Devil Moon

by Margaret Way

Devil Moon by Margaret Way released on Nov 24, 1988 is available now for purchase.

Genres: Harlequin Romance

189 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1988

About the author

Margaret Way was born and educated in the river city of Brisbane, Australia. Before her marriage she was a well-known pianist, teacher, vocal coach and accompanist, but her hectic musical career came to a halt when her son was born and the demands of motherhood dictated a change of pace.

On a fortuitous impulse she decided to try her hand at romance writing and was thrilled when Mills & Boon accepted her first effort, Time of the Jacaranda, which they published less than a year later in 1970; a feat that brought tears to her father's eyes. Some seventy odd books have followed resulting in a loyal readership whose letters provide a source of support and encouragement. A driving force in all her writing has been the promotion of her much loved country, Australia. She delights in bringing it alive for her readers; its people, way of life, environment, flora and fauna. Her efforts so far have not excited official recognition, but she expects one day she will be awarded the "Order of Australia."

Her interests remain with the arts. She still plays the piano seriously, but her "top Cs" have gone. She is still addicted to collecting antiques and paintings and browsing through galleries. She now lives within sight and sound of beautiful Moreton Bay and its islands, inspiration for some of her books. Her house is full of books, spectacular plants, Chinese screens and pots. She is devoted to her garden and spends much time "directing the design and digging and providing cold drinks and chocolates."

Reviews

[StMargarets · Rating 3 out of 5]

H/h are in a plane crash in the jungle of Queensland with an OM and OW. The OM is an artist from a prominent family. The OW is a useless debutante from a prominent family. Heroine is a TV journalist who interviewed the OM and has been invited to his family’s estate for a visit. Hero is a larger-than-life landowner who is dating the OW and is interested in the heroine. Oh, and there is also an injured pilot who regains consciousness every now and again to comment on the heroine’s beauty, compassion, and bravery.

The jungle trek is a nice change of pace for these high-strung MW characters. Gives them something to do while they shift alliances. LOL

Margo has more details in her excellent review.

[Margo · Rating 3 out of 5]

324 days.

That is how many days I spent waiting for this book on Open Library. I assumed it would be mediocre, because Margaret Way's books tend to hover in the mid-ground, with few home runs and few trainwrecks. I also assumed it would be boring in parts, because I tend to find some of MW's books a bit plodding in parts. Instead I got something that had slower moments, but for MW was way, way, oiver the top.

This book's standout points were the manliest, most alpha H I think I have ever encountered. The h refers to him in the sort of reverential terms a mortal in Greek mythology might use to describe Zeus. The OWs are similarly intoxicated, saying things like, "He's positively radiant. I don't think I've ever seen or felt such sexual energy. He incorporates EVERYTHING a woman thinks of as spendidly male." The OW are so desperate and lust-filled and shameless that it was hard to do anything other than laugh at their clownish attempts to insult the h and capture the H's attention.

With such a paragon of masculinity, you're going to need an h who is his match, right? Well, you've got one. While the book occasionally attempts to portray the h as a strident manhater, in reality, she is constantly assailed by men who want to kiss her and praise her patrician beauty, and mesmerizing hypno-hair. It doesn't matter if these men are engaged -- if this h is around, they're going to take their shot. This makes the H sit up and take notice, even if the h is quite cool and kind about dismissing these men's attentions. She also does annoying little attention-getting things, like despite the fact that they are stranded in the tropical forest due to a plane crash and one of the people is seriously injured and they are being attacked by wild boars and considering eating vermin, she takes the time to weave orchids into her hair, winning her the admiration of the OM. Also, despite the fact that they are hitting on her shamelessly, if one of the OW says anything about the h's morals, the OM are outraged and start throwing around words like "harlot." (Also funny, when the h later tells an older friend that one of the OWs has been called a harlot, her older friend is horrified, only to have the h assure the friend that, "Oh, they say it all the time these days. My generation are very free with the ugly words." (This book was published in 1988, and having lived then and used the occasional ugly word, I can tell you that "harlot" was not the epithet of choice those days, although a friend used to call a mutual friend "Charlotte the Harlot," but that was clearly rhyme-driven. In exchange, Charlotte used to make fun of my friend's after school job at a department store, saying, "Of course you work in hosiery." They were the Dorothy Parkers of my generation, honestly.)

There is so much hyperbole and desperate behavior that I also started to wonder if maybe some of the herbs they were encountering the jungle were psychotropic aphrodisiacs, because these were a bunch of delusion, verbose, and lust-filled people. Now THAT would have made this a story worth waiting 324 days for.



As it was written, though, was it worth the entire 324 days? No, of course not. But do I feel a grim satisfaction that I read it? Yes, weirdly enough.

[Kalu Sakura · Rating 4 out of 5]

And when I was getting bored, it suddenly turned up to be very nice in the last few chapters. Makes me wonder about artist life too

[Melinda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Weird chaotic book.

[RomLibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

She'd feared this man from the first.

Now the knowledge that he had power over her was devastating.

A cruel despot of a father had left Sara Richardson emotionally scarred, and as an intelligent woman, she vowed to stay clear of such men. Guy Trenton, powerful Australian industry giant, had the same searing, elemental maleness of her father. Everything in her clearly warned her to get away.

But that was impossible. Stranded with Guy and a handful of others in the dense jungle of northern Queensland, guy represented her only hope of survival.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story and plot interesting with decent character development of the H and h. But the main characters are sidelined by a couple that fought and bickered through life and death situations without let up for days. If you can turn a deaf ear to these kinds of distractions the book is enjoyable.
Better yet, my advice is that every time the character Wayne opens his mouth hit fast forward.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was average until the final few chapters, then it was AWESOME with its WTFery!

[Eri | Encrucijadas cotidianas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me gustó el que ella fuera una de las fuertes dentro de la historia, que no se dejara llevar por la histeria del momento y su carácter tan independiente.

[AlexandraB95 · Rating 1 out of 5]

boring