Customer Reviews

Met By Moonlight

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ok, the title was to get your attention, hopefully it worked. Edghill's novel is a historical novel, a romance and a work of fiction. Don't expect too much from it, but also don't reject it out of hand because it has the word romance attached. It is no less well written than her Bast mysteries or her science fiction and fantasy.

Diana Crossways (yes, Diana of the Crossroads is one of the aspects the Wiccan Goddess) was alone in her small pagan bookstore in Salem Massachusetts, when a mysterious motorcycle courier delivers a package in the middle of a thunderstorm on October 31. When she opens the package she discovers that it is a valuable three hundred-year-old, handwritten grimoire with no information as to why she had received it or what she was to do with it. Just as she is examining the book there is a bolt of lightning that blows the electricity, then another that send her spinning into the storm. But when she can see and hear again, she is not in Salem. She is in a midnight, summer wood under a full moon, confronting a mysterious and attractive figure who both attracts and repels her.

She flees and stumbles into a coven of witches, who take her for a visitor from inside the Hollow Hills, a creature of faery, because of her mysterious and foreign appearance. They identify the book she is still clutching as the grammarie they had given to one of their members who had been slain four years ago. She is invited on the strength of this as well as her pagan jewelry to join in their ceremony.

One of the members, Abigail Fortune, undertakes to provide shelter for her, naming Diana her niece Anne Mallow, come from London. Abigail further gives Diana with the information that she is no longer in 20th century Massachusetts, but 17th century England. Oliver Cromwell has taken King Charles I in keeping and the Puritans are changing the face of religion in England. More specifically, Matthew Hopkins, the self appointed witchfinder general, with his companions, John Sterne and Mary Phillips (the Three Unspotted Lambs of the Lord) are on the prowl seeking out malignants (witches) to be destroyed to the Greater Glory of the Lord and the financial gain of the witchfinders.

While Diana waits outside the village of Talitho, hoping another turn of the seasons would allow her to return to her own world and wondering who the mysterious figure is she had seen on her first entrance to the 17th century, unseen forces set in motion events that draw Matthew Hopkins to this small village in rural England.

When Hopkins arrives, he brings not just his companions, Sterne and Phillips, but also a man known as Upright-Before-the-Lord Makepeace who seems more a prisoner than a willing servant. Upright-Before-the-Lord is Hopkin's hell hound, a creature he regards as less than human, redeemed by Hopkins from damnation, used by him to hunt down those true Wiccans whose presence give his lies about innocent people (made in order to bolster his credibility and line his pockets) some credibility. In reality, Upright is a creature of the fog and the shadow and the night, bound hopelessly to Hopkins, but seeing in Diana his destiny.

How Hopkins tries to destroy Diana and the coven who welcomed her and how Upright struggles against Hopkins' conditioning in an effort to protect her make this book more than a romance. It's a historical fantasy novel dealing with one of the more interesting sidelines of English history.

I was never a fan of historical romance novels, and now I remember why. Met by Moonlight, an intriguing novel that explores the often-overlooked Burning Times in Europe, reminded me of the ubermovie "Titanic": thoroughly engaging history, marred by irritating lovers you just wanted to shove out of the way of the true drama. Author Rosemary Edghill has obviously done her homework on this tragic era, yet when the story line turned to the traditional heaving bosom and throbbing loins of the star-crossed lovers, the book lost its edge. The romantic scenes seemed almost obligatory, wedged in and detracting from the book's more engaging plot line.

This novel came highly recommended by pagans and witches for its representation of the true practice of magic (healing and honoring nature); as a witch, I was very impressed with its accuracy and details. If you'd like to learn more about the Burning Times and witchcraft from a source more informal than a textbook, this is one novel to check out. But watch out for that sweat-soaked couple in the foreground.

It was this novels very uniqueness that drew me to it in the first place and I was never disappointed. From the name of the hero, Upright Before the Lord Makepeace to the haunting plot sets the novel asside from the traditional romance novel. Rosemary Edghill explores witchcraft and brain washing in her latest novel Met By Moonlight. I can only say I wish there were more like it. This is one for the keeper shelf.

Of all the "rapt backwards in time" books I've ever read, this one must be the most realistic -- not simply in the research that went into the background but in the reactions of the protagonist, realizing as she does throughout the book that she may have gotten used to this time but she has not really quite accepted its restrictions and constraints. This is a lovely story with a sweet and compelling romance that comes from unexpected directions and continues into wonder. Few authors communicate passion so convincingly!

Rosemary Edghill can write anything.

In "Met By Moonlight," an unusual time travel romance, modern day Wiccan Diana Crossways gets transported back in time on Halloween (or Samhain, if you're more traditionally oriented) to 17th century England before the "Glorious Restoration." Trouble's brewing; so many people have been hurt by Cromwell's takeover that witchburning and witch-hunts are at their peak, and those who follow the land and the older gods are in danger of being tortured and killed simply because they are different.

As in all of Ms. Edghill's work, it is historically accurate, the dialogue is crisp and witty, the characterization shines, and the romance is believable.

As Upright-before-the-Lord/Shadow falls in love with Diana, and Diana with him, there are unusual paradoxes to be solved. Worse even than the usual, "He's from this time; I'm from the 20th Century!" ones that are endemic to the time travel romance genre, Shadow may or may not be one of the elusive Sidhe -- and as such, Diana feels honorbound to protect him (as well as love him).

Will she choose comfort over love? If you pick the former, you haven't read too many time-travel romances. Yet, the way it is done is unusually perceptive.

Oh, I also want to give kudos to Ms. Edghill for finding some very, very interesting ways to explain the sexual act -- ones that added to the depth of sexual tension between the two. Not many writers can write love scenes without overly explicit graphic dialogue; Ms. Edghill is one of the few who can. That alone would make this book worth the price; the historical accuracy, incisive and amusing dialogue, and wonderful characterization is an added, welcome bonus.

Buy this book! (And every other Rosemary Edghill book you can get your hands on.)

Ok, the title was to get your attention, hopefully it worked.

Edghill's novel is a historical novel, a romance and a work of fiction. Don't expect too much from it, but also don't reject it out of hand because it has the word romance attached. It is no less well written than her Bast mysteries or her science fiction and fantasy.

Diana Crossways (yes, Diana of the Crossroads is one of the aspects the Wiccan Goddess) was alone in her small pagan bookstore in Salem Massachusetts, when a mysterious motorcycle courier delivers a package in the middle of a thunderstorm on October 31. When she opens the package she discovers that it is a valuable three hundred-year-old, handwritten grimoire with no information as to why she had received it or what she was to do with it. Just as she is examining the book there is a bolt of lightning that blows the electricity, then another that send her spinning into the storm. When she can see and hear again, she is not in Salem. She is in a midnight, summer wood under a full moon, confronting a mysterious sensual shadowy figure who both attracts and repels her.

Fleeing, she stumbles into a coven of witches, who take her for a visitor from inside the Hollow Hills, a creature of faery, because of her mysterious and foreign appearance. They identify the book she is still clutching as the grammarie they had given to one of their members who had been slain four years ago. She is invited on the strength of this as well as her pagan jewelry to join in their ceremony.

One of the members, Abigail Fortune, undertakes to provide shelter for her, claiming Diana to be her niece Anne Mallow, come from London. Abigail further gifts Diana with the information that she is no longer in 20th century Massachusetts, but 17th century England. Oliver Cromwell has taken King Charles I in keeping and the Puritans are changing the face of religion in England. More specifically, Matthew Hopkins, the self appointed witchfinder general, with his companions, John Sterne and Mary Phillips (the Three Unspotted Lambs of the Lord) are on the prowl seeking out malignants (witches) to be destroyed to the Greater Glory of the Lord and the financial gain of the witchfinders.

While Diana waits in Dame Fortune's cottage outside the village of Talitho, hoping another turn of the seasons would allow her to return to her own world and wondering who the mysterious figure is she had seen on her first entrance to the 17th century, unseen forces set in motion events that draw Matthew Hopkins to this small village in rural England.

When Hopkins arrives, he brings not just his companions, Sterne and Phillips, but also a man known as Upright-Before-the-Lord Makepeace who seems more a prisoner than a willing servant. Upright-Before-the-Lord is Hopkin's hell hound, a creature he regards as less than human, redeemed by Hopkins from damnation, used by him to hunt down those true Wiccans whose presence give his lies about innocent people (made in order to bolster his credibility and line his pockets) some credibility. In reality, Upright is a creature of the fog and the shadow and the night, bound hopelessly to Hopkins, but seeing in Diana his destiny.

How Hopkins tries to destroy Diana and the coven who welcomed her and how Upright struggles against Hopkins' conditioning in an effort to protect her make this book more than a romance. It's a historical fantasy novel dealing with one of the more interesting sidelines of English history.

A wonderful mix of time travel fantasy and romance with compelling characters that brings to life the whole debacle of the Salem witch hunts in an emininently readable format. Her heroine is a bit flippant (although not as much so as some of Ms. Edghill's other heroines) and clings a bit too tenaciously to her modernisms but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Am eagerly awaiting a follow-up in the same style...

An eerie bolt of lightening strikes, taking a young modern day witch back to the days of the English witch hunts. And tells the story of those times like it has never been told before. This is a powerful, haunting, mystical story with characters that are so real you will think of them for years. Absolutely fabulous!.

Unlike a lot of time-travel romance, this one really FELT like the heroine was in another time, and that it was strange to her. The "wounded hero" turned out to be wonderfully heroic in the end, and the villain -- apparently actually a historical person! -- was wonderfully frightening. A true "keeper" and I sure hope there's a sequel soon!

I rarely read romance novels because I find them to be too "fluffy" for my taste. I found this one hard to resist, however, since Rosemary Edghill is my favorite author. What a fantastic story! I was hooked from the first paragraph and had a hard time putting the book down! The historical accuracy surrounding the Witch trials in Europe makes this more than a romance novel...it's like reading a very interesting piece of reference. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in this period of history (whether they are a Witch or not)!