It doesn't happen often but I stopped reading this one after a little more than 100 pages. The plot itself was actually completely fine-- a good mystery was beginning to develop with lots of intrigue. The fault was in the characters. I don't expect the romance to develop so soon but I do expect to find interest in at least one of the characters at that point to make me want to read more to see how their stories play out in the overall plot. However, both characters were found lacking my interest so I eventually began skimming.
There was a lot of history to cover at the start of this novel and it unfortunately threw me off. It's probably my own fault for starting with the fourth in a series, but I just didn't warm up to the characters or the story.
lots of suspense and mystery, really kept the plotline moving. my one complaint is that there were so many characters it got confusing at times. nice little twist at the end and we of course got our happy ending :)
A Bride By Moonlight is book four of the Fraternitas Aureae Crucis series. And yes that is such a complex spelling for a series? But once you read these books you begin to understand the reasoning of it a bit more. This book *sigh* was a struggle and I am not sure if it was just because it was my first historical in a long while, lack of energy or my mood but this took me almost a week to read and that is just not me even for a historical which I have struggled with lately. So I am not sure how long this review will be, but I do want to share my honest thoughts about this story.
A Bride By Moonlight is a story that is about two more opposite of people Lisette and Napier. Napier is a man that works with and is a defender of upholding the laws of the land. Lisette, is a woman who has a dark past and pushes the boundaries of the law. But Napier and Lisette come to an arrangement of sorts, a fake engagement to help solve a mystery and a murder mystery at that. Lisette is used to pushing men away, she doesn't like to get emotionally involved but with Napier its different. They have passion between them but there is something deeper and he is proving to be more of a challenge to let go of.
This is a story that I will say was confusing to say the least. The first half of the book was a huge struggle, so I really felt I had to force my way through it. I am not sure why I kept up with this one to be honest. I haven't read this author in years so I also had to adjust to her writing style which I definitely wasn't used to since its been so long. But I just wanted to love it. And even though I ended up liking some aspects of the story, it just didn't pull me in, or engage me and quite frankly I didn't feel the emotion that I wanted to feel between these two. As a plus though, there is a well written mystery that is put into play in this story and I definitely had a fun time with that. The second half of the book is definitely a vast improvement and I highly recommend that if you want to pick this one up, do so but stick with it and I guarantee that it does get better.
Overall, even though it didn't quite meet my expectations, it had such promise within its pages, and was a solid story of intrigue, unrequited love and the power of opposites being attracted....
We really really liked this book. Yes, it has some flaws: the first quarter is made up of utterly confusing backstory (it helps a little bit if you've read books 2 and 3 in the series, but only a little bit), and Lisette keeps a secret from the reader even though you're in her head. That said, the mystery here is probably the best we've ever read in a romance novel; the characters are very well-drawn and enjoyable; and the sex is really hot.
37-Word Summaries:
Meg: Possible criminal Lisette and indefatigable police commissioner/baron Napier pretend to be engaged to solve a mystery. Concurrently, he tries to figure out her secrets. A complex, mature romance (if you can can handle the reams of backstory).
Laine: Lisette wants revenge on the man who ruined her family, but she has the wrong guy and now the investigator has her for his observation and protection while they attempt to figure out why his relatives died.
This is the first time I’ve read a book written by Liz Carlyle. After I finished it, I immediately wanted to read The Bride Wore Pearls, which features Lazonby and Anisha, two of the secondary characters from A Bride by Moonlight. I enjoyed Carlyle’s writing style, and I’m always up for a good historical romance, which in the case of this title is Victorian England. While I have a few quibbles about the pacing of this book, I did like the characters immensely, especially Napier. Lisette was harder for me to warm up to, but considering all the baggage she has been dragging around since the death of the father and her sister, that was understandable.
Lisette blames Lord Lazonby for the deaths of both her father and her sister. Having returned to London from the States, where she was raised by her aunt and uncle, she has dreamed of only one thing – revenge! She has drawn comfort and strength from the thought of getting back at Lazonby, for plotting to make him suffer as painfully as she has. He stole everything from her, and she is going to collect her pound of flesh. When attempts to reason with, and then bribe, the straight-laced assistant police commissioner, Napier, fail to propel him to arrest Lazonby, a man he considers the vilest of criminals, she sets out to destroy Lazonby’s life by herself.
A murder forces them together two years later, and Napier believes that Lisette might be the murderer, but in a switch of loyalties, she and Lord Lazonby are now providing air-tight alibies for each other. Napier is skeptical, to say the least, and he’s determined to get to the bottom of both the murder and his two chief suspects’ sudden friendship. Before he gets far into his investigation, he discovers that he is now the heir of a prosperous estate. Estranged from his father’s family for his entire life, he has no interest in getting to know his grandfather, Henry Tarleton, Viscount Duncaster, or any of his other relatives, better. He is forced to visit the estate to investigate the suspicious death of his uncle, though. In an attempt to foil the matchmaking machinations of his scheming aunt, and to keep Lisette right where he can see her, he forces Lisette to pose as his betrothed. Once he arrives at Burlingame, he begins to question everything he believed about both his family and Lisette.
I loved Napier. What a hottie. He’s analytical and capable, and he doesn’t give a fig about his inheritance. He loves his job with the police, and has no intention of giving it up. His superiors aren’t going to give him a choice about the matter, though, and he is urged to do his duty and take up his rightful position in society. Though Napier is also stubborn and can be harsh, he also has a heart. He treated Lisette coldly, though respectfully, at the start of the book, but by the end, he was the first to accept that his feelings for her had changed, and that he couldn’t live without her. I loved that about him. Once he realized how he felt, he also realized that he had to tread carefully. Lisette’s drive for revenge left her twisted and emotionally fragile, and he was terrified of pushing her away from him.
Once I understood Lisette, I liked her, too. She is so strong and so fierce, and she won’t let anyone hurt her again. Losing her family, and then being shuttled off to America, away from everything she had ever known, almost destroyed her. Her aunt and uncle only agreed to take her in because they were paid to do so. As time passed, causing Lazonby’s downfall kept Lisette going. All of her dreams, all of her emotions, were cast aside for her all consuming need for revenge. I believed that Lisette was ruthless enough to murder a man in cold blood, just as Napier did, and that made her a very interesting heroine, indeed!
The romance between Napier and Lisette developed slowly and realistically, given their mutual suspicion of each other. As they spent more time together, though, it was obvious that they were a perfect match. They complimented each other, and gave strength to each other. Their attraction was unrelenting, and after they got to know each other better, their mutual respect made the romance work for me. They still didn’t trust each other, and they were keeping big, big secrets from each other, but with the foundation of respect they had built, I knew that they could overcome all of the other obstacles in their lives.
The mystery is fun and I didn’t see the major plot twist coming. My one quibble with A Bride by Moonlight is that it felt too long, especially near the end.
"A Bride By Moonlight" by Liz Carlyle, a goodreads firstreads giveaway, is a contemporary historical romance (meaning contemporary morals in a historical setting). Overall the story was very good but a bit drawn out with 417 pages.
Characters: Heroine has a vengeful past. Hero is a police commissioner. World Building: Not much. Standard. Plot: Unexplained deaths. Largely internal. Doesn't really further larger story arc. Sex: Medium. Read another: Probably.
