Kate Freiman
Freiman, Kate - LADY MOONLIGHT (Jove - 3/99) (4)
In 1899, sixteen-year-old Aisling Ahearn of County Sligo,
Ireland is fleeing from her father and Ambros O'Hara, the cold and grasping older man her father is forcing her to marry. She wants a university education, her family inheritance, and a marriage based on love. So she won't be discovered and dragged
back home, she begs for help from a leprechaun, Acorn Bittersweet, who agrees to use magic to conceal her from her pursuers.
Aisling learns a bitter lesson, however: magic always has a price. Acorn Bittersweet plans to keep the young lady for himself—and unwed for a hundred years—while he goes off to hunt for treasure. He is out for revenge against her father for stealing the woman Acorn had loved (Aisling's mother). After Aisling's dearly beloved mare, Luna, is captured in a charm, our heroine is only visible to mortals in the form of the white mare; although her form is unchanged in the Faery world. Acorn even taunts and encourages her to find true love during the next one hundred years. If she finds a man who captures her heart, and he declares his love for her three times, the spell will be broken and she will be free.
Aisling encounters a beautiful faery, Rainbow-and-Silver-Lining, who claims to be her great-great-great aunt. Although Rainbow can't undo the spell, she adds her own bit of magic. Aisling will now age only one month for every mortal year of her captivity, and at each full moon, she will appear as herself to mortals. She is to live in Under-Hill, the world of the Faery, with Rainbow, who will be her advocate during the hundred-year spell. But finding true love will be up to Aisling. Rainbow then casts a spell of her own, declaring that the descendants of Ambros O'Hara will prosper in business, but never in love, until an O'Hara falls in love with Aisling and breaks the spell. Our heroine is stunned and horrified because she despises everything about this family and wants nothing to do with them—not even in a hundred years!
Aisling does fall in love with an O'Hara, however, without realizing it. She meets Conlan Ambros O'Hara Sloan, just "Sloan" to her, on full moon nights when he is sixteen...then nineteen...then again when he is thirty-four. But Conlan must overcome his fear that he is a man who cannot love, and Aisling must overcome her hatred of the O'Haras. Will their love be true and strong enough to defeat the leprechaun's spell?
In LADY MOONLIGHT, I enjoyed how the author shifted back and forth between time periods—from 1899 when Aisling's magical bondage began, to the 1980s when she meets Sloan, to 1999 when they must face Acorn Bittersweet together. Especially fascinating is Kate Freiman's vivid portrayal of the world of Faery. LADY MOONLIGHT is a magical combination of historical, fantasy, and contemporary romance that will cast a spell on your heart. ~Debora Hosey for Bookbug on the Web
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