A Midsummer Night's Sin by Kasey Michaels

November 30, 2011
Help me Obi-wan Kenobi!
http://www.kaseymichaels.com/links.html

Tell me the mysteries of the universe!  What is the meaning of life?  Why can’t they get the book covers right?  See the hunky guy on the front?  He’s the one without a shirt on.  Quite an eyeful, huh?  Not bad, not bad, except for one minor thing.  According to a sentence in the very first paragraph in the book, and I quote, “When he’d taken to growing his blond hair nearly to his shoulders…”  Yes, fellow travelers, our hero has long blond hair, and he has that long blond hair through the entire book.  In fact, his l-o-n-g blond hair is described numerous times and is part of his persona.  Now, I know that this happens all the time in the publishing world; however, it seems to me it happens an awful lot in Romanceland.  I don’t know why this happens, but I consider it an insult.  It is an insult to me, the reader, and to the writer.  You can’t tell me that Kasey Michaels, a veteran author who has been around for eons, didn’t present to her editor or whoever a description of the main characters in this tale.  Now, maybe the cover art was already done when she did this, but I grow weary of this old excuse.  It doesn’t take that long to use the tools in Photoshop to fix the hair.  I was especially disappointed that this was a Harlequin presentation – a publishing company that makes their bread and butter off romance readers.  Shame on your slip-shoddery.  If you can’t get the people correct on your covers, slap a flower on it.

Now, on to the book A Midsummer Nights Sin.  I was so excited when the second book in the Blackthorn brothers series hit the stands.  I loved the first book in the series and thought Kasey Michaels was in top form with her wit and humor.  So, except for the cover irritation, when I started reading this one, for a while I thought it was going to live up to my expectations.

Robin “Puck” Blackthorn is a wonderful hero.  He’s handsome, strong, and best of all loaded with Kasey Michaels’ trademark humor.  She’s one of the authors around who can really write funny dialogue.  And there is plenty of that in this book, because “Puck,” like his namesake, is all about mischief!

I really liked Puck.  In fact, the Blackthorn brothers are one yummy group of guys.

Then we have Regina, a rather headstrong woman, with one of the worst fathers ever created in a romance novel – he is a white slaver.  Now, I liked Regina in the beginning – she was smart and she was also a great match for our mischievous Puck.  There was some wonderful snappy dialogue between the two.

So, you’d think I’d be happy.  Great funny hero, headstrong smart heroine who can hold her own, and some wonderful sidekicks.  But about half-way through the book ,the story started to drag.

Remember the father – the white slaver?  Well, this has another kidnapping plot going on.  This time it’s Regina’s cousin Miranda.  I don’t know why authors I’ve read lately are doing kidnapping stories, but I for one am growing tired of this stale plot-line.  Especially when it turns the heroine into a TSTL woman.  She must must must go with the hero and his undercover brother through the dark dregs of the London underworld.  Of course, she needs to dress in male clothing to do this.  And of course, there is the standard “no you can’t come, yes I can, no you won’t, if you won’t take me I am going by myself” discussion.  This happens more than once and it became rather tedious after a while.  I wish just once when the heroine starts to whine, using the tired threat of going by herself into the dark smelly bowels of London or Paris or Upper Sandusky, the hero would say, “Fine, see ya.”  Then we would get a new heroine, one who stays home and doesn’t get into trouble or get anyone else killed in her perky adventure.

There was too much covert stuff going on – I would have been happier with a character-driven snappy dialogue, school of manners style book.  There were just too many people to sort through – the creepy father, the drunk mother, the weak uncle, the silly aunt, assorted secretive aristocrats, a brother, a number of sarcastic servants and a plethora of villains.  I couldn’t keep track.  I’m just a simple person; all I require is a simple story.  I don’t need all the rigmarole that was surrounding these two delightful characters.

So, I was a little disappointed with this story, especially since I loved the first in the series so much.  The characters of Puck and Regina were such a great couple.  It’s too sad that they didn’t get a better story.

Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality Rating: Hot