THE MARRIAGE SPELL

Author: Mary Jo Putney ISBN: 0345449185 6/2006 PARANORMAL/HISTORICAL Publisher: BALLANTINE
Time Period: Regency

One of the Duke of Wellington’s most respected officers, Jack Langdon, Lord Frayne, takes his family’s honor very seriously. He also hides a shameful secret: a talent for sorcery he has been raised to suppress and openly reject. But after an injury lands Jack at death’s door, his only chance at survival lies with Abigail Barton, a peer’s daughter and a skilled wizard. Her price: Jack’s hand in marriage. It isn’t long before Jack feels an irresistible attraction to his forthright new wife, whose allure is as intense as the reawakening magical abilities he can no longer deny. Abigail had to make a great sacrifice to perform a spell powerful enough to save Lord Frayne, and although she cannot help but be drawn to her reluctant husband’s surprising sensitivity and kindness, she knows all too well his distaste for magic. Once she has Jack’s name and the child she has always longed for, she is determined to live apart from him so that he can preserve his reputation—and so that she herself can stay true to her gifts. But neither Abby nor Jack reckons on the deep, long-simmering passions her spell ignites. They challenge each other’s extraordinary powers and deepest desires for the sake of a love that may cost them all they cherish most.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I must admit I've done a lot of back-and-forth pondering about how to rate THE MARRIAGE SPELL, and settling on a 4 Rose Read award seems to be the most honest compromise I can make. There are many things I like about THE MARRIAGE SPELL, but at the same time I found it a rather slow read which I put down more than once.

Abby's character wasn't as developed as I had hoped her to be. Her childhood and the background into how she learned so much about the healing arts and the anatomy of the human body weren't definitively explained. And why was her sense of self esteem so low? Was that just because of the prejudice she faced as a wizard healer, or had things happened in her relationship with her father during her childhood to make her feel so insecure? Being that she hadn't really been out in society to have suffered the cruelty and rejection of the ton until after she'd married Jack, those missing aspects of her life left her as an incomplete picture. On the other hand, we find out all there is to know about Jack, his friends, his family and background, which left me feeling the relationship between Abby and Jack was on a rather uneven keel.

Putney did do a great job, though, in intertwining the paranormal elements with the historical in THE MARRIAGE SPELL. The societal attitudes toward the wizard population by the aristocratic ton versus the local gentry stands out in almost every turn of a page, with why the wizards do—or don't do—the things they do readily explained by the author.

Mary Jo Putney has written some wonderful books where wounded souls find peace, love and healing much in line with what happens in THE MARRIAGE SPELL, with Jack through Abby and vice versa. While this isn't vintage Putney as I personally enjoy her—ONE PERFECT ROSE and SHATTERED RAINBOWS are just two of my personal favorites—it is a worthwhile read written by one of historical romance's most beloved authors.

Nancy Davis