The Governess Affair (Courtney Milan, The Brothers Sinister Prequel Novella)

4 out of 5 stars

Cut to the Chase:

I'm not normally a fan of novellas (especially historical romance novellas).  This one is... good. It's not as good as her longer works, certainly, and the plot isn't nearly as thoroughly developed... but then it's not meant to be. It's a cheaper, shorter version of some excellent Milan works, and serves as a workable introduction to her newest series.

Greater Detail: 

It's the tale of the former pugilist and the former governess...

She is one of two sisters -- the dreamer -- who's always wanted to make her own way, support herself, and eventually grow lavender, apply it to soap, and sell it for profit... mostly so that she can support herself, and live a quiet, peaceful life

Unfortunately, during one of her jobs (early on, before her employers know her too well), a visiting duke visits her room and rapes her (that's what it is, really, even though she struggles with the fact that she didn't scream, didn't truly tell him to stop... you can read the details in the book). She becomes pregnant with his child, and now she feels as though she has no choice but to fight for her unborn child.

What stands between her and money, recognition, everything she would want for her future child is not only the duke's insistence that he did nothing wrong and that this is nothing more than an employee dispute, but also, Hugo, a former boxer, 14th child of a coal miner, who dreams of winning 500 pounds by keeping the duke afloat.

It's a bit of a setup, but once you get into it (and with Milan's fluid writing style, that's not too hard) it's a nice little story. 

As a novella, the characters and conflicts really aren't as well developed as they could be, and there are times when things feel as though they're resolved a little too easily, but otherwise, especially for a novella, it's quite good, and definitely whet my appetite for the rest of the series.

Comparisons to Other Authors:

The fully fleshed out characters make me think of the better of Lisa Kleypas’s, Julia Quinn’s or Sherry Thomas’s works. Milan has a heck of a vocabulary on her, and everything is just very smoothly written (like Lisa Kleypas in terms of well drawn characters, but a little less hit-me-with-a-thesaurus than Sherry Thomas). Sensuality-wise, she’s definitely below Stephanie Laurens and probably more similar to Julia Quinn. Humor-wise, I’d say she’s somewhere along the lines of a Tessa Dare (but a little more serious). And drama-wise, she has setups that remind me of Kat Martin or Amanda Quick, but these resolve in a less-dramatic-and-more-believably layered way. My favorite is still Unclaimed, followed by Unveiled, Unraveled, and then this one. The only Milan I would avoid is probably Unlocked (another novella, and not as good of one).