My Sweet Folly, Uncertain Magic, Midsummer Moon by Laura Kinsale

Octobrt 8, 2021

Well, sometimes ideas should just stay ideas.

When the little voice in my head whispered that I should read a bunch of old books, including Laura Kinsale, I thought – hey, why not? When has that voice ever steered me wrong? After all, I was in a mood. At the time, reading Laura Kinsale right after reading Anne Stuart made sense.  I chose to read three stories in an unconnected series: Uncertain Magic (1987), Midsummer Moon (1987), and My Sweet Folly (1987). These three stories are being marketed in a box set called the Regency Romances. Other than the time period, there isn’t any connection between the books.

I completed two books in the group, but one of them, My Sweet Folly was a DNF for me. The hero was too dark, and I’m not too fond of nicknames attached to heroines, especially when they demean.  I found myself explaining things away by saying…oh well, that was written in the 80s. And that last statement shouldn’t be allowed as an excuse.  For me this story didn’t age well. 

On to the ones I finished.

Uncertain Magic (1987). Roderica “Roddy” Delamore has a problem. She can read minds, be they human or animals. So, I guess she can interpret barks, and meows. Anyway, there is a lot of noise going on in her mind. Then she meets Faelan Savigar, and much to her surprise, she cannot read his mind. There is a lot in this story. It’s a tad bit weird, and not everything in the story makes sense. First of all, unlike a lot of other romance novels we are never given the POV of the hero. I like my stories to have at least the hero and heroines POV present. I’m assuming because Roddy cannot read Faelan’s mind, we are not given access to it. They get married. They go to Ireland. There’s an Irish revolt going on, there’s fairies and paranormal stuff. He has an odd mother, who I first thought was some kind of fairy. Turns out she’s just psychotic. There was also mention of an uncle, but he doesn’t have anything to do with the story. There is also a big Faelan secret, which in the end turns out to be a tad bit silly. Then we have the age difference, she’s 19, he’s 35…that’s a 16-year difference. Here’s the deal…he could be her father!!! A couple that have 16 years between them sets off ick button. I don’t care how much power the guy has, there is just too much between those years that make it unpalatable. In his romantic moments, he calls her ‘little girl”. He also assumes, all the time, usually wrong assumptions. For instance, he forgets that sometimes mommy-parts can break without the benefit of a Timothy Toad. Sometimes riding without the benefit of a sidesaddle can rip things! But maybe his brain is foggy from the drugs.  He’s been drugged all of his life. What can one expect? What happened? How did he partake of drugs? Well it seems somehow his mother was able to drug him, even when he was away at school. Oh angst. Oh boo-hoo. Turn from the dark side Faelan Savigar…puleese.

While I managed to complete this story, it was almost a wall-banger a couple of times. 

Time/Place: Regency England/Ireland

Sensuality: Warm/Hot

D+

Midsummer Moon (1987). Of the three books in the Regency series this was … how shall I say it? This was the least objectionable. But, there were plenty of issues. We have an absent-minded heroine and an autocratic hero. Merlin Lambourne is an inventor, an absent-minded one, but not the funny Fred MacMurray kind. She’s more of the “how-did-you-survive-this-world” kind. She is totally oblivious to everything. Was this funny in the 80s? I don’t know, but it’s not very funny now. There is obviously a problem with her, and it is a problem that our hero uses to his advantage. That taking advantage of by the hero; the dominating, manipulating, over-bearing bone-head, is the real problem with this book. If Merlin hadn’t been portrayed as such a scattered-brained child, maybe this story would have had a chance. 

 

Salt. She is so oblivious that she serves the hero, Ransom, salt. There is a mistake with the label. The salt is actually an aphrodisiac. Under the influence of the “salt”, Ransom beds an oblivious Merlin. I shall take this time to ponder. It’s my opinion that the only thing that goes up when one uses a so-called aphrodisiac is one’s blood pressure. Of course, there could be a kidney failure or two, but to stimulate a libido into uncontrollable lust is just an excuse for bad behavior. I’m done pondering. Anyway, this book is filled with all kinds of plots: fear of flying, spies, secret agents, stuttering children, amnesia, manipulation, family problems, a divorced couple, Napoleon…on and on. 

The topper is the bone-head hero. He doesn’t want Merlin to invent things, especially things that fly. It is all about him after all. So, what does he do when Merlin has amnesia? He burns all of her notes…Yep, years and years of flying machine notes…up in flames. A real bone-head.

Time/Place: Regency England

Sensuality: Warm/Hot

C- 

Bottom line- This was one of my experiments which didn’t work. While I’ve done some maturing over the years, dare I say, even been enlightened, these three stories have not. Sorry to say, none of them aged well.