The story: Nine years ago, Frances' father (an impoverished Scottish earl) saved Hawk's father's life. Hawk's father made a promise that his son would marry one of the earl's three daughters. Now, the time has come to fulfill this promise. Hawk is sent to choose one of the three daughters, who are renowned for their beauty. However, Frances loves Scotland and decides to pretend that she is ugly in hopes that Hawk will choose one of her sisters instead of her. Her plan backfires when Hawk falls for her charade and thinks that an ugly, shy, modest bride will be easier to leave and forget than a pretty, accomplished one. Her father, secretly hoping that Hawk will choose Frances, does not listen to her when she says she doesn't want to marry him. She's force to marry him and leave her beloved home. Hawk feels her only purpose is to provide him with an heir, and grimly goes about doing his "duty". He feels no desire for her (since she continues her charade and get-up) and also believes that a gentlewoman/lady should not be treated as a mistress and would not feel desire anyway. This, of course, means that neither of them gets any pleasure out of the act & he ends up hurting Frances several times, making her fearful of sex. The two spend a lot of the time arguing with each other over little things and truly do hate each other. He goes to London to escape her and his mistress convinces him to go back to his wife and woo her. When he comes back, he is surprised to see that his "ugly" wife is actually beautiful and had been tricking him along. The rest of the novel follows Hawk and Frances' cat-and-mouse game as he tries to "woo" her (a.k.a. have lots of sex) and they both fall in love with each other. There is a mystery subplot regarding racing horses and his older brother's mysterious death, in typical Coulter fashion.

I hadn't read Coulter in 10 years, and I decided to go back and see if I still liked her novels. I was disappointed. I realized that her books just aren't in the same league with what romance novelists are writing today. The characters just aren't as well sketched, and the man/woman relationship borders on abusive. This book does not feature any romance - the two main characters go from hating each other to lusting after each other all the time, with nothing in-between. Where's the snappy dialogue? Where are the conversations where they get to know each other and their most secret thoughts? Where's the realization that they can be friends and love each other? Where is the point when the hero/heroine realizes they were wrong and apologize to each other & grow as characters?

All of these key ingredients are missing from this book and it fails because of it. Any current historical romance novel you pick up by Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, Lisa Kleypas, Mary Balogh, etc. has these things and more. You can't just make a romance novel just be all about the two lusting after each other.

Regarding the rape scenes: in this book, Hawk does pretty much rape Frances repeatedly. Now, that's not the reason I didn't like the book. As far as that's concerned, he pretty much did what a guy would really have done in that situation in the time period it is set in - it wasn't considered rape back then if the person you had forced sex with was your wife. The issue I had (when looking at it as a work of fiction) was that he showed no remorse about it. Hawk did not grow as a character at all - he disrespected her from the start and continued to disrespect her until the end. And, I felt that Frances' switch from being afraid of sex (which was natural) to wanting him after viewing the horses mate was rather abrupt. It did not make sense - Hawk had really not done anything to make her trust him and desire him up to that point, so why would watching the horses mate turn her on? And, even if she does begin to enjoy sex, it still doesn't excuse how he treated her in the beginning when he did not desire her and forced her. The book could have a used a good "I am so sorry I hurt you. Please forgive me." scene and it just wasn't there.

If you have problems with any type of "forced" sex situation (where the heroine is scared and tells the hero "no" and he continues anyway) then you shouldn't read this book. It happens quite a lot in this book (and most of Coulter's work) and in a manner where it is justified for the hero to behave that way.

I picked up this book having read another Coulter novel (The Heir, also known as Lord Deverill's Heir) and not liked it. I'd give this author another chance. And she blew it!

This was like The Heir in so many ways. Forceful male ends up raping his new wife (although it's not rape as he uses cream. Eh?) and they argue all the time and eventually fall deeply in love. Why? What's loveable about either of them - except of course that they are attractive. So that's OK then. We never really understand why their opinions of each other change, there's a rather naff and blindingly obvious sub-plot about someone trying to discredit a racehorse stable.

Our `hero' spends a rather surprising amount of time discussing his mistress with his wife, and the mistress and wife eventually meet and get on well. Really? Some of Coulter's plot manoeuvres are mind-boggling and I couldn't suspend reality enough to keep with the story.

As with so many other American-authored Regency novels, our hero and heroine don't appear to know how to speak English; they pepper their dialogue with "gotten" and "inquire" and "fall" until I want to scream.

And the title - Midsummer Magic. The events aren't taking place in Midsummer and there's absolutely no magic. Why that title? Probably to imbue the book with a mystery that it doesn't deserve. Don't bother with this book - it's a waste of time and ink.

I feel this is one of Catherine Coulter's better written books as far as likable characters, interesting places and plausible plot lines go. It is easy and enjoyable to read. The average reader won't notice the slight grammatical errors or lack of historical context that have been referenced in other reviews.

To me there are two types of romance novels. Ones that are great love stories with few or no references to sexual activities and those that are great sex stories which delve a little deeper into describing sexual fantasies. Both types have their purpose and use inoffensive, socially acceptable language to describe human relationships.

There is no doubt that the three books in Coulter's `Magic' series are great sex stories. However, she is not vulgar or distasteful in her writing. You will find likeable characters including a smart, strong minded woman, a plausible plot with something other than just lust to keep the characters going and humorous twists and antics that will keep you turning the pages.