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Midsummer Moon is an intriguing read. Not a book to pick up and leaf through at odd moments, it requires some effort on the part of the reader to grasp what the author offers in the way of characterization, theme, and complexity of plot.
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Set in the Regency period, Merlin Lambourne is an unconventional heroine – a sheltered inventor who is also eccentric, beautiful, and proud owner of a hedgehog. So innocent in the ways of the world is she that what is initially amusing becomes rather tedious later in the book. Expecting to find a man to protect in the King’s name against the French, Lord Ransom Falconer instead finds that Merlin is a woman. A woman who doesn’t know the first thing about how to address a duke, entertain nobility, or realize one does not sleep with a man on the first date.
Helped along by an aphrodisiac mistakenly assumed to be salt, Ransom falls in love with Merlin and vice versa. But she needs wings to fly, both literally and figuratively, while he needs to clip her wings, both literally and figuratively. Their adventure begins as he saves her from kidnapping by the French for her inventions and removes her to his country estate where she faces the onslaught of his family and “guests.”
Midsummer Moon takes the traditional battle of wills between hero and heroine and, through the obvious skill of the author, moves it to a different level. These two incredible individuals love each other but cannot accept each other as they are. Through the clever use of a large grouping of secondary characters, we watch all the characters grow – out of stuttering, out of fear, out of the stifling dictates of “society,” and into love and acceptance.
Merlin’s learning of the outside world is filled with humor. She just sees and feels things differently than anyone around her, especially her Duke. But he is so controlling of everyone that he nearly destroys his last chance at love. Just as I found Merlin’s innocence in the ways of the world a little tedious at times, I also found it bothersome that the author included an extraneous connection between the leads to add drama. Apparently the Duke’s first teenage crush was Merlin’s mother.
When Merlin and Ransom aren’t making love, they are arguing about marriage (he insists and she demurs), or rescuing each other. He does love her and feels that he must destroy her life’s work in order to protect her. She cannot understand how he can love her and do this; indeed, she doesn’t really understand fear at all.
In the end, she uses his skill at manipulation to save them both and bring him ’round. The conclusion wraps up all the loose ends a bit too neatly. I was glad that two sets of secondary characters found love, but found the reconciliation between Ransom’s brother and ex-wife a bit unbelievable. Obviously in a book with such a fantastic premise as wireless communication and mechanized flight long before their true advent, reality must be suspended. I can accept that in terms of technology, but not with human emotion.
Still, this author attempts to go beyond the basic format of romantic fiction and to introduce layers of depth not generally encountered. For this she is to be commended and encouraged. For those who are interested in a romance that requires an ambitious reader, this one is for you.
Grade: C
Book Type: European Historical Romance
Sensuality: Hot
Review Date: 01/11/96
Publication Date: 1999
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
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I think it’s totally possible to think that a book is well-written with well-realised characters and still not feel like it works. It’s probably been ten years since I read this one, and I can’r remember specifically why this was my reaction, but I remember thinking that it was very well-executed but that I just couldn’t buy into the romance at all and thought they’d make each other miserable. Consequently, I think I’d have given this a C too, maybe a C+ for the writing, because I just can’t bring myself to rate a romance novel higher than that if I can’t believe in the romance, no matter how well written the book is.
PG, your comments are spot-on. I find Kinsale’s writing and research pitch-perfect. I enjoyed Midsummer Moon very much.
I’m surprised this review resulted in such a low grade as a C, which implies mediocrity at best, given the acknowledged skill in the writing, interesting cast of secondary characters and ambitious, inventive plot.
As for the book having a “fantastic premise” technologically, I’d direct readers to the author’s note at the end, which points out that the scientific theories behind a flight vehicle like Merlin’s (which is not self-powered, but is instead basically a glider that has to take off from a great height) and behind wireless communication had been put forward by the time of the book’s setting. Ransom is correct that people had died trying to fly by jumping from towers, usually because they hadn’t put enough thought into the mechanics.
I’m surprised, too, but I didn’t read any if Laura Kinsale’s novels at the time of release and I can’t help wondering if maybe they were a bit too… Shall we say, ahead of their time? I’ve listened to all of them in their fabulous audiobook incarnations and I can’t say that any of them comes close to mediocrity!