Wait Until Midnight

by Amanda Quick

 

 

I guess it’s entirely possible that I subconsciously recalled the heroine of Wait Until Midnight being a sensational novelist when I had read the summary blurb; but the truth is, it’s kind of coincidental that I read two Amanda Quick books in succession and both involved a novelist as one of the main characters. What’s more astounding is that Wait Until Midnight proved to be the engaging, enjoyable, and entertaining historical mystery and romantic suspense book that I had been expecting from Amanda Quick when I had picked up her other book, ’Til Death Do Us Part.

Especially when I hadn’t really been expecting much more than something similar to ’Til Death Do Us Part.

I’m not entirely sure why I feel this way. Both books had their faults and neither book was entirely, one hundred percent perfect. Neither were either of the books really all that terrible either. But while one ended up being a slightly less than mediocre read, the other was a very enjoyable, very likable story.

I can’t entirely pinpoint why it is that I liked one over the other, but there was definitely a different feel. While ’Til Death Do Us Part felt like a rush project through and through, Wait Until Midnight actually felt like there was plenty of thought put into the story’s entire process, from the writing, to the progression, and especially with the characters.

Even the murder mystery was pretty intriguing. Sure, there were a lot of over-dramatic twists and secret reveals that were a little more over hyped than I would have liked, but all in all, this was the far superior of the two books. I found that I enjoyed the tidbits about psychical investigations and what it was like during historical times. I like the way our couple goes about their discreet investigations much more so than the awkward partnership from the other Amanda Quick book.

But anyway, enough of the comparisons. This should be a post about Wait Until Midnight. Except that I don’t really have much else to say about it.

Character-wise, I loved Caroline’s eccentricities and loved that she didn’t let any of society’s restrictions on women hamper her ability to live life the way she needed to live it. I loved that she wasn’t just another meek little woman, or that even though she IS innocent in some ways, in other ways she’s technically more experienced than many others who would be in her position.

Adam was hard to like in the beginning, and being that he exhibited every bit of carbon-copy main male hero trait that could be possible, I didn’t expect much from him. And while he DID start off as a bit of an ass, I’m satisfied that he and Caroline end up being a great couple and a great set of partners during their investigations. The romance COULD have been a little steamier or a little spicier, but I actually kind of found the first sex scene a bit more pragmatic than you would typically see in most category romances.

Not that the love story and the sex didn’t also exhibit some dated ideals, but this IS historical fiction after all and I’ll take what I can get when I’m thoroughly enjoying the book, even if there are a lot of things that DID make me wince or roll my eyes. It didn’t escape my notice that both Amanda Quick books I have read have had a heroine who is a virgin, and who neglects to tell the man she’s about to have sex with that she is a virgin… and then awkward moments ensue for a little bit after they still manage to have breathtaking sex. Frankly, I found the similarities of both scenes in the two different books (both written a decade apart) glaringly obvious and kind of distracting.

Nonetheless, setting aside some of the tackiness and the cheese, Wait Until Midnight was extremely enjoyable!


***

2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge

 

 

He looked reluctantly fascinated and, perhaps, bemused. "You took notes about my appearance and attire so that you could apply them to the hero of your story?"

"Heavens, no," she assured him with an airy wave of her hand. "Whatever gave you that idea? Edmund Drake is not the hero of my tale. He is the villain of the piece."

I was thoroughly tickled by this last quote in chapter two, if only because the main "hero," Mr. Adam Hardesty had been such an ass up to this point.  But I had a good single "Ha!" moment.  Because the entire time that Caroline was jotting down her notes and getting so excited about this new character muse, I also thought that she'd intended to use Adam Hardesty as a mold for her book's hero.

It's so nice to see him brought down a slight peg, even if off-handedly.  I'm sure there's more to him than the dark, dangerous, and broody, but to be totally honest, he'd been nothing short of rude since his appearance, so I'm looking forward to seeing how this relationship turns out.

Having recently finished Amanda Quick's most recent 'Til Death Do Us Part and finding it a little lacking (review to come soon), I kind of decided to run out and check out another of her books, one that had a lot of good reviews and more praise.  I noted that many others were also disappointed with a lot of her most recent work and there is a lot of good critique about her backlist.  Wait Until Midnight seemed to have a good number of positive reviews, so I wanted to give it a go.

Of course, I wasn't going to start reading it until a bit later since I had a tentative reading list with two other books I need to finish first... but I couldn't help myself.

Anyway, it's only chapter two, so I haven't formed an concrete opinions yet.  Again, I was just kind of tickled by the exchange above between our hero and heroine.  However, I am finding that I like Caroline Fordyce's eccentric behavior, what with her excitement over getting a visitor with a matter of "grave importance" baiting her curiosity.

Hopefully this book turns out to be interesting.  I'm finding this new foray into historical fiction kind of interesting, and I DO find Amanda Quick's (a.k.a. Jayne Castle, Jayne Ann Krentz) writing style likable.

This is one of those books that isn't terribly stretching on an intellectual plane and you have a pretty fair idea of what's going to happen almost as soon as the main protagonists are introduced. But, you know what, it's still just a good fun read.It's a murder mystery mixed with romance, which is rather fun. The main protagonosts are Adam, who was born on the poor side of town, but is now an accepted member of the social elite and Caroline, who writes serialised sensational novels for a newspaper as Mrs Fordyce, but has, in fact, invented the late Mr Fordyce in order to cover a scandal in her past.The murder is of a spirit medium and is muddled up with an attempt to blackmail Adam and his family with their past. So there's lots of tosh & poppycock about psychic abilities and the spirit world. It's all a bit shady and underhand and there are some pretty dodgy characters populating the mystery side of the story. the romantic side of the story is not terribly intrusive (certainly some of her other, purer romances run at a higher temperature than this one does) and they sort of move the story on. It's a fun trip, fairly quick read in which you know the ending will be a happy one, you're just not entirely sure of the route that they're going to take to arrive at the happy ending. That's part of the feeling of security, you know any tension will be resolved eventually. So it's a slightly guilty, candyfloss four stars.

Adam and Caroline

I just do not like the narrators for Krentz/Quick books. They make the books semi-unlistenable for me.

I'm listening to the audiobook but also have the paperback of this book.

Adam goes to confront a local psychic and finds her murdered body. He also finds a list of the people that were at the seance that night which include Carolyn. He goes to talk to Carolyn the next day and he learns a little bit about her and she learns a little bit about him. Actually this audiobook was pretty boring and I had to force myself to finish it. I am keeping neither the audiobook or the paperback.