Bath, Christmas Eve, 1812. Twelve days. Twelve gentlemen. One wager Clara Bellamy is determined to win.
At three-and-twenty, Clara Bellamy knows precisely what she wants in a husband. Unfortunately, she has yet to meet a gentleman who comes remotely close—and she has become rather good at explaining why.
When an evening of Christmas decorating turns into a spirited family debate about her impossible standards, Clara makes a rash declaration: she could meet every eligible gentleman in Bath and know at once whether he suited her. Her youngest brother proposes a wager. Twelve gentlemen, one for each of the twelve days of Christmas. If she gives every one a fair chance and finds none worth pursuing, her family must leave her romantic prospects alone for the rest of the season.
There is just one complication.
Thomas Pembroke, her brother's oldest friend, has known Clara for ten years. He knows her opinions, her temper, her four impossible brothers, and precisely how to get under her skin. And now, by Clara's own invitation, he has been appointed judge of whether she has given each suitor a fair hearing.
Between Christmas dinners, crowded assembly rooms, questionable courtships, and a household quite incapable of minding its own business, Clara discovers that some gentlemen are rather more interesting than she first supposed.
And that the one gentleman who knows her best may be the one she has never thought to consider at all.
A warm, witty, closed-door Regency Christmas romance about friendship, family, falling in love, and the trouble with knowing one's own mind.
The Twelve Suitors of Christmas is a standalone novella in The Improprieties of Bath series.
