Midsummer Magic (Magic Trilogy) [Mass Market Paperback]

Catherine Coulter (Author)

Book Description

Series: Magic Trilogy | Publication Date: December 1, 1998

Dear Listener: Midsummer Magic, the first novel in the Magic Trilogy, was published at the end of 1987. Philip Hawksbury, the Earl of Rothermere, obeying his father's dying wish, hies himself to Scotland to offer for one of the daughters of Alexander Kilbracken, the Earl of Ruthven. Frances Kilbracken, informed of the earl's arrival and his mission, disguises herself as a bespectacled dowd so she won't be the one selected by the young earl. But choose her he does, and for all the wrong reasons. The newly married couple return to England, together but not at all happy. Philip dumps Frances at Desborough Hall, his ancestral estate, and heads back to his old life in London. Ah, but Desborough has a stud farm and racing stable, and Frances is magic with horses. When the earl returns to his home, driven by guilt, he discovers the woman he married has grossly deceived him. What follows is a battle of the sexes that will have you chuckling, maybe even howling with laughter. Let me know what you think of this first of the Magic novels - it's one of my own favorites. Catherine Coulter

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Good beach reading, Coulter's 1987 historical romance finds the beauteous and brainy Frances Kilbracken forced into marriage with the roguish Hawk (yes, I did say, Hawk). After fulfilling his conquest of Frances, Hawk abandons her and is smitten by a mystery woman, who actually is guess who?
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Catherine Coulter is the author of the New York Times-bestselling FBI thrillers The Cove, The Maze, The Target, The Edge, Riptide, Hemlock Bay, Eleventh Hour, Blindside, Blowout, Point Blank, Double Take, TailSpin, KnockOut, and Whiplash. She lives in northern California. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Topaz (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451408705
• ISBN-13: 978-0451408709
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,211,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Catherine Coulter is the author of the New York Times-bestselling FBI thrillers The Cove, The Maze, The Target, The Edge, Riptide, Hemlock Bay, Eleventh House, Blindside, Blowout, Point Blank, Double Take and TailSpin. She lives in northern California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Typical late-80s bodice ripper, July 28, 2005

By 

BookWorm - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midsummer Magic (Magic Trilogy) (Paperback)

The story: Nine years ago, Frances' father (an impoverished Scottish earl) saved Hawk's father's life. Hawk's father made a promise that his son would marry one of the earl's three daughters. Now, the time has come to fulfill this promise. Hawk is sent to choose one of the three daughters, who are renowned for their beauty. However, Frances loves Scotland and decides to pretend that she is ugly in hopes that Hawk will choose one of her sisters instead of her. Her plan backfires when Hawk falls for her charade and thinks that an ugly, shy, modest bride will be easier to leave and forget than a pretty, accomplished one. Her father, secretly hoping that Hawk will choose Frances, does not listen to her when she says she doesn't want to marry him. She's force to marry him and leave her beloved home. Hawk feels her only purpose is to provide him with an heir, and grimly goes about doing his "duty". He feels no desire for her (since she continues her charade and get-up) and also believes that a gentlewoman/lady should not be treated as a mistress and would not feel desire anyway. This, of course, means that neither of them gets any pleasure out of the act & he ends up hurting Frances several times, making her fearful of sex. The two spend a lot of the time arguing with each other over little things and truly do hate each other. He goes to London to escape her and his mistress convinces him to go back to his wife and woo her. When he comes back, he is surprised to see that his "ugly" wife is actually beautiful and had been tricking him along. The rest of the novel follows Hawk and Frances' cat-and-mouse game as he tries to "woo" her (a.k.a. have lots of sex) and they both fall in love with each other. There is a mystery subplot regarding racing horses and his older brother's mysterious death, in typical Coulter fashion.

I hadn't read Coulter in 10 years, and I decided to go back and see if I still liked her novels. I was disappointed. I realized that her books just aren't in the same league with what romance novelists are writing today. The characters just aren't as well sketched, and the man/woman relationship borders on abusive. This book does not feature any romance - the two main characters go from hating each other to lusting after each other all the time, with nothing in-between. Where's the snappy dialogue? Where are the conversations where they get to know each other and their most secret thoughts? Where's the realization that they can be friends and love each other? Where is the point when the hero/heroine realizes they were wrong and apologize to each other & grow as characters?

All of these key ingredients are missing from this book and it fails because of it. Any current historical romance novel you pick up by Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, Lisa Kleypas, Mary Balogh, etc. has these things and more. You can't just make a romance novel just be all about the two lusting after each other.

Regarding the rape scenes: in this book, Hawk does pretty much rape Frances repeatedly. Now, that's not the reason I didn't like the book. As far as that's concerned, he pretty much did what a guy would really have done in that situation in the time period it is set in - it wasn't considered rape back then if the person you had forced sex with was your wife. The issue I had (when looking at it as a work of fiction) was that he showed no remorse about it. Hawk did not grow as a character at all - he disrespected her from the start and continued to disrespect her until the end. And, I felt that Frances' switch from being afraid of sex (which was natural) to wanting him after viewing the horses mate was rather abrupt. It did not make sense - Hawk had really not done anything to make her trust him and desire him up to that point, so why would watching the horses mate turn her on? And, even if she does begin to enjoy sex, it still doesn't excuse how he treated her in the beginning when he did not desire her and forced her. The book could have a used a good "I am so sorry I hurt you. Please forgive me." scene and it just wasn't there.

If you have problems with any type of "forced" sex situation (where the heroine is scared and tells the hero "no" and he continues anyway) then you shouldn't read this book. It happens quite a lot in this book (and most of Coulter's work) and in a manner where it is justified for the hero to behave that way.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Magic? More Like A Curse!, August 6, 2003

By 

Waiting for More (New York, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midsummer Magic (Magic Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read several other of the author's books and enjoyed them. To say this book was disappointing is putting it mildly. The hero repeatedly rapes his wife...these scenes are very distressing to read. Even when he decides to treat his wife with 'kindness' in bed, he still continually humiliates her -privately and in public. His cruelness is boundless. There is an unsatisfying mystery thrown in half-way through the book. Try another of Ms. Coulter's books and bypass this one.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Why was I keeping it?, November 14, 2007

By 

Book lover -Philadelphia - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midsummer Magic (Magic Trilogy) (Paperback)

I found this book on my shelves and thought I'd reread it. Now I can't figure out why I bothered to keep it.

Catherine Coulter's plots aren't bad but the writing is clunky and her characters almost always speak in short, declarative sentences. Didn't anyone in this period speak in a long sentence with subordinate clauses or more-than-two-syllable words? [Try reading Mary Balogh or Jo Beverly for solid writing and complex sentences.] These strung-together short sentences don't sound the way people speak.

Like many other readers, I found the "rape" scenes offensive and the transition from Frances' humiliation and hurt to love totally unbelievable. Hawk's "orders" were ridiculous and wholly inconsistent with what he supposedly felt.

I thought the best aspects of the book were the scenes where Frances takes over the house after Hawk leaves for London, co-opting the loyalty of the servants, and the machinations of the two fathers. When a secondary character like the marquess [not a duke, as one reviewer said] is more lively than his son, who is the hero, you know a book is in trouble.

I'll be giving this book away to our library now.

p.s. Maybe all of the complaints about Coulter's rape scenes in her romance books were what led her to start writing suspense tales.