I was hoping that Holt was going to surprise me with this one. Have the sensible heroine just marry the very good man that was standing in front of her. Instead we have the fact that the man had affairs and tried to rape the heroine hand-waved away by saying that she is needed in order for him to change. Bah to that noise. I really did like the plot in this one (there were two of them) and the characters were much more developed than I have found in other Holt books. Holt apes a lot of Gothic romance tropes here, but geez Louise I hated the hero in this one. I wanted him to just fall down a hole and die. There was nothing redeeming about the guy.

"The Time of the Hunter's Moon" by Victoria Holt is  another Gothic romance I can now check off my list. So far the highest rating I have given a Holt book is "Mistress of Mellyn" which I gave five stars. 

The main character in this, Cordelia, when we first meet her, is away at a school to "finish herself." She has been raised by her Aunt Patty and is looking forward to the day she is home permanently and can help her aunt run her own school. When Cordelia and her friend come upon a man in the woods, Cordelia is instantly absorbed with thoughts of him. When she finally returns home for the final time after finishing school she runs into him again and starts to think of him romantically. When he disappears without coming back to see her again she wonders what happened to him. However, she finds out that her aunt has to sell their home and Cordelia finds a position at a school which has her forced to interact with a major force in the village. The hero (I say lightly) is named Jason Verringer and he's a typical Gothic hero. Dark and brooding and just terrible. He attempts to rape the heroine at one point, and is literally shocked she cuts herself to get away from him. And then tells her if not for her, he could change. Bah dude. I wished the whole time that something would fall on his head. 

Cordelia is sensible and smart and I thought had a lot more fire than the recent batch of Holt heroines I have been reading about prior to this one.

The writing was a little too modernish at times, but I think the book is supposed to take place in the late 1800s. I don't know. Holt doesn't include any references that I can think of at the top of my head that I can use to date the book. The flow was actually pretty good until we get towards the end. Then I think Holt suddenly realized she needed to resolve two plot points and didn't do a great job with either of them. 

The ending was not set up very well. We have a mystery finally resolved about one of the male characters we were introduced to earlier in the book, but Holt throws up a couple of paragraphs and counts it as mission accomplished. I noticed with her books she was not that great at tying up loose ends in her books. 

The hero is now threatening to rape the heroine and wants proof that she can give him a son? I seriously hope he is dead by the end of this book. What gets me is that she's still a young woman who was not raised to just go along and be a mistress. He had already has one mistress installed who had a daughter that he's not interested in at all. And of course the wife that died at the beginning that many are whispering he murdered. I hope Cordelia kills this dude.

Onto part 2. I really don't like one of the heroes in this one, Jason Verringer. He reminds me a bit of the character in "On the Night of the Seventh Moon" where the guy is a philandering POS, but the heroine for some inexplicable reason is drawn to him. It doesn't really work in this one since Cordelia is strong-willed and not stupid. The headmistress of the school keeps warning Cordelia to not let one of the students get so fond of her. I am wondering if that is some foreboding that is coming about that?

Still very enjoyable. Probably because the heroine (Cordelia) is not being bowled over by a philandering rich guy in this one. I like this a lot better because Holt is taking time to develop the main character and secondary characters. The school that Cordelia is teaching at sounds very realistic for the times and I love how close she has gotten to one of the girl there. She hasn't thought or mentioned the mysterious man she met while at school who seemingly followed/stalked her to her hometown though in a while.