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Midnight Angel
Lady Lydia Beaumont, who, disguised as a man, roams the streets of London at night, rescuing unfortunate women from danger, must place her trust in Lord Hugh Montgomery, the very same man who nearly ruined her life, when a young girl is kidnapped. Original.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 2, 2003
50 people want to read
About the author
Julie Beard
18 books22 followersJulie Beard is a former journalist who brings her reporting skills to her award-winning, bestselling novels. Imagine investigating weapons of the Middle Ages, or the importance of reputations in the Victorian era, as she did when writing Midnight Angel (Berkley Sensation, December 2003). Julie has been hailed for her ability to magically recreate the distant past. Now she's busy "world building" in the future.
Julie was one of the launch authors for the Silhouette Bombshell series, a new line of romantic action/adventure novels. She debuted with Kiss of the Blue Dragon (August 2004) featuring 28-year-old Angel Baker, a certified retribution specialist who strives to see justice done in the year 2104. The sequel, Touch of the White Tiger, will be a September 2005 release.
Julie was a reporter and a news writer before turning her writing skills to more creative venues. She worked as the night beat for KSDK-TV, covering everything from murders to visiting politicians to hometown parades. As a news writer at the Fox affiliate in Chicago, she wrote copy for the legendary news anchor Walter Jacobson and Robin Robinson.
Julie also has given dozens of workshops and lectures around the country at community colleges, bookstores and writers conferences. She's conducted seminars and written articles about editing, writing, promotions and journalism. She wrote the popular "how-to" book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published. This comprehensive nonfiction title offers advice on everything from plotting and editing a novel to finding an agent and publisher.
Julie graduated from Northwestern University's prestigious Medill School of Journalism with a master of science degree in journalism. She graduated with a B.F.A. in theatre arts from Stephens College. She lives with her husband, two children and two incorrigible basenjis in the Midwest.
Sourced from: http://www.eharlequin.com/author.html...
Julie was one of the launch authors for the Silhouette Bombshell series, a new line of romantic action/adventure novels. She debuted with Kiss of the Blue Dragon (August 2004) featuring 28-year-old Angel Baker, a certified retribution specialist who strives to see justice done in the year 2104. The sequel, Touch of the White Tiger, will be a September 2005 release.
Julie was a reporter and a news writer before turning her writing skills to more creative venues. She worked as the night beat for KSDK-TV, covering everything from murders to visiting politicians to hometown parades. As a news writer at the Fox affiliate in Chicago, she wrote copy for the legendary news anchor Walter Jacobson and Robin Robinson.
Julie also has given dozens of workshops and lectures around the country at community colleges, bookstores and writers conferences. She's conducted seminars and written articles about editing, writing, promotions and journalism. She wrote the popular "how-to" book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published. This comprehensive nonfiction title offers advice on everything from plotting and editing a novel to finding an agent and publisher.
Julie graduated from Northwestern University's prestigious Medill School of Journalism with a master of science degree in journalism. She graduated with a B.F.A. in theatre arts from Stephens College. She lives with her husband, two children and two incorrigible basenjis in the Midwest.
Sourced from: http://www.eharlequin.com/author.html...
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 4, 2010
I'll admit i gave up on this book. It got too weird and it wasn't doing anything for me. I really found the romance flat and the mystery weird and not weird in a good way. I just couldn't finish the book nor did i want too.
November 17, 2020
This one is a bit strange for me. It's competent and pieces are there I usually enjoy but it never drew me in.
The prose is good, the settings good, the characters promise to be interesting. But there's not a lot of fire in any of it, and I felt removed from the leads and the proceedings for most of it, not only because they are analytical but the writing is as well.
There's almost too many characters who give away too many personal details of a bawdy nature that get accepted and sped past. I sense this was to set up a feeling of safe conviviality among the small band who team up to solve the mystery, but the payoff isn't quite there for it to coalesce.
Reputation more than action gives the leads initial purpose and agency. But the midnight angel conceit is abandoned quickly and too easily, and lord clue's legendary keen prowess never fully shows up. Again, I sense these were metaphors for the type of case they were thrown together to solve and that being thrown together changed their methods and the course of their current lives, but that never gelled.
The degradation--past and present--of both leads pushes into almost absurdity. I didn't feel my morals bristling, more I'm simply not sure the character subplots of opium/whoring were necessary, in large part because they didn't affect anything. They just existed to show the depths of despair the leads sank to once parted, and to survive, at all and without the other. And then were cured/forgiven quite easily. Yes it gave the leads some internal doubts, but they had enough of those to go around, and enough external hurdles to conquer in order to be together at last.
For all that they were anguished with barely-healed scars from five years' of uncertainty and separation, they didn't really show it. I didn't mind that they were still completely in love and ready to fall back into that but again, no real fire in it. Just foregone conclusion, including tertiary characters clearing the way for their HEA before they even got there, so once arrived, it wasn't so much the way had been smoothed but already established, and all their internal worries evaporated without the other being the one to forgive or relieve it.
I don't know, I felt the opium/whoring was thrown in for grittiness and abasement-in-heartbreak, but the step-removed voice and easy resolution made it seem tawdry and titillating rather than true threats or actual heartbreaks. I wanted their conflict to be more personal and less a part of the seedy underworld they entered to solve the mystery.
Which, the mystery was sound and had a good twist. All the villains conveniently dispatch themselves in various ways but they make things interesting along the way.
At least now they can together fight crime, and live in the country away from scandalized society, and make up for lost time. Good enough.
The prose is good, the settings good, the characters promise to be interesting. But there's not a lot of fire in any of it, and I felt removed from the leads and the proceedings for most of it, not only because they are analytical but the writing is as well.
There's almost too many characters who give away too many personal details of a bawdy nature that get accepted and sped past. I sense this was to set up a feeling of safe conviviality among the small band who team up to solve the mystery, but the payoff isn't quite there for it to coalesce.
Reputation more than action gives the leads initial purpose and agency. But the midnight angel conceit is abandoned quickly and too easily, and lord clue's legendary keen prowess never fully shows up. Again, I sense these were metaphors for the type of case they were thrown together to solve and that being thrown together changed their methods and the course of their current lives, but that never gelled.
The degradation--past and present--of both leads pushes into almost absurdity. I didn't feel my morals bristling, more I'm simply not sure the character subplots of opium/whoring were necessary, in large part because they didn't affect anything. They just existed to show the depths of despair the leads sank to once parted, and to survive, at all and without the other. And then were cured/forgiven quite easily. Yes it gave the leads some internal doubts, but they had enough of those to go around, and enough external hurdles to conquer in order to be together at last.
For all that they were anguished with barely-healed scars from five years' of uncertainty and separation, they didn't really show it. I didn't mind that they were still completely in love and ready to fall back into that but again, no real fire in it. Just foregone conclusion, including tertiary characters clearing the way for their HEA before they even got there, so once arrived, it wasn't so much the way had been smoothed but already established, and all their internal worries evaporated without the other being the one to forgive or relieve it.
I don't know, I felt the opium/whoring was thrown in for grittiness and abasement-in-heartbreak, but the step-removed voice and easy resolution made it seem tawdry and titillating rather than true threats or actual heartbreaks. I wanted their conflict to be more personal and less a part of the seedy underworld they entered to solve the mystery.
Which, the mystery was sound and had a good twist. All the villains conveniently dispatch themselves in various ways but they make things interesting along the way.
At least now they can together fight crime, and live in the country away from scandalized society, and make up for lost time. Good enough.
October 16, 2008
This was the first book I read by Julie Beard and I really enjoyed it. It was an easy read and kept you wondering what might happen next. I will definately read more of Julie Beard's books in the furture.
September 25, 2009
Victorian
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews