Stealing Midnight is definitely a cut above the recent run of historical romances I've read. The main reason?
Its hero and heroine come across as real characters with flaws, strengths, and believable conversations. The author also writes a convincing love story
- the reader can believe in the romance and appreciate it.
The story starts in rather a gothic manner.
Two corpses are dug up by resurrectionists and taken to a mysterious Keep in Wales where they are to be dissected.
There we meet Olwyn Gawain, a young woman who has to assist her mad father as he works on dead bodies,
trying to find the spark of life. When Olwyn realizes that one of the corpses isn't actually dead
but merely in a coma, she decides the time has come to escape for good and to take this man with her.
When duke's son Aidan Mullen wakes up naked in a mud-floored hut with a woman wearing odd garb, he's not sure if he's travelled backward in time.
He soon discovers what's going on and agrees to help Olwyn escape her father.
Already engaged to a society woman, somehow Aidan can't get Olwyn out of his mind. When he takes Olwyn to his home with his family - and his fiancée - he doesn't realize the danger that might be coming to the household. But is the special relationship developing between him and Olwyn more important, and can he get out of his engagement?
I very much enjoyed this story, both the setting and the writing style. The plot doesn't
always entirely work, particularly regarding Olwyn's tendency to behave recklessly, and the historical accuracy suffers in terms of modern American dialogue at times, but overall it's
quite a good read with a convincing love story and an interesting cast of characters.