Midnight Angel [Mass Market Paperback]

Lisa Kleypas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

A noblewoman of frail beauty and exotic mystery fakes her own death to escape the gallows. And now she must flee. In disguise and under a false identity, she finds unexpected sanctuary in the arms of a handsome and arrogant yet gallant British lord—who must defy society to keep her safe . . . and overcome a tragic past to claim her as his own.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beautiful, protected Anastasia Kaptereva was about to make a brilliant marriage to the wealthy Prince Mikhail Angelovsky. The problem is she's killed him. At least she was found unconscious near his body with the bloody knife in her hand. In 1870, at the beginning of this promising, evocative novel, she escapes from a St. Petersburg prison and almost certain execution to England, where a relative finds her a position as governess to Emma Stokehurst, the 12-year-old daughter of Lord Lucas Stokehurst. While Anastasia is haunted by the murder she can't quite remember, the Stokehursts are haunted by the fire that deprived Emma of her mother and Lucas of his wife and his hand. In Anastasia, Lucas finds new love, while Anastasia finds not only love but some promise of protection-at least until her past catches up with her. Kleypas (Dreaming of You) has done her research, creating a real sense of place and period, her dialogue is rich, her humor real and her "evil" characters never stoop to being stock simplistic boogeymen (or women). If there is a problem, it is with her pacing. After a ripping beginning, Midnight Angel bogs down as the lovers retreat to get to know each another, then speeds up as danger approaches, only to stumble at a rushed and improbable confession and finally malinger anticlimactically in an attempt, one suspects, to set the scene for a sequel.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Charming...I enjoyed it thoroughly" -- -- Heather Graham

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Avon (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380773538
• ISBN-13: 978-0380773534
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #408,387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lisa Kleypas graduated from Wellesley College with a political science degree. She is a RITA award winning author of both historical romance and contemporary women's fiction. Her novels are published in fourteen different languages and are bestsellers all over the world. She lives in Washington State with her husband Gregory and their two children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good writing, better characters, and incredible romance!, April 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Midnight Angel (Mass Market Paperback)

I believe this to be Kleypas' best work yet. It is the story of a vibrant young Russian noblewoman, Tasia, who must flee to the manor of a British nobleman, Lord Stokehurst, in the guise of a governess to save herself from a death sentence. Unlike other books that I have read by Lisa Kleypas, this one truly puts her talents to use with a likeable, exotic heroine who is beautiful, smart, strong, and subtly sexy. Stokehurst shows remarkable pomposity, but still retains that dignified manliness that simply can't be resisted. In addition to having wonderfully explored characters with both beauty and faults, Ms. Kleypas ensures the reader a smooth read with her excellent writing, which is not to be taken for granted in the realm of romance novels. Although the plot leans a bit towards the unlikely (even unbelieveable) in the latter part of the book, it is balanced out by the fantastically delicious love scenes that help to make Midnight Angel a glorious trip into the sultry nights (and days) of old England.

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very uneven romance, July 12, 2005

By 

booklover 67 "booklover" (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midnight Angel (Mass Market Paperback)

This romance is very difficult to rate. The first half is so bad that I can only give it two stars, the second half is so much better that I would rate it with four stars.

The first half suffers mightily from a way too perfect to be true Mary Sue-heroine and the hero's obsession for his first late wife which grated mightily on my nerves. Nothing against a hero who values his first marriage but a man who still grieves his wife after nine long years so much that he basically shuts himself off from the world and even has hot fantasies about said wife and not about the heroine is hardly romance novel material. Besides his initial reaction to the heroine as the new governess for his daughter is very negative and they hardly keep company with each other, Tasia even takes meals with the servants. To make it worse in the first half of the book the hero is not only still in love with his late wife, he's also very much sexually involved with a mistress.

Thus the social interaction (not to mention the romantic interaction which is completely non-existent) with the heroine remains so sparse that Luke's revelation of undying love for Tasia comes utterly out of the blue especially since his sexual attraction to the very vulnerable Tasia had a twisted and cruel edge until that revelation which suddenly turns him from the brutal would-be despoiler of fragile child-women into a tender and protective lover. And the extremely pious Tasia who has not only been raised to be very god-fearing and innocent but also acts like a Christian martyr in Luke's household falls into bed with her employer as if she were a complete strumpet which is all the more unbelievable since at that point she not even has any romantic feelings for Luke whom she hardly has seen or talked to and who treated her worse than one of his servants, not courting her at all.

What did she see in a middle-aged, grieving and somewhat disfigured widower with a daughter not much younger than herself who was very rough to her, even accosted her and never paid her the slightest consideration that she eventually was able to cast her religiosity out of the window and never had any qualms afterward about having committed one of the deadly sins? And when the hero offers her marriage she refuses?! I don't mind people not being religious or very moral in a romance but if the author portrays them so pious and straight-laced in the beginning she should let them act at least a little bit consistent with their convictions.

After the heroine blissfully and unrepentantly fornicates with Luke she becomes another person altogether, completely gone is the Madonna-like image of a devotedly praying, self-sacrificing and unworldly virgin and the author shows no believable motivation for this change whatsoever.

Like in a bad soap where such drastic character changes happen frequently. Besides since the heroine was a single child, cloistered away with few relatives in the countryside and never had been to a boarding school-how could eighteen years old Tasia who led such a solitary existence possibly be a governess for a twelve ears old girl and deal with her like the most mature and experienced of stepmothers?! This is as marysueish as it can possibly get.

Her Russian cousin comments her character in the latter half of the book with the words: "We take our fates in both hands and mold them to our liking. You used your beauty, your wits and everything else you have to get what you wanted." Now that image doesn't befit Tasia in the first half of the novel at all who was actually self-sacrificial and virtuous to the point of self-destruction and repeatedly rejected Luke who wanted to protect her despite having already slept with him. Had she remotely been as Nicholas draws her in this conversation the novel would have been a lot more interesting, it would also have made the plot and the actions of the characters appear much more consistent.

But after that very unlikely premise and those drastic, unmotivated character changes on both parts the novel progresses just finely. The plot is quite suspenseful and romantic then. I had some minor quibbles with the way the author portrays Russian society and the way men and women interacted around 1870 which seemed way off. Obviously the authoress never touched Russian authors from the 19th century like Tolstoy or Dostojewski with a ten foot pole. Russian aristocrats were very worldly and cosmopolitan and the women had a much higher standing in society and marriage than the author makes us believe here. Nicholas is such a far-fetched character that one thinks he has time-traveled from the middle age right into the Russian salons of 1870.

Not one of Kleypas remarkable romances and a very unbalanced effort. All in all three stars. Readers who don't like the extremely sheltered and young teenager heroines paired of with middle-aged womanizers should really stay away from this book. The hero is clearly very much attracted to Tasia's youth and childlike appearance (he thinks that Tasia doesn't look much older than his daughter who is twelve but nevertheless is attracted to her which I found slightly icky especially since his initial attraction to her frail and ethereal beauty has a sadistic edge which miraculously vanished though in the later part of the book)

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Started Out Interesting, Then Got Boring, July 15, 2002

By 

L. J Lewis "Miss Amii" (Collierville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Midnight Angel (Mass Market Paperback)

The premise sounds interesting but the execution doesn't work. Tasia is accused of murdering her fiancee and,to avoid the hangman's noose, fakes her own death and flees Russia. With the help of her friends, she establishes herself as a governess in the home of a handsome widowed nobleman, Luke Stokehurst.
First of all, I really didn't care much for Tasia or Luke. Tasia is touted as being very religious and sheltered. Yet she lets Luke into her bed just a little to easily (they aren't married) and then he has to fight her tooth and nail to get her to marry him. She ddoes a lot of other things that contradict her basic personality too. Luke is the standard issue Mr. Noncommitment arrogant nobleman. The only thing that makes him diffirent from every other arrogant nobleman is that he is an amputee (missing his left hand)
My Favorite character was Emma, the sweet natured, awkard daughter of Luke and his first wife. That is how lack-luster the main couple is.
Their relationship happens way to fast. Luke and Tasia maybe have one honest conversation between them where they aren't shouting and really bonding and suddenly they're in love and sleeping together. The rest of the time, Tasia is argueing with him or trying to guard her secrets. And an EVIL MISTRESS(TM) is thrown in there for extra measure.
Eventually Tasia finds herself back in Russian costody, and Luke must find the real killer. I finished this book but I was so bored by the end, I really can't remember how the day is saved.