Афина Уэйд, невеста принца Парнасского, ни разу в жизни не видела будущего супруга. Терзаясь сомнениями, она отправляется в Грецию на собственную свадьбу,
Just okay. Possibly a precursor to all the current greek billionaire romances out there,... or not. It has some elements, but anyway...
The heroine, an aristocratic English heiress who has a greek grandmother, goes to Greece for an arranged marriage with one of the Greek princes. She loves everything Greek and is romantically contemplating her Greek Hero bridegroom.
The story opens when she is already in Greece for the wedding but has not yet met her betrothed, the Prince. His flunkys assure her that he is on urgent business but will show up soon. He is obviously not so eager 🙄
She soon realizes that the idea of a romantic greek god husband is all in her mind, so she starts having second thoughts and gets cold feet. She decides to visit the temple of Apollo on her own, to reflect on some of her decisions.
While there she also comes across the temple of Athena (her name sake) and while relaxing there, she falls asleep. When she wakes up, there is this handsome guy sitting beside her. He seems to be equally smitten, gives her fulsome compliments and constantly refers to her as a goddess. 😁
He takes her to a taverna where he is well known, and they get along while having an excellent meal of local delicacies and wine. Though they feel a deep connection, its agreed that they will part the next day and go their separate ways. The Hero leaves the next morning, but as the heroine is preparing to go as well, a notorious bandit abducts her and brings her to one of his hideaways.
Thankfully, the Hero has heard her screams and comes to rescue her. They are in a cave high up the mountain and the bandit is preparing to shoot the Hero when the heroine pushes him off the cliff to his death. 👍🏻YEY!! Its these little details that make me love Barbara Cartland. ❤️
The Hero rescues the heroine (although he only really had to bring her down fr the mountian, she saved herself) he realizes that he cant let her go so they decide to get married with all the village in attendance. The heroine has still not revealed to him her real name and that she is an heiress, pledged to the Prince. However the author neatly circumvents that detail by the heroine deciding to use, just some, not all, of her birth names for the marriage ceremony. 😳 I guess it was easier in the days before digitalization.
Anyways they have a wonderful wedding ceremony and wedding night. They go back to civilization the next day and the heroine tells the Hero to drop her at a hotel. They will meet again that night so he can present himself to her relatives.
The heroine sneaks off to the Palace (remember they were waiting for the Prince to show up) back to her aunt. The aunt was worried, but then hurries her off to dress and meet the Prince who has finally arrived.
They go to meet the Prince who says “my love what are you doing here?” HEA
KAH... I knew it all along. 🙄😁
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Kiss the Moonlight is the first Barbara Cartland novel I ever read, and to this day it's still my favorite. A young British heiress, Athena, agrees to an arranged marriage with a Greek prince who is in need of her money. When she arrives in Greece with her guardians, however, the prince is nowhere to be found, and Athena begins to have second thoughts. She sneaks out of the palace and takes a boat to Delphi, where she meets a handsome man named Orion, who shows her the "real" Greece she couldn't find in the palace in Athens.
Everything about this book is delightful--the love story, the Greek setting, the adventure and danger that fall in Athena's way before she and her husband can live happily ever after...Highly recommended.
3 stars, kinda feels too generous, but 2 stars is a bit harsh. This book was fine, the first couple chapters were brutal to the point that I almost threw in the towel, but I didn't. There wasn't really much of a plot, and the cheesy feel of this one was almost too much to handle. I don't really have much to say about it, which I feel sums up the point that it was nothing to write home about.
Vrij eenvoudig en simpel romantisch verhaal met de standaard input. Een prins op het witte paard, een slechterik, complexe familiehistorie, onopgeloste raadsels maar een onmenselijk diep gevoel van liefde. Het verhaal eindigt met een 'happy end'. Boek dat je in 1 keer op erg korte tijd uitleest.
I enjoyed that this was set in Greece because I’ve never read a Barbara set there before but that’s about the extent to which I enjoyed this book. The plot was predictable and boring and I know her books are short but this one was especially so. The characters were boring and flat.