History of Romance #7 - Kate Hannigan by Catherine Cookson

4/5 Stars - This book (#8 on my History of Romance curriculum) took me a while to finish. Mostly because I started in October and then took a little hiatus to read monster romances in honor of Halloween but then kept reading monster romances until like last week (mid-January). Once I got into it, I really enjoyed it.

The whole book takes place on one day, Christmas Eve, over like 11 or 12 years. It starts with Christmas Eve when Kate Hannigan is 19 and shows back up to her childhood home to give birth. She has been away and working as a maid for a prominent family. Her pregnancy is the result of an affair with the family's son. This 1st Christmas Eve is seen almost entirely through the eyes of the MMC, Dr. Rodney Prince, a young doctor from an upper-class family who has been "called" to work with the poor and working-class, much to the dismay of his family and wife. Dr. Prince is there to deliver Kate's baby. Through his observations, we learn that Kate is uncommonly beautiful, her childhood home is in an impoverished neighborhood, and her father Tim is cruel, a drinker, and possibly abusive. We also learn that Dr. Prince is in an unhappy marriage.

The following Christmas Eve, Kate comes home from her job working for elderly siblings who have sort of adopted her - they buy her nice clothes and give her lessons and for Christmas, they send her home with money and groceries for her family. Her mother Sarah has been caring for the baby, Annie, this year. Dr. Prince stops in to check on Tim, who has hurt his leg, and encounters Kate again for the 1st time since delivering her baby.

What follows is a series of Christmas Eves where their paths intersect. Kate works in a different town but always returns on Christmas Eve. Through his practice, Dr. Prince develops a relationship with Kate's mother and Annie. Each Christmas Eve, they are sort of cosmically drawn to each other, but just out of each other's reach, throughout Dr. Prince's doomed marriage and Kate's many hardships, which include two broken engagements, caring for her sick mother, and fending off her abusive father.

*Spoiler* At the end, they are both finally free of any obstacles to their happiness together. I did want more of an ending than what basically amounted to "They hugged and whispered each other's names. The end". But it was a gorgeously written book. At the beginning of every chapter, I was like "Oh shit, what's going to happen to poor Kate THIS Christmas Eve".

While I was finishing up Kate Hannigan, Kresley Cole's Munroe, a book I've literally been waiting years for, dropped into my library. That I decided to stay and finish, instead of immediately starting Munroe, is a testament to how invested I was in the outcome. Would recommend.