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. 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.” But she needs wings to fly, both literally and figuratively, while he needs to clip her wings, both literally and figuratively. Helped along by an aphrodisiac mistakenly assumed to be salt, Ransom falls in love with Merlin and vice versa. 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. 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. So innocent in the ways of the world is she that what is initially amusing becomes rather tedious later in the book. 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. 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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