When my sapphic book club heard about Olivia Waite’s surprise Christmas novella, we squealed with delight and hit purchase. We enjoyed every entry in the Feminine Pursuits series, and we weren’t wrong that Hen Fever reads very similarly. 

Bickerton is a sleepy little English village where everyone is very proper, very polite, and very insistent on repressing every wound. Lydia Wraxhall is no stranger to this practice, and, like everyone else, transforms interior pain to veneered nastiness during the annual Christmas poultry show. When she stumbles upon an extremely rare and pretty chicken breed on a daily walk, she’s determined to capture the chickens and the poultry prize. The problem is her new neighbor Harriet Boyne found the chickens first.

The summary is slightly more spicy than the actual novella. The romance is quite sweet! Both Lydia and Harriet are reasonable adults, and they dance with gentle respect around each other’s sore spots. Grief and grievance haunt the page. That being said, through the power of love (and chickens), they all heal, and the novella ends with a cozy feeling. The silly-yet-intelligent chicken behavior was accurate to my experience and made me laugh. Especially for such a short page count, Waite balances wonderfully fleshing out the characters, painting vivid descriptions, and justly treating topics like mental health and silver-haired love. I agree with other reviewers that Hen Fever could have been a full fourth Feminine Pursuits novel, but the novella as it is works beautifully.

If you enjoy Olivia Waite’s other romances, you’ll love Hen Fever.