Amazon.com Review
Setting: Torrecombe, Cornwall, 1770s
Sensuality rating: 7
Hip, hip, hooray! Susan Carroll's Midnight Bride, the third in the St. Leger series, will delight readers with its piquant humor, fiery sensuality, and white-knuckled suspense. Dr. Valentine St. Leger, younger son of Anatole and Madeline St. Leger, is a gifted healer. But his gift, the ability to eradicate his patients' suffering by absorbing it himself, has left Val partially crippled after healing his brother Lance's battle wounds. That matters nothing to Kate Fitzleger, adopted daughter of the St. Leger's bride finder; Kate has loved Val all her life and will do anything--even turn to the dark arts--to make Val return her love and choose her for his bride.
But the St. Leger legend conspires against Val and Kate, promising an untimely death for any woman foolhardy enough to marry into the family. When fate intervenes in the form of a malignant stranger, Val finds himself transformed, ready to risk all--even Kate's life--to slake the passion burning for the mischievous sprite who loves him. Kate, initially thrilled by Val's passionate overtures, begins to question the changes in the man she loves. Could it be just the magic talking? Susan Carroll's suspenseful tale of the supernatural and sexy star-crossed lovers is a page-turner and sure to be another hit. Carroll's fans eagerly await each new offering; expect great things from this gifted storyteller. --Alison Trinkle
From Publishers Weekly
"It is always dangerous to use magic to trifle with the human heart." This declaration, uttered by Prospero, the ghost of a once powerful medieval sorcerer and now a ghost, offers a one-line plot summary of this simplistic yet bewitching 19th-century historical romance. Carroll continues the St. Leger family saga (The Bride Finder; The Night Drifter) with the story of Dr. Valentine St. Leger, a shy descendant of Prospero who possesses a supernatural gift for healing others by absorbing their pain into his own body. The 32-year-old Val has been condemned to a solitary life by a family superstition, which, if ignored, would result in tragedy. Beautiful and feisty Kate Fitzleger, however, has loved Val ever since she came to his English country village when she was adopted by a local. Not one to let family tradition stand in her way, Kate sets out to find a book of sorcery in Prospero's deserted tower. She steals the wizard's tome and, disregarding his warning, casts a spell on her beloved. In the meantime, a sickly midnight visitor appears at Val's home bearing a magic crystal that once belonged to the St. Legers. The talisman has a strange effect on Val, curing his disabled leg and stirring his darker passions. The stranger, whom Val recognizes as Rafe Mortmain, sworn enemy to the St. Leger family, escapes, but not without feeling a change in himself as well. Believing that her spell is the cause of Val's corruption, Kate desperately tries to revoke it. But the only one who can help her is Rafe, and that will mean ending a centuries-old feud. Carroll's swift-moving tale won't disappoint her fans. National ad/promo.
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