A 2023 HOLT MEDALLION FINALIST A soldier returns to claim the lady of his heart before she marries another in this frosty Victorian Christmas romance. THE CAPTAIN Andrew Grey has long wished to make Aster Corbyn his, but a lady who's always been surrounded by brilliance, from her astronomer father to her artist mother, doesn't deserve mediocrity. So Andrew sets out to achieve, if not brilliance, at least a proper shine, and he asks her to wait for his return. Aaand wait. Then he receives the unwelcome news that Aster has gone and betrothed herself to another. AND HIS LADY At six and twenty, Aster Corbyn thought she'd have married Andrew Grey long before now. But his letters have grown less frequent and she's grown more impatient. After years of watching their star across an ocean of disappointment, she's given up on him just as he's apparently given up on their dreams. When a St. Nicholas Eve snowstorm thwarts her travels, Aster finds herself stranded with her old friend, who is recently-and quite unexpectedly-returned from India. And to her irritation, Andrew is just as carefree and irreverent as she recalls. Will merry hearths and mistletoe thaw this pair before it's too late for a second chance at love?