A Kiss at Midnight (Zebra Regency Romance)

Rating:
Summary: a good read
Review: "A Kiss at Midnight" is the second installment in the fairy tale trilogy by Lynn Collum, and while I believe (from the title) that it is supposed to be based on Sleeping Beauty, it is so loosely based on this fairy tale that you'd be forgiven if you began to wonder if perhaps "A Kiss at Midnight" was based on some other fairy tale! And while it is a rather sweet little story of how a much threatened young lady is able to escape the threatening clutches of her family thanks to her courage, sense of honour and the efforts of the dashing hero, there are also a few problems with the book.

The sudden closing of Mrs. Parson's Academy for Girls coincides with Marquess of Denham's decision to use his beautiful daughter, Rosamund, to dig himself out of debt. For it is the marquess's plan to marry his daughter off to the highest bidder -- in this case the much older and very distasteful Earl of Cherrington. What the marquess had not counted on was his daughter's stubborn nature. Determined to thwart her father's evil scheme, she makes full use of an accident to pretend to be in a deep coma. Only her old nurse, and the handsome new butler, Sterling are in on her pretense. But will this be enough to put a stop to her father's plans to marry her off? In the meantime a very bored Rose is beginning to appreciate and take note of all the care and concern that her handsome butler is showing for her. But even a virtually penniless daughter of a marquess cannot throw her hat at a butler no matter how wonderful he is. Or can she? What Rose doesn't know is that Sterling is actually Garth Sterling Fenton, the eldest son of Viscount Buckleigh, who has been sent (in disguise) to Denham Hall in order to retrieve a family heirloom, the Chalice of Naples. The chalice was stolen from the viscount's London home, and it is believed that the thief was probably Rose's elder brother. Sterling has been dispatched by his family to find the chalice and to liberate it without any fuss and bother. What Sterling did not anticipate was how his feelings for Rose would complicate things. For now he has to add keeping an eye on Rose and trying to help her thwart her father schemes to finding the chalice. And as the days pass, it's beginning to dawn on Sterling that he may have to chose which task lies closest to his heart: Rose or the chalice...

The trouble I had with "A Kiss at Midnight" was that Lynn Collum took such care to develop the background histories and characters of Rose and Sterling, that there really wasn't enough time for Collum to dwell on the supposed romance that was developing between Rose and Sterling. The pacing was also somewhat off towards the end: things were moving about at a moderate pace when things suddenly pick up about three or four chapters from the end -- everything happens almost at once, and several subplots are tied up with remarkable speed in the space of a few pages. Having noted that, I will own that there is an almost fairy tale-like quality to this story, and Rose and Sterling are exactly the kind of hero and heroine that any reader would find easy to take to heart and root for. "A Kiss at Midnight" may not have been a very 'deep' read, but it did indeed make for a somewhat pleasant one.

Rating:
Summary: Fairytale Fun
Review: This is the second in the fairytale series by Lynn Collum and what a delight. It is a loose take on Sleeping Beauty. Lady Rose returns home to find her father is about to marry her to a rich old earl. After a tumble out riding, she regains consciousness and realizes if she pretends a comma, the earl might go away. Only the new butler Sterling catches her sneaking round the manor. There to find a stolen chalice, Sterling has his hands full hunting for his family's missing heirloom and keeping Rose out of trouble.