{"id":22565,"date":"2023-11-30T18:22:22","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T23:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=22565"},"modified":"2025-10-01T17:39:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T21:39:39","slug":"a-kiss-for-midwinter-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22565","title":{"rendered":"A Kiss for Midwinter"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Kiss for Midwinter<\/em><\/a> (2012) Courtney Milan<\/a> (Brothers Sinister)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Set in England in 1864<\/p>\n

Jonas Grantham worked hard to rise above his beginnings and to become a doctor.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d been seduced by the stories\u2014the stories of John Snow saving hundreds of lives by careful observation, of men who noticed the world around them and cared and thought, men who set aside irrationality in favor of cures supported by statistical research.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before leavings for medical school Jonas followed to town doctor on his rounds to gain experience and because the doctor promised Jonas his practice when he retired.<\/p>\n

Lydia was 15 when she was seduced by a man who swore he would marry her. She was 15 when she became pregnant and didn’t understand what was happening. The doctor’s advice was criminal, but Jonas didn’t know enough to speak up.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, Doctor,\u201d the father repeated, \u201cwhat is to be done with my daughter? She is\u2026she is only fifteen.\u201d <\/p>\n

Parwine looked the girl up and down. \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d he finally said, in his quiet, gentle voice. \u201cTreat her with Christian kindness. Now that you know what she is, quietly put her away.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sometimes when I’m in a reading rut, novellas are helpeful, because they aren’t a huge commitment, and the good ones are tightly written giving you the store in half (or fewer) of the pages of a novel.<\/p>\n

This story does so much in so very few pages.<\/p>\n

I adore Lydia’s father, who has a tremendous presence in just a few appearances.<\/p>\n

One of Lydia\u2019s first memories was playing on the floor of her father\u2019s study. Her nurse had darted in, grabbing her up with a flood of apologies and a scold for Lydia. <\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t you see your father\u2019s busy?\u201d she\u2019d remonstrated. <\/p>\n

But her father had simply shrugged. \u201cIf you take her away every time I\u2019m busy,\u201d he\u2019d said placidly, \u201cI\u2019ll never see her. She can stay.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But it also bluntly shows you what like was life for women in the Victorian Era (and before).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stuff that babes are made of comes from your own body, Mrs. Hall.\u201d He straightened and put away his stethoscope. \u201cIf the babe needs the material of bones, it comes from you. If it needs the material of skin, it comes from you. There\u2019s a reason you\u2019re losing your teeth, Mrs. Hall.\u201d <\/p>\n

She looked away. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to take a rest from bearing children. This babe likely won\u2019t kill you. The next one might.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the story also has medical history (Snow, Semmelweiss, germ theory) a strained parent-child relationship, and love.<\/p>\n

I adore Lydia and I love this story.<\/p>\n

Publisher: Courtney Milan<\/p>\n

Rating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Kiss for Midwinter (2012) Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister) Set in England in 1864 Jonas Grantham worked hard to rise above his beginnings and to become a doctor. He\u2019d been seduced by the stories\u2014the stories of John Snow saving hundreds of lives by careful observation, of men who noticed the world around them and cared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,30,292,33,207,196,742,41,26,56],"tags":[50,719,128,738,729,607,557],"class_list":["post-22565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-10","category-british","category-ebook","category-historical","category-mental-health-rep","category-novella","category-physical-health","category-reread","category-romance","category-sexual-content","tag-boinking","tag-brothers-sinister","tag-courtney-milan","tag-holiday","tag-industrial-revolution","tag-miscarriage","tag-victorian"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-5RX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24337,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24337","url_meta":{"origin":22565,"position":0},"title":"A Kiss for Midwinter","author":"Michelle","date":"March 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A Kiss for Midwinter (2012) Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister #1.5) Leicester, England 1864 This is one my my favorite historical novellas. He hadn\u2019t chosen to become a doctor so that he could foretell the death of children. He\u2019d been seduced by the stories\u2014the stories of John Snow saving hundreds of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Kiss for Midwinter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/A-Kiss-for-Midwinter.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12760,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12760","url_meta":{"origin":22565,"position":1},"title":"A Kiss for Midwinter","author":"Michelle","date":"April 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A Kiss for Midwinter (2012) Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister) Set in England in 1863 I re-read the previous book in this series because I was wanting to re-read this story. Dr Jonas Grantham wanted more than anything to become a doctor. Right before he left for medical school, he followed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Kiss for Midwinter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/A-Kiss-for-Midwinter-e1511012149581.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22696,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22696","url_meta":{"origin":22565,"position":2},"title":"A Kiss for Midwinter","author":"Michelle","date":"January 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A Kiss for Midwinter (2012) Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister) Set in England in 1862 He hadn\u2019t chosen to become a doctor so that he could foretell the death of children. He\u2019d been seduced by the stories\u2014the stories of John Snow saving hundreds of lives by careful observation, of men who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Kiss for Midwinter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/A-Kiss-for-Midwinter-e1511012149581.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5696,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5696","url_meta":{"origin":22565,"position":3},"title":"A Kiss for Midwinter","author":"Michelle","date":"February 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A Kiss for Midwinter (2012) Courtney Milan Set in England in 1863. Jonas Grantham is a doctor--it has been his dream. And once he became a doctor, he vowed never to allow anyone to act against his principles as he did when a doctor he was following all but attempted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A-Kiss-for-Midwinter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/A-Kiss-for-Midwinter.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9181,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9181","url_meta":{"origin":22565,"position":4},"title":"A Kiss for Midwinter","author":"Michelle","date":"August 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A Kiss for Midwinter (2012) Courtney Milan Set in England in 1863. Lydia was a secondary character in The Duchess War and this is her story--how she found true love despite her past. Dr Grantham also appeared in The Duchess War, although far less than Lydia, but he is still\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/A-Kiss-for-Midwinter.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24331,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24331","url_meta":{"origin":22565,"position":5},"title":"The Duchess War","author":"Michelle","date":"March 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Duchess War (2012) Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister #1) Set in Leicester, England in 1863 \u201cYour Grace,\u201d Stevens finally said, \u201cyour concern does you justice.\u201d The man\u2019s toad-eating did him none. Robert met Stevens\u2019s eyes. \u201cNo, it doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s called basic human decency, and I deserve no credit for doing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Duchess War","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Duchess-War.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}