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Destiny's Magic
Foretold to meet his bride on his thirtieth birthday, Mississippi riverboat captain Burke O'Brien vows to avoid his fate but nevertheless meets stowaway Susan Seymour, who is fleeing a cruel father. Original.
315 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1996
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22 people want to read
About the author
Martha Hix
22 books114 followers I’m a Texan. Born and bred. I wish I could say I grew up on a cattle ranch or had pump jacks working in my backyard, but I can’t. I’m from Dallas. My people were doctors, lumbermen, a tinker, merchants, plus a guy in Corrigan who owned a hotel-bar-livery stable. He also ran his own personal loan agency.
But I did have the good fortune to spend a great deal of time all over the state as a child, a lot of it in West Texas and in the Hill Country. I’ve spent most of my adult life in Austin, San Antonio, and the Hill Country, which ain’t a bad gig. I get to go to Luckenbach, Texas, whenever I please, although Willie and Waylon are never there. I do know quite a bit about Texas beer joints.
As a kid, I didn’t mind listening to stories about how at least five earlier generations of my ancestors had been in the Lone Star State for a long, long time. Well, in Texas that just meant more than a hundred years. This weird kid soaked up the stories. I never got tired of listening. My curiosity sure came in handy when I took up the obsession known as genealogy. That was ions before Ancestry.com came about, back when you had to travel to courthouses or sit and go through reel after reel of census records and so forth to figure out your own little green leaves. My interest in general history really came in handy when I took up writing both fiction and non-fiction.
There are a lot of great things to be said about writing fiction and true stories—I concentrated on stories about people and the history of businesses—but we won’t get into that. I will brag on myself and say that my romance novels were translated into many foreign languages, some of them very foreign, like Japanese, Greek, and Turkish.
On the home front, I’m still in the fabulous Texas Hill Country with my husband and our spoiled four-legged kids. The two-legged young’uns have grown up and moved on. We have four fabulous grandkids—a granddaughter and three grandsons, plus a wee great-granddaughter. I find it simply amazing that I—still a young chick writing hot love stories and cleaner stories about men and women trying to tame this place called Texas!—have lived long enough to enjoy a great-grandchild. Me—that chick with great-grandparents who were involved in the Civil War. Two were Confederates, one was a Union soldier, and then there was the fellow who owned slaves but wouldn’t fight for the South. Don’t get me started—I have lots of tales to tell!
I do love to write about historical events and oddball people. Oh! I forgot to tell you. I hail from a family of writers.* On the Yankee side of my family. I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t listened to what the elders had to say. And, boy howdy, could they spin the tales. See there. You pick up all sorts of stories, when you listen to what the old folks have to say.
*One is an author hereabouts, but I won't embarrass her by naming her!
Thanks for stopping by and listening to what I have to say. If you've read one of my books and enjoyed it, thank you. If you didn't enjoy it, try another one. I think I've finally come to realize what makes these stories tick. This new method got started with HIS RIP-ROARIN' BRIDE. Would appreciate if you'd let me know what you think.
But I did have the good fortune to spend a great deal of time all over the state as a child, a lot of it in West Texas and in the Hill Country. I’ve spent most of my adult life in Austin, San Antonio, and the Hill Country, which ain’t a bad gig. I get to go to Luckenbach, Texas, whenever I please, although Willie and Waylon are never there. I do know quite a bit about Texas beer joints.
As a kid, I didn’t mind listening to stories about how at least five earlier generations of my ancestors had been in the Lone Star State for a long, long time. Well, in Texas that just meant more than a hundred years. This weird kid soaked up the stories. I never got tired of listening. My curiosity sure came in handy when I took up the obsession known as genealogy. That was ions before Ancestry.com came about, back when you had to travel to courthouses or sit and go through reel after reel of census records and so forth to figure out your own little green leaves. My interest in general history really came in handy when I took up writing both fiction and non-fiction.
There are a lot of great things to be said about writing fiction and true stories—I concentrated on stories about people and the history of businesses—but we won’t get into that. I will brag on myself and say that my romance novels were translated into many foreign languages, some of them very foreign, like Japanese, Greek, and Turkish.
On the home front, I’m still in the fabulous Texas Hill Country with my husband and our spoiled four-legged kids. The two-legged young’uns have grown up and moved on. We have four fabulous grandkids—a granddaughter and three grandsons, plus a wee great-granddaughter. I find it simply amazing that I—still a young chick writing hot love stories and cleaner stories about men and women trying to tame this place called Texas!—have lived long enough to enjoy a great-grandchild. Me—that chick with great-grandparents who were involved in the Civil War. Two were Confederates, one was a Union soldier, and then there was the fellow who owned slaves but wouldn’t fight for the South. Don’t get me started—I have lots of tales to tell!
I do love to write about historical events and oddball people. Oh! I forgot to tell you. I hail from a family of writers.* On the Yankee side of my family. I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t listened to what the elders had to say. And, boy howdy, could they spin the tales. See there. You pick up all sorts of stories, when you listen to what the old folks have to say.
*One is an author hereabouts, but I won't embarrass her by naming her!
Thanks for stopping by and listening to what I have to say. If you've read one of my books and enjoyed it, thank you. If you didn't enjoy it, try another one. I think I've finally come to realize what makes these stories tick. This new method got started with HIS RIP-ROARIN' BRIDE. Would appreciate if you'd let me know what you think.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 3, 2023
There's no way in hell the hero will allow another aunt to manipulate him or put him under another magical hex so he's bard himself off in his room until the stroke of midnight on his 30th birthday has past and he can be free. Long ago, his grandmother found a magical lamp and inside she's released a genie. She then used this lamp to wish for her 3 grandsons to be destined to find and marriage the women meant for them. Nice gesture yes but one with horrible consequences.
The hero loved a woman, and she died giving birth to their child-all because she was not the woman fate had chosen for him. In his rage he vowed to never be a slave to the magical lamp again. And he thought he made it. So, thinking he was free, he reluctantly allowed the heroine and her son on his ship after seeing her battered face and hearing her tale of an abusive husband. The heroine may have been the circus master’s mistress but she was not his wife, and the boy with her is not her son. Yet she loves him and will anything to protect him. She thinks the crappy captain just as harsh and violent as her 'husband' was what with his yelling and sexual innuendos. Yet regardless, she soon comes to enjoy his company as he makes her feel desirable. Then the bomb drops. The hero's birthday was not actually his birthday and it turns out he met the heroine before he turned 30 so in his mind, despite his rage, she is meant to be his wife. He may despise magic and the cage it's put him in but he's a believer in the lamp and as such demands that she marries him. The heroine refuses, wanting a husband who loves her not a man who is bitter because he must marry her. And the hero may lust after her but she's convinced he'll never love her. But when her hopes of reconciling with her father are dashed, it leaves her no choice but accept his offer of marriage for the good of her son.
The hero makes it clear he's marrying her only to satisfy the magic and that they will divorce after the year is up. Now I don't really know why he made this vow to her, be it because he considered it to be something she wanted or if he actually meant to go through with it but regardless the heroine believed him. In fact, he makes it very easy to believe in the notion that he desires only her body because he hardly ever talks to her, or spends time with her. And when he does, he can be cruel and mean and say things to initial their many arguments. However, the hero holds a secret. He loves the heroine. Has since that first night in his cabin. Yet he's vowed (yet another pointless vow) to keep his feelings secret until she confesses hers first. This causes a whole lot of problems. The heroine believes him indifferent and questions his actions and honor at every step. The fact that his wife is refusing to trust him makes him angry and in turn, all of his gestures eventually turn into fights. It doesn't help matters that he grieves his dead love, even calling out her name on his sick bed as well as keeping mistresses around (though he's faithful to his wife) It finally gets to the point that something has to break else what little marriage they do have will go down in flames.
This book was exhausting to read because of the amount of arguments the hero and heroine had. Both were equal participants in starting their battles and neither were exempt from hurting the other. Many a time I winced, thinking ' what the hell did you say that? Like why did the hero constantly snap at the heroine, why did he treat her like a mistress rather than a wife by seeming to only care about their carnal relationship. And why did the heroine have to constantly berate him about his past affairs? It was painful to read about her harping on about Vell to the hero even knowing he was dealing with her murder. It was just pointless arguing for most of the book and it did seem to be a very unhealthy relationship. As such I struggled to relate to either the hero or the heroine as I found them both immature and childish towards one another. And the whole aggressive sex conversations were odd. Plus...a genie? Really? That was by far the most out of place aspect of this book and honesty...it was really weird.
The hero loved a woman, and she died giving birth to their child-all because she was not the woman fate had chosen for him. In his rage he vowed to never be a slave to the magical lamp again. And he thought he made it. So, thinking he was free, he reluctantly allowed the heroine and her son on his ship after seeing her battered face and hearing her tale of an abusive husband. The heroine may have been the circus master’s mistress but she was not his wife, and the boy with her is not her son. Yet she loves him and will anything to protect him. She thinks the crappy captain just as harsh and violent as her 'husband' was what with his yelling and sexual innuendos. Yet regardless, she soon comes to enjoy his company as he makes her feel desirable. Then the bomb drops. The hero's birthday was not actually his birthday and it turns out he met the heroine before he turned 30 so in his mind, despite his rage, she is meant to be his wife. He may despise magic and the cage it's put him in but he's a believer in the lamp and as such demands that she marries him. The heroine refuses, wanting a husband who loves her not a man who is bitter because he must marry her. And the hero may lust after her but she's convinced he'll never love her. But when her hopes of reconciling with her father are dashed, it leaves her no choice but accept his offer of marriage for the good of her son.
The hero makes it clear he's marrying her only to satisfy the magic and that they will divorce after the year is up. Now I don't really know why he made this vow to her, be it because he considered it to be something she wanted or if he actually meant to go through with it but regardless the heroine believed him. In fact, he makes it very easy to believe in the notion that he desires only her body because he hardly ever talks to her, or spends time with her. And when he does, he can be cruel and mean and say things to initial their many arguments. However, the hero holds a secret. He loves the heroine. Has since that first night in his cabin. Yet he's vowed (yet another pointless vow) to keep his feelings secret until she confesses hers first. This causes a whole lot of problems. The heroine believes him indifferent and questions his actions and honor at every step. The fact that his wife is refusing to trust him makes him angry and in turn, all of his gestures eventually turn into fights. It doesn't help matters that he grieves his dead love, even calling out her name on his sick bed as well as keeping mistresses around (though he's faithful to his wife) It finally gets to the point that something has to break else what little marriage they do have will go down in flames.
This book was exhausting to read because of the amount of arguments the hero and heroine had. Both were equal participants in starting their battles and neither were exempt from hurting the other. Many a time I winced, thinking ' what the hell did you say that? Like why did the hero constantly snap at the heroine, why did he treat her like a mistress rather than a wife by seeming to only care about their carnal relationship. And why did the heroine have to constantly berate him about his past affairs? It was painful to read about her harping on about Vell to the hero even knowing he was dealing with her murder. It was just pointless arguing for most of the book and it did seem to be a very unhealthy relationship. As such I struggled to relate to either the hero or the heroine as I found them both immature and childish towards one another. And the whole aggressive sex conversations were odd. Plus...a genie? Really? That was by far the most out of place aspect of this book and honesty...it was really weird.
April 20, 2022
Loved this story much more than the first one. It has more action in it for me, a little hoodoo/voodoo, and partly takes place in Louisiana, my home state. Captain Burke O’Brien is a tortured soul having lost a lady love a few years back. He blames himself for her loss. He's now trying to get past his 30th birthday without becoming hitched to a woman (His Aunt Phoebe and Tessa have a magic lamp they made wishes on to have their three nephews meet their future wife on their 30th birthday). Right before the clock strikes 12 midnight ending his birthday, his crew lets his Aunt Phoebe, lady Susanna and Pippin, her son, on board. Burke hasn't seen his aunt in 4 years because of her supposed "black magic" lamp being partly to blame on his lady loves death. Burke doesn't throw them off his boat and instead lets them stay. This is the beginning of their adventure. Enjoy!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews