady Elaine is gorgeous. But, Elaine has a loud laugh. The kind of laugh that reminds me of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Loud, vivacious, and maybe even a snort. Evan began with the laugh. And it spiraled out of control from there. She was taunted and made fun of by everyone. Everyone. She gradually withdrew into herself. And ten years later, when Evan returns from mountaineering on the Continent, he tries to apologize. Watching him gain her trust, watching him teach her to hold her head high, watching her shed the wallflower label with the grace of a ballerina, it was beautiful.
This novella will not be my last by her. I’ve already checked out her backlist and will be purchasing in a bit.
Anyone who loves a good wallflower romance will love this one.
Anyone who loves to see the hero humbled by love, will want to read this.
Anyone who wants a book that runs the gamut of emotions, will enjoy this book.
And anyone who loves romance will love this book.
How can you not?
It’s awesome that you won this! CM is a go-to author for me when I want a good Historical book. I adore her writing. Great review. You will love her backlist just as much!!
-Selena Mc
Thanks Selena 🙂 I’ve got a couple of her books loaded up on my Nook and ready to go