Met by Moonlight

by Rosemary Edghill

When modern day witch Diana Crossways plunges back to 1647 England, she learns that a mysterious man she saw in Salem, Massachusetts is a notorious witch hunter. He holds the power of life and death over Diana--but she also inflames his desire.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Fiction, Magic, Time Travel, Paranormal Romance, Witches

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1998

About the author

She was born long enough ago to have seen Classic Trek on its first outing and to remember that she once thought Spock Must Die! to be great literature. As she aged, she put aside her fond dreams of taking over for Batman when he retired, and returned to her first love, writing. Her first SF sale (as Eluki Bes Shahar) was the Hellflower series, in which Damon Runyon meets Doc Smith over at the old Bester place. Between books and short stories in every genre but the Western (several dozen so far), she's held the usual selection of odd and part-time writer jobs, including bookstore clerk, secretary, beta tester for computer software, graphic designer, book illustrator, library clerk, and administrative assistant for a non-profit arts organization. She can truthfully state that she once killed vampires for a living, and that without any knowledge of medicine has illustrated half-a-dozen medical textbooks.


Her last name -- despite the efforts of editors, reviewers, publishing houses, her webmaster, and occasionally her own fingers -- is not spelled 'Edgehill'.


Also writes under the name Eluki Bes Shahar.

Reviews

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diana is a practicing Wiccan and bookshop owner (occult, of course) who, one stormy Halloween afternoon in (of course) Salem Mass., receives a very old and hand-written book from she knows not where and, seemingly on the aftershock of a lightning bolt, stumbles into the 17th century. In England, in the New Forest. She runs into a man – a strange man, who advises her not to dance - and then flees him into the middle of a coven's gathering. They take her appearance among them, and her physical appearance, in stride, accepting her without question as one of the Fair Folk. A village woman in the coven takes her under her wing, dresses her appropriately, and tries to smooth out some of those rough Faerie edges.

She has no choice but to adapt. Without any idea how she got there, she has no idea how to get home, but she remains hopeful. Escape from this place and time is made ever more desirable as a proto-inquisition comes to town, led by John Stearne and Matthew Hopkins – and accompanied by the man Diana met in the woods. He just might really be one of the Fair Folk…

One of my initial reactions: if "the Goddess" and Wicca were replaced by "God" and Christianity this would be a very heavy-handed Christian novel. Another initial reaction: oh, God(dess), the main character is a gorgeous leggy blonde, and we're told this immediately in no uncertain terms. Spare me. This is, at least, made slightly and in a way useful to the plot, as opposed to just useful to the Hero. Still, it doesn't predispose me to like her.

This was an odd one. It is labeled on the spine as a romance, and is in fact one of a clump of romances Rosemary Edghill wrote – and, oh, yes, there is … er, romance. Explicit … romance. I have read at least a couple of RE's Regencies, and I don't remember this … level of detail in those books, so I was surprised to find this conforming to the Romance Template™ in that respect. In other respects, it is completely and utterly unlike any romance novel I've ever dipped into … sadly, not necessarily in a good way. There are traces of Diana Gabaldon, of course – travel back in time and fall in love. There are elements of today's PNR (ParaNormal Romance): fall in love with someone not human but still sexy as all heck. But this … this is just odd. This hero is damaged – far beyond the damage romance writers love to heap on their characters – and that is on top of his not being human, quite – and not in the usual he-has-an-accent-and-odd-colored-eyes-but-isn't-he-gorgeous way. It's … oh, I don't know, it's odd.

And – I'll try to do this without spoilers – the decision at the end is made far too quickly and, seemingly, easily, without alternatives even being discussed. Or possibly without a way to discuss alternatives sensibly. Also – and these are spoilers, if negative ones – there are mysteries left wide open: the messenger who delivered that book to the shop is in at least one place equated with Our Hero, but -? Don't know who he was or why. Diana never had a clue about where the book came from, so neither does the reader. How and why was Diana whipped back in time, and why to England and not Salem, and is another such trip possible? Don't know. Was there supposed to be a sequel? Don't know. It's all left mysterious. Annoyingly, vaguely, dea-ex-machina-ishly mysterious. Not the best of Edghill's work.

[Paranormal Romance · Rating 4 out of 5]

One Halloween night, the heroine suddenly finds herself thrust back in time and into the madness of the witch hunts. She herself a wiccan, not a witch, is none the less relieved to stumbled upon a group of witch's practicing in the woods that night because she's taken is by them and given a roof over her head and food in her belly. It takes her some time and some awkwardness to learn the ways of the time but she's a quick learner. She keeps her head down and goes about her daily chores-hoping for a chance to return to the future. Surrounded by the fear driven and superstitious nonsense of medieval England, the heroine is also plagued by strange dreams and an even stranger man. He rarely speaks, keeping to the shadows and possessing thee most arresting gaze that holds her enthralled in the passion she sees in it. She can barely understand him. Well, she can barely understand what most people say, but with the dark man, it's much more confusing. It seems he can only speak in scripture and she knows he's trying to tell her something important but, in the end, she just gets frustrated and ignores him. He's come to town as the watch dog for the witch hunter. She's disgusted by this. How can he stomach sending all those people to their deaths for nothing at all? But what she doesn't know at first, and what takes her a long time to understand is that's he's a prisoner. Having no memory of who he is he is the slave of the man whom utterly controls him through fear and abuse. When she first meets him, the heroine meets a broken man- actually more childlike in his fear for attack or reprimand. Though he doesn't communicate well, he tries to save her. He's claimed her for his own since the second he saw her and he's primitive in his notions of caring and keeping a woman but his feelings for her are genuine and heart wrenching. Regardless, the heroine is arrogant. She imagined herself immune to the witch hunt, living around it like it was a movie not reality and so she is soon catch and imprisoned. It's his rebellion, his desperation to see her freed that makes his Master severely punish him to the point that he can no longer remember his feelings for her or their passionate lovemaking by the ocean. He is charged with getting her to confess to her crimes but she is not afraid of him. Though she is starved and tortured, she has hope that the man she loves will remember. And so before long, no amount of whipping and brainwashing can keep the hero emotionless. On the run, living as free people with only themselves as company the hero and heroine know true peace. But regardless, the heroine can't possibly belong in the past. No, if given the chance she'll choice to return to the future...right?

What a marvelous story. I truly enjoy it when a time travel romance can depict a sensible and logical heroine as the lead. This woman, though arrogant at times, isn't that obnoxious heroine type that stands out for all the wrong reasons. No, she adapted to her surroundings. She listened and learned. She kept her opinions to herself (for the most part) and blended in. I really liked her. But by golly did I like the hero. Can you say angst? Literally broke my heart to read about him cowering under his master’s abuse and made me happy to see him break so many rules for the benefit of the heroine’s safety. His passion or her was all consuming and the sparks that flew when they were together could have lite the pages on fire. My goodness, what an intense pairing. Sex scenes were off the chart and the romance was even hotter because it was genuine love even before it could be labelled. My only complaint? Maybe a bit iffy on the plot. Not the setting or the characters by any means but the whole book plot and the fairy plot...it was a bit much. Why couldn't it just be a spectacular time travel romance novel and leave it at that? Hmmm. Regardless, I really liked this book.

[Sarah Goodwin · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF after 11% - Just too overwritten and flowery, plus it made no sense to me in a lot of places: People telling other people's eye colour when one was on a cliff and one was below, main character adjusting straight away to her new surroundings within days of arrival...

Not for me. The Bast series is still one of my all time faves. This feels like a different author.

[Diann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do have a hard time with romances where the two protagonists know immediately upon first-glance that they're to be together on whatever level it happens. Does not resonate with my own life, at all. Or with anyone else's life I've seen. But I guess this is a a "romance trope" or some such. But on the positive side, this is well-written.

[Ceilidhchaos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book a number of years ago and the plot was running through my head yesterday for hours and I couldn't shake it. Read it in 3 hours and it was just as good as I remembered. Fun, bubblegum lit. Clever characterizations. Definitely my favorite time travel romance after Outlander.

[colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

read 02.19.06

[Tasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an ok book. It wasn't spectacular nor was it horrible. It was one of those quick read books for fun.