Customer Reviews

Midsummer Magic (Magic Trilogy)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

First of all, I got the audio version (thank god I didn't buy it) and the pace was so slow. Imaging reading it for yourself. It was a bit interesting when the heroine was introduced, but the book started to go down hill when the hero and heroine met.
I've never met a less interesting hero. He was self-center, arrogant, thoughtless, inconsiderate and irritating (the way he treated and blame the heroine). The other characters are mediocre; the romance less than mediocre. How can Coulter make readers believe such a shallow character to know love and romance?
The story line was flat all the way through. I never like Coulter's books, but I decided to read this one when one of the synopses says this book make you "laugh out loud." I kept waiting for the laugh out loud moments (scratch that: "moment") throughout the book, but I was disappointed. All I felt throughout the book was irritation toward the hero. I don't know why I didn't stick to my resolve and steer clear of Coulter's books.
If you have to read this book to see for yourself, get a copy from the library!!!
By the way, there's no magic in this book; literally or figuratively.

After a fairly good start (about the first 80 pages or so), I was hooked and was enjoying the book, then it went downhill and I finally stopped on page 218. Be warned, there is what could be considered (in our times at least) rape. However, it was a husband's duty to get his wife with heir; and I do get it, but that doesn't mean I want to read about it in a romance...repeatedly. I believe I could have gotten over the first 'rape,' but then it happened again, and again, and most likely again but I stopped before what might have been. Enough already!

I ended up hating both the so-called heroine and hero, they just were not sympathetic, interesting, or anything other than horrible. Frances started fights, cowers, and snivels all the time, and frankly, she should have known she needed to fulfill her "wifely duty" to get with heir. Now I am not in any way saying rape is right, but back then she should have known what was going to happen, and all she does is act belligerent and righteous about it and wants to be left alone (Ha!). Then there's Hawk (ugh!), who is detestable, shows no remorse, and the author actually writes about him with his mistress! What is Ms. Coulter smoking? I can't even fathom them going from hate to love (and I do mean hate!), which apparently doesn't happen according to other Amazon reviewers.

The author says the book "is just dandy the way it is," but it totally is not. She goes on to say that we'll chuckle and may even howl with laughter because of the battle of the sexes.... Now I don't know about that because I couldn't get past how totally unlikable Hawk and Frances were, among the other things mentioned, so who knows? And frankly, I don't care to know. This book needed many rewrites and I do not recommend it at all! I wish I listened to the reviews and stayed away, but no, I had to stick with it. What can I say, I'm stubborn. To be honest I thought there was only one rape scene in the book and didn't know there were more, but I usually only skim them so I don't read any spoilers. I am so sorry I read so much of this when I could have been enjoying a much better book. I really don't think I'll ever pick up another book from Ms. Coulter if her other books are like this.

This story left me slightly dissatisfied...

I have heard and read many reviews regarding Catherine Coulter's work and it is very obvious that she is a fan favourite.....So I thought to give it a try...perhaps I picked up the wrong novel....

This story starts out pretty well.....interesting plot and character intro.......However, as it continues, it spirals downwards with a lightning speed...

Hawk is the most clueless hero I have had the misfortune of reading about in a while...chauvinistic and full of himself (not in a charming, rougish way, either)

I felt that Frances was a bit better developed...she had more substance to her character...Headstrong and sort of wild...

Here is the whole scoup: an arranged marriage that neither of them want...alongside with a few deceptions and missunderstandings...consequensial rape(huge turn-off)...discovery of some mild passion between the hero and heroine....not much depth...and the story ends unresolved to my taste.

However, the ongoing humour in the novel redeems it a few degrees, which is why a gave it three stars. All in all, a mildly enjoyable read....but not a keeper.

I went into this novel with high expectations. The heroine is feisty and the hero seemed at least somewhat sympathetic, if a bit chauvanistic. But then the characters get married, and it's all downhill from there. Sexual assault is never sexy and like another reviewer said, it has no place in a romance novel... The only thing that could have saved this book would have been if the heroine found some other guy to love and left, but of course, she falls in love with the...loser. Don't waste your money on this book- I'm still bitter that I wasted mine.

I had to give this book one reluctant star because it actually started well. I had already read Calypso Magic and really enjoyed that story. However, the first in the series turned out to be a waste of time. The characters have no depth, Hawk is just another dense, chauvinistic male, and the storyline drops off abruptly after the marriage. I have not read Moonspun Magic, and am now quite hesitant about picking up the last of the trilogy. And one question-must every one of Coulter's Regency books have a rape scene? Violence against women is repulsive and has no place in a romance novel!

This is another variation on the old 'fathers arranging marriages between their offspring' theme, and in many ways pretty much like every other of that kind. In this book, Hawk, the Earl of Rothbury, chooses the plain and - to him - repulsive daughter, Frances, so that he can dump her and won't have to spend any time with her. Unfortunately for him, she's actually beautiful - now there's yet another cliche, and his behaviour when he finds out is disgraceful.

The marriage gets off to a bad start when he insists that she let him have his conjugal rights - others have referred to his treatment of her as rape, and that's not a bad description. All their sexual encounters, up until the time that Hawk discovers she's beautiful and suddenly - surprise, surprise - starts to feel desire for her, are tantamount to rape.

Humour? What humour? I know that humour is very subjective but, while Coulter clearly thinks, judging by her sleeve comments, that the fights between Hawk and Frances are hilarious, to me they seemed infantile and embarrassing.

I was also turned off by Hawk's habit of discussing sex everywhere, no matter who was around. His explicit comments regarding the purpose of the cream were also distasteful. Like another reader, I could not see a single reason why the two of them should fall in love with one another; but in contrast, I think they deserved each other. Both were spoilt, silly and very immature.

Coulter remarks, in her sleeve notes to the reissue, that this book did not require any revisions since it was 'fine and dandy' as it was. Well, at the very least she could have done something about the grammatical errors and anachronisms in language! 'The both of us' is grammatically incorrect and would *never* be used in speech by an English aristocrat - or by any English person, then or now. Neither did eighteenth-century aristocrats say 'I guess', or any of the other Americanisms which peppered Coulter's dialogue. And her female characters, in dialogue and behaviour, were very out of place for the period.

Coulter also has a very bad habit of changing point of view frequently: in the early part of the book she not only did it in each successive paragraph, but *within* paragraphs. How on earth are her readers supposed to follow whose perspective is being given? It's a very sloppy writing style, one which an author of Coulter's experience should know to avoid.

Not now experiencing the slightest desire to read another word written by Catherine Coulter, I will await the new Jo Beverley and Mary Balogh novels instead.

I picked up this book having read another Coulter novel (The Heir, also known as Lord Deverill's Heir) and not liked it. I'd give this author another chance. And she blew it!

This was like The Heir in so many ways. Forceful male ends up raping his new wife (although it's not rape as he uses cream. Eh?) and they argue all the time and eventually fall deeply in love. Why? What's loveable about either of them - except of course that they are attractive. So that's OK then. We never really understand why their opinions of each other change, there's a rather naff and blindingly obvious sub-plot about someone trying to discredit a racehorse stable.

Our `hero' spends a rather surprising amount of time discussing his mistress with his wife, and the mistress and wife eventually meet and get on well. Really? Some of Coulter's plot manoeuvres are mind-boggling and I couldn't suspend reality enough to keep with the story.

As with so many other American-authored Regency novels, our hero and heroine don't appear to know how to speak English; they pepper their dialogue with "gotten" and "inquire" and "fall" until I want to scream.

And the title - Midsummer Magic. The events aren't taking place in Midsummer and there's absolutely no magic. Why that title? Probably to imbue the book with a mystery that it doesn't deserve. Don't bother with this book - it's a waste of time and ink.