The Marriage Spell
Abigail is a wizard in early 19th-century England, a healer of great talent, but wizards are feared and despised. A chance encounter gives her the opportunity to save the life of Lord Jack Frayne, whom she has admired only from afar. As they fall in love and marry, Jack overcomes his almost irrational hatred of wizards and slowly learns to accept his own powers, which were beaten out of him as a child. Together, they fight to overcome the curse that has decimated his family estate and his mother’s mind, with many passionate encounters along the way.
The plot is skillfully developed. The two main characters are extremely likable, and the novel gives a good look at Regency England. The only discordant note comes when Abigail and Frayne are attacked on a lonely London street one night. Afterwards, Abigail casually comments that she might have been raped, too, a thoroughly modern way of expressing an act that was couched in much vaguer terms during that age. Nevertheless, if you like your Regencies safe and predictable, this book should prove popular, although the novel lacks tension between its characters and in its inevitable conclusion.
