I read this story a little over a year ago (~April 2019) after I read “The Elusive Wife” by Callie Hutton. Because they begin so similarly & I didn’t recall the details, I thought one may have plagiarized the other. So I read Midnight Marriage again to compare & found they are very different stories. Both are 5-star stories worthy of repeated readings.
SYNOPSIS:
This story begins with 15 year old H/Julian Hesham, Marquis of Alston, heir to the powerful Duke of Roxton, and 12 year old h/Deborah Cavendish, (Deb) considerable heiress, cousin to a Duke, & sister of a Baron, who are brought together at midnight to be married. Dazed & swaying between dream & consciousness, Deb was wakened from a sound sleep & fed laudanum to insure her compliance. Julian was drunk, extremely agitated & remorseful following his scandalous, public spectacle denigrating his mother. His father the Duke wants to exile him from England via the “grand tour” long enough to allow the scandal to recede. The forced marriage is to prevent his son from wedding an unsuitable bride when he reaches his majority while on the continent. The ceremony was attended by the Duke, Julian’s godfather, & Deb’s eldest brother, a Baron, who was eager to see his sister married to the heir of the most wealthy & powerful Duke in the kingdom as it would greatly elevate his social status & influence. Julian’s godfather & Deb’s brother are charged with keeping her safe & unmarried until Julian returns.
Deb has all but forgotten the incident relegating it to a haunting childhood dream. At 18 years old, she incurred society’s censure by running off to France to care for the family black sheep, her sick musician brother, & his son until her beloved brother died. She returned to Bath with her orphaned nephew after securing her brother’s agreement to let her live independently with her nephew & her deceased brother’s major domo as a family watch dog.
Eight years later Julian returns to England hotly pursued by an outraged Parisian father who believes Julian ruined his daughter. The father and his two lackeys force Julian into a duel which leaves Julian seriously wounded & bleeding in the Avon forest. This is where Deb & her nephew stumble upon the injured marquis. She sends the nephew to fetch a doctor while she binds his wound using her own shirt as a bandage. Julian is weak & in pain. but he’s intrigued by the lovely Deb & carries on a conversation in an unsuccessful effort to learn her name. Eventually he passes out & wakes 3 days later in bed in his godfather’s house. Now the story proceeds with Julian trying to identify & locate the girl who tended him in the forest & Deb trying to find out what happened to her handsome, injured duelist.
They meet again shortly thereafter at the godfather’s house where Julian has been staying during his recovery and Deb has come for one of her weekly visits to socialize & practice speaking French with the godfather. This is where Julian learns Deb is his forest savior & the mousy little girl he was forced to marry so long ago. But, knowing Deb has forgotten the marriage, he keeps the secret and introduces himself as Mr. Julian Hesham, Esq., hoping she will get to know him & love him for himself rather than his lofty consequence. She does, and she agrees to marry Julian Hesham, an ordinary gentleman.
Deb is happily in love for two & a half months when she happens upon a clandestine conversation between Julian & 2 French lawyers & learns he is the most disreputable rake, the Marquis of Alston, heir to a Duke, & the miserable 15 year old boy she remembered only as a dream. She is stunned & outraged at his deception, feeling she’s been used, nothing more than a pawn in service to his family’s dynastic preservation. Deb’s acrimonious outburst incites Julian to confirm her worst accusations in a series of disdainful retorts, leaving her devastated & heartbroken. Now she is determined to put an end to their union one way or another. This is one of two major conflicts that propel the story. The other separate but related major conflict concerns the outraged father who brings a breach of promise suit against Julian in the French court for the alleged ruination of his daughter. Now the story follows the ups & many more downs of their stormy relationship.
MY CRITIQUE::
This story was very well written & edited. Each chapter fully develops its subject matter in a way that informs the next & keeps the story flowing naturally. There are no wasted props or people in this story. Every character serves a purpose that furthers the storyline which never loses sight of the central romance. The main characters are so well developed that we come to know them intimately as friend or foe. Deb is a spirited, independent, strong young woman of firm moral character & convictions & very likeable. As a female, I had great empathy & admiration for her. I felt the joy of her first love & hopes for the future. I felt the sting of Julian’s cruel epithets, the pain of her heartbreak, & I wept with her.
Julian was actually an honorable man despite his arrogance, his fits of temper, & crucial lapses in forethought & judgement. I believe It would have gone much better if he’d told his wife the truth about his identity & the circumstances of their marriage before she stumbled upon it so suddenly without preamble or reassurance of his love for her. But that would have been a somewhat different story. And, of course, his handling of that incident was deplorable. I was so angry with him for the spitefulness of his response & for allowing their estrangement to go on for so long (from 48% to 80% of the story according to my digital copy).
There was a moment they might have resolved their differences when Deb came to Paris & revealed her pregnancy to Julian. They stood gazing at each other, both longing for the other to say or do something would “end this nightmare.” But the moment passed & Deb turned from him to his cousin’s comforting embrace. Stubborn pride & hurt feelings fueled misinterpretation, misunderstanding & self-righteous anger on the parts of both Deb & Julian & stoked their smoldering discord. Then the author gives us an intimate peek into Julian’s heart when he flees the room but stops on the stairs & “…slumped against the wall and slowly slid down the paneling to the bottom step. Here he covered his face with his hands and sobbed.” This passage made my heart ache for Julian & confirmed his love for Deb.
He won me over completely at the last 20% of the story when he apologized at last for the hurtful words he’d hurled at her in the past & his reasons for deceiving her in a soul searing confession of full disclosure. Then I rejoiced with Deb when he convincingly proclaimed his wholehearted love for her. My heart ached & stuttered & swelled with all the emotions these two experienced throughout the story.
Of the approximately 350 HRs I’ve read so far, I’ve only given a handful of 5-star ratings. Not that many of them achieve this standard of excellence in writing & storytelling. Need I say that I loved this story and its very human protagonists.
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Popular Highlights in this book
Love must be on equal terms, she had said: Honesty, mutual respect, pleasure, all must be given and received in equal measure and from the first night alone together as man and wife.Highlighted by 142 Kindle readers- “I have no heart, Martin,” she answered dully. “Your godson just tore it from me.”Highlighted by 124 Kindle readers
From the Publisher
More than a Big Dress
What does it take to make cover art that depicts the actual characters, fashions, locations, and even the jewellery described in the story? Find out in Lucinda Brant’s Midnight Marriage Cover Reveal blog post. See Deb and Julian come to life in the Behind-The-Scenes covershoot video at the LucindaBrantAuthor YouTube channel. Details in the book.
Love History?
Explore the real people, places, and objects in Midnight Marriage on Lucinda Brant’s dedicated Pinterest board. Details inside the book.
About the author
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2020
- Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2025
Top reviews from other countries
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Beatrix FitzeReviewed in Germany on January 14, 2018
Highly descriptive, multi layered, very enjoyable!
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Non Solo RomanceReviewed in Italy on July 20, 2014
Midnight Marriage:Serie Roxton libro 2
