Review: A Delightful Sweet Romance Novella
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 23, 2013
A Viennese Christmas is a sweet romance in novella form. Heroine Amanda Kranz is alone in Vienna where she works at the UN as a sign language interpreter. Her life there is solitary until she meets another American, Henry Jager, an attractive young man who also works for the UN. Sparks fly between them, and they happily spend some time together, chatting, exploring the city, and building the foundation for a relationship.Author Lynn Crain makes excellent use of her own experience of living in Vienna to describe various places and customs, including the Christkindlemarkts, or Christmas markets, that spring up all over the city in the weeks before Christmas. There are some heartfelt discussions about both the good and the bad points of it's like to live in another country where you don't speak the language, particularly during the holidays (Having had this experience myself, I could relate!)The novella is well written, with many evocative phrasings that do justice both to the genre and to the charm of Vienna at Christmastide. The dialogue between Amanda and Henry sparkles. The only flaw I noted was that there is not much conflict during the first half of the story. The heroine does have a couple of events in her past that make her disinclined to allow anyone too close to her, but these don't interfere much with the developing romance. In the second half, conflict is introduced in the form of the hero's ex fiancée, who wants him back. I wondered why the hero would ever have hooked up with such a ditzy woman, much less wanted to marry her. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the way the heroine dealt with this threat to her relationship, and her growth as a character. I also enjoyed the hero's thoughtfulness and understanding of his lover's past family history. Together they made an appealing couple.All in all, I would warmly recommend this novella to anyone who enjoys a sweet romance.