7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Grave Robbers and Mad Men Can't Keep this Couple Apart, October 13, 2009
This review is from: Stealing Midnight (Paperback)
I loved Stealing Midnight. The heroine is unusual, outspoken, and incredibly brave, the hero is quite honorable. The storyline is excellent and original too.
Stealing Midnight has a fantastic first and second chapter. Resurrection men have brought to Heroine Olwyn Gawain's home two bodies. One is bloated and almost putrid the other is a handsome man, recently pronounced dead. Olwyn's father is obsessed with dissecting corpses to discover the mysteries of life. He keeps Olwyn a virtual prisoner and the one time she did try to escape her home, her father loosed his ferocious dogs on her. She is rightfully terrified to try to escape again. Autopsies are performed in the keep dungeon and here the author does an excellent job of creating the ghoulish, dark morgue. Her descriptive narrative was chilling.
Olwyn feels a sense of kinship with the handsome corpse her father is about to dissect. He is beautiful. However he is not dead, to be discovered only when the first dissection cut wells up with blood. This is not a detriment to her father, who has every intention of murdering this man and carving him into pieces. Olwyn will not have it and she quite literally throws herself over the unconscious man and manages to escape with him. This was an incredibly brave and selfless act on her part as her father is screaming all kinds of curses at her, promising revenge.
Hero Aidan Mullin awakens days later to find himself in a small hut with a beautiful woman. The two spend only a few days together before Aidan's twin brother finds them but they are surely enchanted days. For the first time Aidan finds peace in female company. His father is a Duke and so often he wonders if he is really admired and sought after for himself or his forthcoming title.
Olwyn is enamored with Aidan but knows nothing permanent can come of her feelings as he has a fiancé, named Mira who is completely self centered, shallow and manipulative. Aidan is completely drawn to Olwyn but honorable too. This tension plays out throughout the novel and one aspect of Aiden's character which I truly enjoyed was that he was not blind to his fiancé's faults. Neither is Olwyn who stands up to Mira's sniping quite admirably. The leads share an uncommon longing and even the people around them recognize their close bond. There are some very sweet moments in this novel demonstrating their devotion and attraction to one another. Olwyn sees her time with Aidan as a fairy tale come true.
Ms. MacNish has created conflict from both outside characters, (Olwyn's father is out to harm her and Mira is venal) and inner struggles (Olwyn wonders about her self worth and ability to fit into an aristocratic family). There are times the protagonists act a bit rashly but the lovely trait about these characters is they recognize their mistakes quickly without having half the book transpire before they self correct.
This is a marvelous story; I stayed up late into the night to finish it. I just had to know what was going to happen on the next page. The protagonists are kind, patient, and supportive of one another and the story never stalls. There was strong tension throughout the entire novel and the author has great descriptive language. This book is a delight.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great love and history, January 25, 2011
This review is from: Stealing Midnight (Paperback)
This story has everything. I loved the history on commas and the amount of live burials. My favorite part of the story was when Olwyn saw herself in the mirror for the first time. It's hard to imagine what life would be like with out mirrors.
I did blush and laugh when Olwyn explored the Aidan's body while he was in a coma. I loved this book and will be putting it on my keeper shelf.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Refreshing gothic romance- steal a moment for this one!, July 10, 2010
This review is from: Stealing Midnight (Paperback)
This was a refreshing gothic romance- the unique heroine and fairy tale like story brought new life into your typical Regency. We find Olwyn living as a virtual slave with her father, a madman anatomist obsessed with the answers to life and death. Olwyn spends her days and nights watching her father autopsy stolen cadavers in a crumbling estate in Wales. When a handsome young man is set to be dissected, but is found to be alive, Olwyn finds the courage to stand up to her father at last and escape, with the young man in tow.
What follows is an interesting love story between the unlikely heroine (Druid-like and medieval with a dagger at her hip and a streak of blond in her long black hair) and the very normal hero- a young man set to (possibly) become a duke... depending on who was born first, he or his brother.
Aidan is mesmorized with Olwyn - she hypnotizes him, she understands him, she soothes him and her exotic nature is irresistible to him. You might find yourself, as I did, becoming frustrated with Aidan's inner-turmoil as he oscillates back and forth between a passionate love for Olwyn and his contradicting ideas of "what is proper and right" for society. And you might find yourself frustrated with Olwyn's ability to be forthright and unbelievably honest and modern with her thoughts and then the next moment offer to be Aidan's mistress.
That being said, these two eventually find their way and the ending is satisfying indeed. The honesty and communication between the two main characters as they get to know each other is nice- as well as their ability not to hold grudges with each other. The falling-in-love chemistry is believable as well. Very good read!
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