Moonwitch - Nicole Jordan

Night’s Beauty…

When sea captain Kyle Ramsey met Selena Markham on a moonlit beach, her ethereal beauty left him stunned. But when he discovered that she wanted him to make love to her, he was flabbergasted.

Selena's fiancé was betraying her with another woman, and she was sick with rage. Making love to a devastating stranger seemed the perfect revenge . . . .

Their lovemaking carried them to the heights of passion, but society's response was predictable. Forced into marriage, the unexpected lovers charted a stormy course rocked by bitterness and anger. Were they destined to spend their lives in misery? Or could the moon bewitch them once again--for good?

I've been a bit afraid lately of picking up these older Nicole Jordan books. Some were wonderful and sit on my keeper shelf (planning a reread one of these days) but others felt terribly dated and without interest. I'm glad to say this one stands in the middle. Not as good as some but still much better than others.

Selena Markham discovers her fiancé is cheating on her with another woman and shocked and desperate searches for captain Kyle Ramsey whom she had encountered earlier and been kissed by and they make love. She tries to break her engagement and as the fiancé is not interested in that (he wanted a marriage of convenience to get her lands) she devises a plan and pretends to be secretly engaged to Kyle Ramsey.
Ramsey is not interested in marrying and refuses to be a part of her plan. How ever Selena's stepmother (who is her fiancé's lover and wants to marry him) publicly humiliates her at a party they all attend and to save her from public humiliation Kyle steps forward and agrees to marry her. It does sound like a big cliché so far but this is really the beginning and the good part is yet to come.

After they leave the Caribbean where the action starts to the Mississippi where Kyle lives Selena starts to get to know Kyle. Eventually she finds out he has 4 sisters, is an orphan and the reason he didn't want to marry her is because he fathered a child with another woman and was planning to ask the mother of his child to marry him just to be near his son.

I really liked the characters, they were interesting and complex especially Selena. She is the one who has to adapt to a new reality, new people who have their own problems which she does her best to help with, she tries to bring her husband's child closer to the family by inviting his mother to visit, she even has a hand in bettering the slave's working conditions and she manages to seduce her husband in the process. Come to think of it she sounds too good to be truth. The book also has some funny moments, for instance the scene where she goes to the brothel to find Kyle and ends up receiving advice from a prostitute on how to seduce him.

It was a nice and pleasant read!

Grade: B