Victoria Holt’s THE SECRET WOMAN – Victorian Romance with Many Secrets and a Sail to the South Seas

 

First published in 1970, this is a wonderful story that begins in England but eventually sweeps you to the South Pacific. Set in the late 19^th century in the Victorian era, it’s the story of Anna Brett who was born in India but whose parents sent her to live with her maiden Aunt Charlotte, an antique dealer who populates her old house with furniture in the process of being sold.

 

Anna’s one solace is her friend Chantal Loman, the beautiful nurse who tends Anna’s ailing aunt. When Aunt Charlotte suddenly dies, Anna takes a job suggested by Chantel, as a governess in the home of a wealthy English family in the shipping business. The family has two sons, one legitimate, Rex Crediton, and one a bastard, Redvers Stretton. Anna is very attracted to Red, but then she learns he is married. 

 

Rex is the heir apparent, consumed with the business, but Red is not unhappy about that since he loves his ships and the sea. It was on one of those South Pacific islands, however, where Red met his wife, and island beauty whose family forced him to wed her when she came up pregnant.

 

In this fascinating story, it seemed everyone harbored secrets, even Anna, who hid from her friend her love for Red Stretton. And even though I knew Chantel was capable of doing wrong to accomplish her purposes, I was surprised at all the twists at the end.

 

Holt did a good job of bringing us into the drama and the places to which the characters traveled. I could feel the heat of the island and Anna’s exhilaration with the wind on her face while they were at sea. As she and Red finally admitted their love, I could feel her emotion at finding herself in love with another woman’s husband.

 

No one does Victorian suspense and mystery like Holt and this is a great one!

Victoria Holt’s THE DEMON LOVER – Gripping Story of a Tumultuous Love Set in England and France

Just so you know, this is not your ordinary Victoria Holt gothic murder mystery. Set mostly in France in the late Victorian period, this tells the story of Kate Collison, of the famous (fictional) Collison family of brilliant painters of miniatures, each artist signing the portraits “KC.” In each generation, the next son takes up the art to astound patrons in England and in Europe. Unfortunately, Kate’s mother, the daughter of a duke, gave Kate’s father, Kendal Collison, only a daughter. But Kate was determined to become better than any son of the family who had gone before her.

 

When her father develops cataracts and his ability to paint the fine strokes diminishes, she becomes his eyes. Signing the portraits “KC,” as all in her family have, no one knows a woman has painted them. A new commission arrives from a baron in Normandy who wants miniatures of himself and his fiancée, a princess. So, Kate and her father travel to France, intending to do the miniatures together. At the baron’s castle, before he arrives, Kate begins to fall in love with the baron’s cousin Bertrand de Mortemer. And then she meets the Baron, Rollo de Centeville, who by his own description is “arrogant, overbearing, impatient and self-willed.” In addition to that, he is clever, soon figuring out that the miniature he comes to admire is being painted by Kate, not her father. He also intends to have his way with Kate, no matter the cost to her.

 

An ingenious, intricately woven plot that had me turning pages, it tells the story of a selfish man who, like his Viking forbears, thought nothing of raping a woman to get what he wanted. And so he drugs and rapes Kate and then holds her prisoner for the purpose of reminding Bertrand that he, the baron, is in control. I must say that I had a bit of trouble understanding how Kate, having gone home to England, could return to France after what happened to her, or how she could keep from those who loved her that she’d been brutally raped by the man they admired. Nor could I understand how the Baron’s mistress, Nicole, would, after being cast aside by the Baron, try to convince Kate she should be more understanding of him. But such are the twists and turns in this story.

 

I loved Kate’s spirit, her determination and her strength. And I thought the way Holt showed how the artist gleaned the nuances of the subject’s personality while painting was masterful.

 

As in all bodice rippers, there is a certain satisfaction is seeing the Baron have his comeuppance, though even then, one can certainly agree with the hatred Kate feels for the man who ruined, as well as benefited, her life. Unlike some of her stories, Holt brings the heroine’s feelings about the “hero” (sometimes the baron seemed more the villain) to the fore early on, and that was good.

 

Holt does a brilliant job of showing us what the people of Paris lived through in the 1870 siege of the city by the Prussians when the people were starved into submission.

Like her other novels, it is told in the first person. A well-written bodice ripper, it does contain rape; and while there are no details or vivid descriptions, the fact of it is no less horrible.

 

There’s a surprise ending awaiting you. The story is a keeper. I recommend it.

 

Victoria Holt’s THE TIME OF THE HUNTER'S MOON – Engaging Victorian Romance with a Mystery

 

This is the story of Cordelia Grant, raised by her beloved Aunt Patty when her missionary parents died in Africa. Aunt Patty was a joy to live with. She ran a school for girls that Cordelia was educated to one day take over. But events led to another route and Cordelia ends up teaching at a different school.

According to legend, a girl will see her future husband at the time of the hunter's moon. When she was still in Germany where she had gone to a school to be “finished”, Cordelia meets a handsome stranger who told her he was Edward Compton. She later learns that the young man of that name died 20 years ago.

Meanwhile, while teaching at the new school, she meets the landlord, Sir Jason Verringer, a wealthy, compelling man about whom swirl rumors of his having murdered his wife. And he wants Cordelia for his next wife.

Holt does a wonderful job of bringing Cordelia’s world to life. Told in the first person, we are only ever in Cordelia’s head so we feel her emotions. She is a wise young woman, discerning others’ intent. She deals well with her students and the determined Sir Jason though she finds him intriguing. As always with Holt’s stories, there is mystery. Whatever happened to Edward, the man to whom she was drawn like no other?

If you like Victoria Holt, you’ll enjoy this one.

Victoria Holt’s THE PRIDE OF THE PEACOCK –Mystery, Opals and Love with a Peacock in Victorian Australia

Set in the Victorian era (about 1880), beginning in England, this is the story of Opal Jessica Clavering, the youngest daughter in a family that treats her as if she doesn’t belong. At one time the family was wealthy, but now they live in the Dower House next to the estate, Oakland Hall, they once called their own.

 

When she is 16, Jessica makes friends with the owner of Oakland Hall, Ben Henniker, an opal miner who made his money in the mines of New South Wales. Ben offers her the chance for a new life and Jessica takes it even though it includes a marriage of convenience to his illegitimate son, Josslyn Madden (“Joss”), called “the Peacock” for his pride and his home, Peacocks, in Australia.

 

Once married, Joss returns to Australia with Jessica, who begins to wonder if her husband isn’t planning to kill her. The famous jewel called the Green Flash at Sunset goes missing and there are no clues as to who took it. And then someone is murdered.

 

Holt is a great storyteller and immediately had me deeply involved in Jessica’s life. Jessica is a woman who has a curious mind, an adventurous spirit and is courageous to the core. I liked her very much. Joss is arrogant, like a peacock, but he also has depth. Since we are never in his mind, his thoughts remain a mystery except for what he tells Jessica. The fact he wants to see how Jessica changes as she “grows up” suggests he might like her after all.

 

The characters are richly drawn, the story absorbing and the excitement subtle as Jessica takes on the mystery of the missing jewel, the murder and her husband.

 

Victoria Holt’s THE PRIDE OF THE PEACOCK –Mystery, Opals and Love with a Peacock in Victorian Australia

Set in the Victorian era (about 1880), beginning in England, this is the story of Opal Jessica Clavering, the youngest daughter in a family that treats her as if she doesn’t belong. At one time the family was wealthy, but now they live in the Dower House next to the estate, Oakland Hall, they once called their own.

 

When she is 16, Jessica makes friends with the owner of Oakland Hall, Ben Henniker, an opal miner who made his money in the mines of New South Wales. Ben offers her the chance for a new life and Jessica takes it even though it includes a marriage of convenience to his illegitimate son, Josslyn Madden (“Joss”), called “the Peacock” for his pride and his home, Peacocks, in Australia.

 

Once married, Joss returns to Australia with Jessica, who begins to wonder if her husband isn’t planning to kill her. The famous jewel called the Green Flash at Sunset goes missing and there are no clues as to who took it. And then someone is murdered.

 

Holt is a great storyteller and immediately had me deeply involved in Jessica’s life. Jessica is a woman who has a curious mind, an adventurous spirit and is courageous to the core. I liked her very much. Joss is arrogant, like a peacock, but he also has depth. Since we are never in his mind, his thoughts remain a mystery except for what he tells Jessica. The fact he wants to see how Jessica changes as she “grows up” suggests he might like her after all.

 

The characters are richly drawn, the story absorbing and the excitement subtle as Jessica takes on the mystery of the missing jewel, the murder and her husband.

Victoria Holt’s THE JUDAS KISS – Death, Love and Mystery in Bavaria!

A wonderful, intriguing Victorian mystery romance that pulls you in. I could not put this one down!

 

As a young girl, Pippa Ewell lived on an island with her sculptor father and sickly mother and her older and more beautiful sister, Francine, who she loved. When the sisters were still young, their father and mother died and they were sent to London to live with their stern grandfather in the forbidding Greystone Manor.

 

Their grandfather planned to marry Francine to his heir, a rather dour vicar related to the family. But she rebelled and married a baron from Bavaria in Germany who swept her away from England. Years later, Pippa discovers her sister has been murdered at the same time another mysterious Bavarian, Conrad, shows up and seduces her and asks her to become his mistress. Pippa refuses and he returns to his own country.

 

Pippa wants to learn the truth of Francine’s death and to find out what happened to her young son. When she inherits a small fortune from her grandmother, Pippa travels to Bavaria to discover what happened. As the young countess destined to marry the heir needs an English tutor, Pippa takes the job, hoping to learn more.

 

The mystery slowly unravels to reveal much and Holt gives the reader some unexpected twists. Even Pippa is shocked when she discovers just who Conrad is. 

 

Victoria Holt’s THE SHIVERING SANDS – A love story wrapped in a mystery!

Set in the late Victorian era, this is the story of Caroline Verlaine, a young widow, who has lost her archeologist parents and her brilliant pianist husband to untimely deaths, and now her sister Roma has disappeared. Determined to find Roma, who went missing while on a dig in Dover, England, Caroline, who is a pianist herself, takes a job in the area—as a resident piano teacher to Sir William Stacy’s three young charges. One of the girls is the illegitimate daughter of the heir, Napier Sands, and another of the young women is his wife.

 

Caroline tells no one she is the sister of the missing woman. Soon, she finds there are other mysteries at the Stacy home, including Napier’s past in which he killed his older brother, in what may or may not have been an accident, and the “shivering” sands off shore that swallow ships. Caring little for his young wife, who is afraid of him, Napier makes a project out of Caroline, telling her, “You and I are like those ships. We are caught in the shivering sands of the past. We shall never escape because we are held fast, held by our memories and other people’s opinions of us.”

 

When a new curate shows up at the village, he joins Caroline in solving the mystery of what happened to her sister, and what is now Napier’s missing wife. And danger draws close as Caroline’s life is threatened.

 

Holt did an excellent job of creating a mystery with no clear villain but many who had motives. And despite that it takes place in virtually one location, there is much happening with some great secondary characters, including Sybil, the batty old sister of Sir William, Napier’s father, and of course, the three young women. At one point I thought the mystery itself dragged a bit, but as with all novels by Holt, the finish is excellent.

 

It’s a mystery, a love story and a story of new beginnings, choices and redemption. Told from the first person, you are only in Caroline’s head but the hearts of others are revealed through dialog. A worthy read, I recommend it.

Victoria Holt’s ON THE NIGHT OF THE SEVENTH MOON – Love and Mystery in the Black Forest!

Set in Germany and England from 1859 to 1870 (with an end note in 1901), this tells the story of Helena Trant whose parents were so much in love they had little time for her. Still, hers was a happy childhood among books in Oxford where her father had a bookstore. When she was old enough, her parents sent her to Germany near the Black Forest to a convent school where her mother had been educated.

 

Helena loves the forest and the fairy tales surrounding it. She hears of the legend of the night of the seventh moon “when mischief is abroad and is routed with the coming of dawn.” On one night, she gets lost in the mist of the forest and is rescued by a man who takes her to his hunting lodge. She taken with him that she might have allowed him to have his way with her but for the intervention of a housekeeper who took measures to preserve Helena’s virtue. But Helena never forgot the man even though she did not know his name.

 

Years later, she returns to Germany and on another night of the seventh moon Helena meets and marries her German at his hunting lodge, but then she wakes from her idyllic honeymoon to discover she has been drugged by a physician who tells her she has escaped a horror that befell her in the forest. Helena lives in a fog of dreams and wonders where truth is.

 

I have to say that I love Holt’s writing, and this story sucked me in immediately. It is labeled as a romantic suspense, but I didn’t see it containing any more suspense than many historical romances. But it does have a Gothic feel and there is a mystery. Holt had me wondering what had really happened. She did an excellent job of that. The book is a bit slow in the middle, and the hero and heroine are separated for years. In that interim, I found passages that seemed repetitive, but the ending is a great one. As always, Holt is a master storyteller and creates wonderfully vivid characters. I recommend it.

Victoria Holt’s THE TIME OF THE HUNTER'S MOON – Engaging Victorian Romance with a Mystery

This is the story of Cordelia Grant, raised by her beloved Aunt Patty when her missionary parents died in Africa. Aunt Patty was a joy to live with. She ran a school for girls that Cordelia was educated to one day take over. But events led to another route and Cordelia ends up teaching at a different school.

According to legend, a girl will see her future husband at the time of the hunter's moon. When she was still in Germany where she had gone to a school to be “finished”, Cordelia meets a handsome stranger who told her he was Edward Compton. She later learns that the young man of that name died 20 years ago.

Meanwhile, while teaching at the new school, she meets the landlord, Sir Jason Verringer, a wealthy, compelling man about whom swirl rumors of his having murdered his wife. And he wants Cordelia for his next wife.

Holt does a wonderful job of bringing Cordelia’s world to life. Told in the first person, we are only ever in Cordelia’s head so we feel her emotions. She is a wise young woman, discerning others’ intent. She deals well with her students and the determined Sir Jason though she finds him intriguing. As always with Holt’s stories, there is mystery. Whatever happened to Edward, the man to whom she was drawn like no other?

If you like Victoria Holt, you’ll enjoy this one.

 

Victoria Holt’s MISTRESS OF MELLYN – Gothic Mystery with a Wonderful Love Story

Set in Victorian England in Devon, Cornwall, this is the story of Martha Leigh (“Miss Leigh”) who, at 24, comes to Mount Mellyn to become the governess to widower Connan TreMellyn’s young daughter, Alvean.

 

After all, what’s an educated woman with no parents and no prospects to do?

 

Miss Leigh soon discovers that Alvean is spoiled, hard to manage and suffering from too little of her father's attention, which might explain the departure of the last three governesses. In addition to Alvean, there’s a mysterious young child, Gillyflowers, who sings to herself and whose mother committed suicide. Martha determines to win both children and show Connan he is wrong about them all.

 

So she teaches Alvean, who supposedly can’t ride a horse, to ride well. And she begins to teach Gilly, who all think a bit daft, to read.

 

But there’s a mystery surrounding Connan’s wife’s death and the goings on around the large house on the edge of the sea that soon capture Martha’s attention. And, despite her better judgment, she is beginning to fall in love with the master of the house.

 

Holt does a masterful job of drawing us into the mystery—into the secrets of the family’s past—and there are many in this mystery. Oh, yes, there is a surprise at the end.

 

I love Victoria Holt's Gothic mysteries, usually centered around an old house with secrets and some evil lurking in the shadows. This one is set in Cornwall and Holt captures the people wonderfully. I couldn’t put it down and found myself looking forward to diving into “Miss Leigh’s” puzzle solving for my bedtime reading.

 

I recommend it!

Victoria Holt’s THE SHADOW OF THE LYNX – Intricate Plot, Complex Love Relationships and a Surprise Ending!

 Set in the Victorian era, this is the story of Nora Tamsin whose father died in Australia searching for gold. Now, she is to travel there to become the ward of her father’s business partner Charles Herrick, who because of his startling eyes, is known as the Lynx. She is attracted to his son, Stirling, a handsome man who is kind to her. But the Lynx has other plans and his effect upon her is overwhelming.

 

Holt does a great job of bringing us interesting characters. We see Australia as it was, the rough life on the edge of the bush. And we see the country life in an English mansion where secrets reside.

 

This story takes you from England to Australia and back again with complex relationships. Those who end up together will surprise you. Treachery lurks in England and the White Ladies estate where the Lynx was sent away in shame that was not of his doing. He wants revenge and will do much to achieve it.

 

Fans of Victoria Holt (of which I am one) will love this. And the ending is a surprise!

Victoria Holt’s THE TIME OF THE HUNTER'S MOON – Engaging Victorian Romance with a Mystery

This is the story of Cordelia Grant, raised by her beloved Aunt Patty when her missionary parents died in Africa. Aunt Patty was a joy to live with. She ran a school for girls that Cordelia was educated to one day take over. But events led to another route and Cordelia ends up teaching at a different school.

According to legend, a girl will see her future husband at the time of the hunter's moon. When she was still in Germany where she had gone to a school to be “finished”, Cordelia meets a handsome stranger who told her he was Edward Compton. She later learns that the young man of that name died 20 years ago.

Meanwhile, while teaching at the new school, she meets the landlord, Sir Jason Verringer, a wealthy, compelling man about whom swirl rumors of his having murdered his wife. And he wants Cordelia for his next wife.

Holt does a wonderful job of bringing Cordelia’s world to life. Told in the first person, we are only ever in Cordelia’s head so we feel her emotions. She is a wise young woman, discerning others’ intent. She deals well with her students and the determined Sir Jason though she finds him intriguing. As always with Holt’s stories, there is mystery. Whatever happened to Edward, the man to whom she was drawn like no other?

If you like Victoria Holt, you’ll enjoy this one.

Victoria Holt’s BRIDE OF PENDORRIC – Gothic Mystery Wrapped Around a Victorian Romance

Like most of Holt’s historical romances, I assume this one was set in the Victorian era but it takes place mostly in Cornwall. Favel Farrington was living with her artist father on the beautiful Isle of Capri when Roc Pendorric from Cornwall came into their studio one day and swept Favel off her feet.

 

Roc was a charmer from the beginning and soon they were wed, but the day was overshadowed by her father’s drowning death. Once Favel and Roc arrive at the ancestral home of the Pendorrics on the coast of Cornwall, Favel discovers the family legend of the “Bride of Pendorric”, where one who died became a ghost until replaced by another. And the last one, Roc’s mother, Barbarina, died young in a terrible accident. Supposedly she haunts the east wing of the estate.

 

There are some surprises in this story, one is a truth Favel learns when she befriends an old man living in the neighboring estate, a self-made man who takes a liking to Favel. It’s a truth hidden from her by her new husband.

While Favel is falling in love with Cornwall, accidents begin to happen that threaten her life. She begins to wonder if someone isn’t trying to kill her. 

 

The ending may be a surprise as Holt did her best to string out the great reveal.

Victoria Holt’s THE PRIDE OF THE PEACOCK –Mystery, Opals and Love with a Peacock in Victorian Australia

Set in the Victorian era (about 1880), beginning in England, this is the story of Opal Jessica Clavering, the youngest daughter in a family that treats her as if she doesn’t belong. At one time the family was wealthy, but now they live in the Dower House next to the estate, Oakland Hall, they once called their own.

 

When she is 16, Jessica makes friends with the owner of Oakland Hall, Ben Henniker, an opal miner who made his money in the mines of New South Wales. Ben offers her the chance for a new life and Jessica takes it even though it includes a marriage of convenience to his illegitimate son, Josslyn Madden (“Joss”), called “the Peacock” for his pride and his home, Peacocks, in Australia.

 

Once married, Joss returns to Australia with Jessica, who begins to wonder if her husband isn’t planning to kill her. The famous jewel called the Green Flash at Sunset goes missing and there are no clues as to who took it. And then someone is murdered.

 

Holt is a great storyteller and immediately had me deeply involved in Jessica’s life. Jessica is a woman who has a curious mind, an adventurous spirit and is courageous to the core. I liked her very much. Joss is arrogant, like a peacock, but he also has depth. Since we are never in his mind, his thoughts remain a mystery except for what he tells Jessica. The fact he wants to see how Jessica changes as she “grows up” suggests he might like her after all.

 

The characters are richly drawn, the story absorbing and the excitement subtle as Jessica takes on the mystery of the missing jewel, the murder and her husband.

Victoria Holt’s ON THE NIGHT OF THE SEVENTH MOON – Love and Mystery in the Black Forest!

Set in Germany and England from 1859 to 1870 (with an endnote in 1901), this is the story of Helena Trant whose parents were so much in love they had little time for her. Still, hers was a happy childhood among books in Oxford where her father had a bookstore. When she was old enough, her parents sent her to Germany near the Black Forest to a convent school where her mother had been educated.

Helena loves the forest and the fairy tales surrounding it. She hears of the legend of the night of the seventh moon “when mischief is abroad and is routed with the coming of dawn.” On one night, she gets lost in the mist of the forest and is rescued by a man who takes her to his hunting lodge. She taken with him that she might have allowed him to have his way with her but for the intervention of a housekeeper who took measures to preserve Helena’s virtue. But Helena never forgot the man even though she did not know his name.

Years later, she returns to Germany and on another night of the seventh moon Helena meets and marries her German at his hunting lodge, but then she wakes from her idyllic honeymoon to discover she has been drugged by a physician who tells her she has escaped a horror that befell her in the forest. Helena lives in a fog of dreams and wonders where truth is.

I have to say that I love Holt’s writing, and this story sucked me in immediately. It is labeled as a romantic suspense, but I didn’t see it containing any more suspense than many historical romances. But it does have a Gothic feel and there is a mystery. Holt had me wondering what had really happened. She did an excellent job of that. The book is a bit slow in the middle, and the hero and heroine are separated for years. In that interim, I found passages that seemed repetitive, but the ending is a great one. As always, Holt is a master storyteller and creates wonderfully vivid characters. I recommend it.

Victoria Holt’s THE DEMON LOVER – Gripping Story of a Tumultuous Love, a Victorian Bodice-Ripper set in England and France

Just so you know, this is not your ordinary Victoria Holt gothic murder mystery. Set mostly in France in the late Victorian period, this tells the story of Kate Collison, of the famous (fictional) Collison family of brilliant painters of miniatures, each artist signing the portraits “KC.” In each generation, the next son takes up the art to astound patrons in England and in Europe. Unfortunately, Kate’s mother, the daughter of a duke, gave Kate’s father, Kendal Collison, only a daughter. But Kate was determined to become better than any son of the family who had gone before her.

When her father develops cataracts and his ability to paint the fine strokes diminishes, she becomes his eyes. Signing the portraits “KC,” as all in her family have, no one would know a woman had painted them. A new commission arrives from a baron in Normandy who wants miniatures of himself and his fiancée, a princess. So, Kate and her father travel to France, intending to do the miniatures together. At the baron’s castle, before he arrives, Kate begins to fall in love with the baron’s cousin Bertrand de Mortemer. And then she meets the Baron, Rollo de Centeville, who by his own description is “arrogant, overbearing, impatient and self-willed.” In addition to that, he was clever, soon figuring out that the miniature he comes to admire is being painted by Kate, not her father. He also intends to have his way with Kate, no matter the cost to her.

An ingenious, intricately woven plot that had me turning pages, it tells the story of a selfish man who, like his Viking forbears, thought nothing of raping a woman to get what he wanted. And so he drugs and rapes Kate and then holds her prisoner for the purpose of reminding Bertrand that he, the baron, is in control. I must say that I had a bit of trouble understanding how Kate, having gone home to England, could return to France after what happened to her, or how she could keep from those who loved her that she’d been brutally raped by the man they admired. Nor could I understand how the Baron’s mistress, Nicole, would, after being cast aside by the Baron, try to convince Kate she should be more understanding of him. But such are the twists and turns in this story.

I loved Kate’s spirit, her determination and her strength. And I thought the way Holt showed how the artist gleaned the nuances of the subject’s personality while the painting was masterful.

As in all bodice rippers, there is a certain satisfaction is seeing the Baron have his comeuppance, though even then, one can certainly agree with the hatred Kate feels for the man who ruined, as well as benefited, her life. Unlike some of her stories, Holt brings the heroine’s feelings about the “hero” (sometimes the baron seemed more the villain) to the fore early on, and that was good.

Holt does a brilliant job of showing us what the people of Paris lived through in the 1870 siege of the city by the Prussians when the people were starved into submission.

Like her other novels, it is told in the first person. A well-written bodice ripper, it does contain rape; and while there are no details or vivid descriptions, the fact of it is no less horrible.

There’s a surprise ending awaiting you. The story is a keeper. I recommend it.

Victoria Holt’s THE TIME OF THE HUNTER'S MOON – Engaging Victorian Romance with a Mystery

This is the story of Cordelia Grant, raised by her beloved Aunt Patty when her missionary parents died in Africa. Aunt Patty was a joy to live with. She ran a school for girls that Cordelia was educated to one day take over. But events led to another route and Cordelia ends up teaching at a different school.

According to legend, a girl will see her future husband at the time of the hunter's moon. When she was still in Germany where she had gone to a school to be “finished”, Cordelia meets a handsome stranger who told her he was Edward Compton. She later learns that the young man of that name died 20 years ago.

Meanwhile, while teaching at the new school, she meets the landlord, Sir Jason Verringer, a wealthy, compelling man about whom swirl rumors of his having murdered his wife. And he wants Cordelia for his next wife.

Holt does a wonderful job of bringing Cordelia’s world to life. Told in the first person, we are only ever in Cordelia’s head so we feel her emotions. She is a wise young woman, discerning others’ intent. She deals well with her students and the determined Sir Jason though she finds him intriguing. As always with Holt’s stories, there is a mystery. Whatever happened to Edward, the man to whom she was drawn like no other?

If you like Victoria Holt, you’ll enjoy this one.

Victoria Holt’s THE PRIDE OF THE PEACOCK –Mystery, Opals and Love with a Peacock in Victorian Australia

Set in the Victorian era (about 1880), beginning in England, this is the story of Opal Jessica Clavering, the youngest daughter in a family that treats her as if she doesn’t belong. At one time the family was wealthy, but now they live in the Dower House next to the estate, Oakland Hall, they once called their own.

When she is 16, Jessica makes friends with the owner of Oakland Hall, Ben Henniker, an opal miner who made his money in the mines of New South Wales. Ben offers her the chance for a new life and Jessica takes it even though it includes a marriage of convenience to his illegitimate son, Josslyn Madden (“Joss”), called “the Peacock” for his pride and his home, Peacocks, in Australia.

Once married, Joss returns to Australia with Jessica, who begins to wonder if her husband isn’t planning to kill her. The famous jewel called the Green Flash at Sunset goes missing and there are no clues as to who took it. And then someone is murdered.

Holt is a great storyteller and immediately had me deeply involved in Jessica’s life. Jessica is a woman who has a curious mind, an adventurous spirit and is courageous to the core. I liked her very much. Joss is arrogant, like a peacock, but he also has depth. Since we are never in his mind, his thoughts remain a mystery except for what he tells Jessica. The fact he wants to see how Jessica changes as she “grows up” suggests he might like her after all.

The characters are richly drawn, the story absorbing and the excitement subtle as Jessica takes on the mystery of the missing jewel, the murder and her husband.

Victoria Holt’s ON THE NIGHT OF THE SEVENTH MOON – Love and Mystery in the Black Forest!

Set in Germany and England from 1859 to 1870 (with an end note in 1901), this tells the story of Helena Trant whose parents were so much in love they had little time for her. Still, hers was a happy childhood among books in Oxford where her father had a bookstore. When she was old enough, her parents sent her to Germany near the Black Forest to a convent school where her mother had been educated.

Helena loves the forest and the fairy tales surrounding it. She hears of the legend of the night of the seventh moon “when mischief is abroad and is routed with the coming of dawn.” On one night, she gets lost in the mist of the forest and is rescued by a man who takes her to his hunting lodge. She taken with him that she might have allowed him to have his way with her but for the intervention of a housekeeper who took measures to preserve Helena’s virtue. But Helena never forgot the man even though she did not know his name.

Years later, she returns to Germany and on another night of the seventh moon Helena meets and marries her German at his hunting lodge, but then she wakes from her idyllic honeymoon to discover she has been drugged by a physician who tells her she has escaped a horror that befell her in the forest. Helena lives in a fog of dreams and wonders where truth is.

I have to say that I love Holt’s writing, and this story sucked me in immediately. It is labeled as a romantic suspense, but I didn’t see it containing any more suspense than many historical romances. But it does have a Gothic feel and there is a mystery. Holt had me wondering what had really happened. She did an excellent job of that. The book is a bit slow in the middle, and the hero and heroine are separated for years. In that interim, I found passages that seemed repetitive, but the ending is a great one. As always, Holt is a master storyteller and creates wonderfully vivid characters. I recommend it.