MIDSUMMER MOON

Author: Laura Kinsale ISBN: 9781402213984 10/2008 HISTORICAL Publisher: SOURCEBOOKS
Time Period: 1700's Great Britain

If he really loved her, wouldn't he want her to realize her dream? Merlin Lambourne is a famous inventor. When her life is endangered by Napoleon's advancing forces, Lord Ransom Falconer, in service of his government, comes to rescue her and falls under the spell of her beauty and absent-minded intellectual brilliance. Bringing Merlin back to his estate, he promises she can work on her inventions safe from the war. But he feels he must thwart her dream of building a flying machine, not only because he's determined to keep her safe, but also because he's terrified of heights. When a plot to kill her nearly succeeds, Lord Falconer is forced to admit that her invention might just save both their lives...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

MIDSUMMER MOON is the first Laura Kinsale novel I've read but I can promise you it won't be the last. This is just a clear-cut case of stellar storytelling! I always love finding a new favorite author, and I've clearly found one in Laura Kinsale.

When I opened MIDSUMMER MOON I became hostage to the story being told. I admit, I stayed up through most of a night to read this, only turning out the light after the book had hit me in the face three times. The following morning I began to read some more. I didn't close the book until I'd finished. It was that good.

Merlin Lambourne, named after an Ingenious Mechanick, is not the person Lord Ransom Falconer expects when he arrives on her doorstep. His intention is to rescue the brilliant inventor from the army that is steadily moving closer, with the hopes that Merlin's talking machine might be used to help the British overthrow the invading troops. But when Ransom realizes the inventor isn't a man but a woman—one with a hedgehog in her pocket, no less!—he must shift gears to accommodate this (at first) unwelcome change in plans.

While most women would flee before an invasion, Merlin isn't most women. Hedgehog aside, she is a strong, intelligent inventor who is working on a flying machine. The talking contraption she's rigged using electrical impulses is merely a way to communicate more efficiently with her staff. Merlin doesn't see it as anything extraordinary and is unwilling to leave her nearly complete flying machine behind. In the face of this, Ransom does what any man would do. He kidnaps her. And her dratted flying machine. Ransom's only fear is of heights, and the flying machine does nothing to inspire him.

This is such a great tale I could go on forever, but if I did, I fear I'd just give the whole plot away, just tell you everything because I enjoyed it all so much. If truer-than-life characters in vivid, sometimes-heartstopping situations set against historical events is something that interests you, I suggest you run—don't walk!—to pick up a copy of this book. I don't believe you'll be disappointed. I wasn't. MIDSUMMER MOON by Laura Kinsale is brilliant!

Kay James