Prepare for squee, because Courtney Milan has a new novella out.

I feel I can safely say that we Bitches lost all our objectivity regarding Milan’s work ages ago – we are gibbering fans. That being said, while all Milan works are ahead of the general curve, some Milan works are better than other Milan works. I thoroughly enjoyed this novella, but felt it was, quality-wise, in the middle of the pack: interesting, moving, and satisfying, but rushed (as novellas so often are).

This book is the second installment in the Worth series. In the first book, Once Upon a Marquess, Judith Worth was the daughter of a disgraced nobleman. Judith struggled to support her family in poverty – real poverty, not the kind where you only have three or four servants. Her best friend during this time was Daisy, who didn’t know about Judith’s past. Her Every Wish is Daisy’s story.

Daisy supports her mother, who lives with chronic pain (the cause is unknown). At the moment she’s able to meet her mother’s needs and even save a little, but her economic existence as a flower seller in a shop is uncertain. Daisy wants to start her own shop, but she needs seed money. She enters a contest for a grant, which requires her to present her proposal to a crowd, and she is mocked because she is a woman. Still, she has one chance to try again, and though she has no faith that she will win — in fact she’s positive that she won’t — she’s determined to try.

Crash left town to seek his fortune in France, made a modest amount of money, and has returned to England to set up a velocipede store (be still, my heart). Before he went to France, Crash and Daisy were, briefly, lovers. Alas, no sooner had they made love for the first time then they had a terrible fight in which they both acted like idiots, and they parted bitterly. Still, Crash hates to see the crowd making fun of Daisy and he promises to help her make her second speech perfect. His lessons consist of teaching Daisy to ride a velocipede (the moral being “go fast and don’t stop”), teaching her refuse to internalize the toxic messages other people give her, and to speak with utter confidence and no apologies.

Crash and Daisy also come to terms with how badly they have hurt each other in the past and duh, of course they fall madly back in love. How would not you fall in love with a dude who teaches you how to ride a velocipede and says “never apologize”?

Milan’s books continue to be inclusive in historically accurate ways. In this book, the lovers are lower class, which is extremely unusual in historical romance. Their happy ending is plausible because they are able to use personal connection to improve their financial lot, but they will be working hard all their lives. Crash is mixed race – his grandmother was Black and his grandfather was Indian. His own father’s ethnicity is a mystery. Crash is adept at helping Daisy deal with sexism because all his life he’s dealt with racism (and class prejudice as well, more so than Daisy who’s family is poor but “respectable”).

Speaking of class, my favorite moment in the book was not between Daisy and Crash, but between Daisy and Judith. Now that Judith has married into the upper classes, there’s awkwardness between her and Daisy. Daisy considers it inevitable that they will drift apart. The way the reconnect is honest and adorable, involves some real emotional courage on Judith’s part, and makes Judith HEA much more plausible – her romantic life is great, but she still has problems with her family and her new social position. That doesn’t make her own romance any less satisfying; it just makes it more real, especially since Judith’s book was the first in a series and thus many plot threads were left unresolved.

The first book in the Worth Saga suffered by setting up too many characters. This book keeps a tighter focus on the relationship between Daisy and Crash, and that relationship comes through beautifully. It still allows room for some lovely character beats involving supporting players like Crash’s mother and her whist group, Daisy’s mother, and Judith.

Other than the fact that the romance moves very quickly, which is a pretty universal novella problem, my only criticism of the book is that it has so many important lessons to impart that it can be a little preachy. It is, as TV Tropes would say, Anvillicious, but as TV Tropes also says, Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped. This book runs the risk of becoming a very special episode in which we learn about the importance of self-confidence and self-worth, but the characters are so engaging and their interactions are so heartfelt that it elevates it beyond trite or didactic. Frankly, I could listen to Milan explain that we should never apologize for who we are and that people in every level of society deserve our respect all day long, because it’s not like our society has internalized these messages yet. It is a little heavy-handed in getting its messages across but I loved the messages so much that I didn’t mind.

In one Milan’s book, The Suffragette Scandal, a character tries to cheer up another character by saying that he wishes he had a puppy cannon with which he could send her puppies (presumably unharmed). This led Redheadedgirl and I to determine that every Milan book needs two grades: A letter grade with to compare it to other books in general, and a puppy cannon grade that compares it to other Milan books. I’d give this novella a solid B+, and six out of ten puppies. However, I must confess to a bias in favor of this book because not only am I predisposed to like Milan in general, but I am super into the book’s themes so it pushed my buttons in a really good way. It’s not as finely crafted as her full-length novels but I still did a significant amount of jumping up and down with glee.