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The Midnight Match
In the best tradition of Regency Romance, handsome Lord Langford saved Carola’s honor in a daring rescue, and she in turn saved his life from a highwayman’s bullet. But he was wounded and asked her to marry him to make his last hours happy. Carola consented; then Langford recovered and she found herself married to a perfect stranger . . . and she had a rival for his love!
333 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1979
About the author
Zabrina Faire
12 booksPseudonyms: Zandra Colt, Lucia Curzon, Ellen Fitzgerald, Pamela Frazier and Florence Stevenson
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 29, 2013
There is genuinely funny bits to this--Carola's wry remark that it would be odd for her to reassure her husband that his former love still loves him best for instance. While we see how Carola falls in love we do not see much of how Charles does, but that's typical of Regencies of this time period (late 70's). I wish the end had not gotten so jumbled so quickly however.
December 17, 2020
The Midnight Match is a very delightful Regency romance. Zabrina Faire has a certain flair for writing that made this a fun and quick read that is helped by its nonsensical marriage of convenience plot.
Carolina is saved by Charles from a fortune hunter one night at an inn and as Charles and his friend and companion, a reverend whose name I unfortunately have forgotten, are taking her back to her home, they meet highway robbers who shoot Charles. Luckily, Carolina pushed him out of the way at the last second so that the shot isn't fatal. The reverend and Carolina are not sure if Charles will make it through the night so when Charles, in his delirium, believes he is wedding his love and cousin, Eugenia, at the altar, the reverend and Carolina go along with it, each saying the words to make the midnight match legally binding.
When Charles regains his health, he realizes Carolina has been his nurse this whole time that they've been recuperating at the nearby inn. He also remembers the midnight match and decides to honour the arrangement, which makes Carolina feel terribly guilty. Firstly, she wouldn't have told him about their marriage if he didn't press her for the truth, and even when she admits the truth, she again tries to give him an out.
Carolina feels so bad about coming in between Charles and his true love! However, she's also developed feelings for him and well, she's not going to argue *that* much if Charles is going to put up a fuss.
And thus Carolina is whisked off to Charles' estate.
Not everything is as it seems, however, and in fact, you can guess the lay of the land after meeting Eugenia.
Carolina is one of my favourite archetypes of the "good" or shall we say, "innocent" heroine because even though she's a good girl, improbable situations still happen to her, and the fun is seeing how she responds. Usually with a sense of anxious mortification and an urgent desire to set things right, even if it means ignoring society's edicts about ladylike comportment.
And to be honest, anytime I read a Regency England story starring a nonjudgmental but spirited girl sojourning at the gothic estate of her love interest, I will always think Northanger Abbey , which is also what made this story personally resonate with me.
Carolina is saved by Charles from a fortune hunter one night at an inn and as Charles and his friend and companion, a reverend whose name I unfortunately have forgotten, are taking her back to her home, they meet highway robbers who shoot Charles. Luckily, Carolina pushed him out of the way at the last second so that the shot isn't fatal. The reverend and Carolina are not sure if Charles will make it through the night so when Charles, in his delirium, believes he is wedding his love and cousin, Eugenia, at the altar, the reverend and Carolina go along with it, each saying the words to make the midnight match legally binding.
When Charles regains his health, he realizes Carolina has been his nurse this whole time that they've been recuperating at the nearby inn. He also remembers the midnight match and decides to honour the arrangement, which makes Carolina feel terribly guilty. Firstly, she wouldn't have told him about their marriage if he didn't press her for the truth, and even when she admits the truth, she again tries to give him an out.
Carolina feels so bad about coming in between Charles and his true love! However, she's also developed feelings for him and well, she's not going to argue *that* much if Charles is going to put up a fuss.
And thus Carolina is whisked off to Charles' estate.
Not everything is as it seems, however, and in fact, you can guess the lay of the land after meeting Eugenia.
Carolina is one of my favourite archetypes of the "good" or shall we say, "innocent" heroine because even though she's a good girl, improbable situations still happen to her, and the fun is seeing how she responds. Usually with a sense of anxious mortification and an urgent desire to set things right, even if it means ignoring society's edicts about ladylike comportment.
And to be honest, anytime I read a Regency England story starring a nonjudgmental but spirited girl sojourning at the gothic estate of her love interest, I will always think Northanger Abbey , which is also what made this story personally resonate with me.
September 4, 2021
I bought this for my mama, but she won't read historical romance and I needed an author with a 'Z' name so I decided to give it a try. I am glad I did. Although it is nothing spectacular, it was uncomplicated and atmospheric. I quite enjoyed the journey to the inevitable conclusion. Nothing wrong with two people being happy in the end.
January 1, 2019
“There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be…”
The quote states about destiny. No matter how hard we try in the end somehow we are dragged towards our destiny. The midnight match is one of the novels having the same story.
The writer of this novel Zabrina Faire is the writer of many regency romance based novels. Regency romance novels are those which contain the sensational emotions of romance along with historical backgrounds. In this novel, it is mainly the historical background of England.
As the title of the book tells about two strangers having their own love life, met in an accident and ends up to be destined together, forever until the end. The main characters in this story are Carola, Charles, Major Savage, Eugenia, Cecil.
Carola was a young girl, living with her father and brother. Her mother died when she was very young. A man named Major Savage after facing some accident came to their territory. Carola used to spend a lot of time with him and so she was getting very interested in him. On the other hand, major also showed her affection and finally purposed her. She had known that her father would never approve of this proposal but she asked Major to ask her father. As expected her father refused it and he went away from her, showing his grief to her. After some time Major contacted her through a letter, in which she was being requested to meet him. Carola keeping in mind that he was hurt, decided to meet him, without knowing the wicked intention behind it, and she was being abducted by him. She came to know that Major was never in love with her but was after her wealth. She was taken to an inn where she was supposed to wed Major. While Major was forcefully harassing Carola, her screams were listened by two men.
They came to her rescue. One of them was Charles. Charles took her with him and assured her that she will be sent home safely. Later on, during their journey at midnight, they were attacked by thieves. There, one of the thieves was about to shoot Charles, but he was saved by Carole from attaining serious injuries.
Although Carola saved him he was shot on the shoulder, and due to a lot of blood leakage Charles became unconscious and started to call for his love Eugenia. He, in his unconsciousness he thought that Carole was Eugenia, and insisted her to marry him at the spot, as he thought he was dying. The Other companion of Charles also insisted her to do as he asked, as it was not reliable to bring him to any more pain. He asked her to go ahead with the mock marriage.
Who knew that it was their destiny to bind together
Later when Charles recovered and discovered that he was being married to Carola, he decided to continue the marriage. Carola was guilty as she thought he loved Eugenia but sacrificed his love for her devotion and honor. Whereas Charles thought that she was not happy living with him.
Although both were so amazingly in love with each other, they had misunderstandings that prevented them to show their love.
Mean While Eugenia and Cecil tried to plot a wicked plan to separate them and tried to get their hands on Charles wealth. Discover the sensational feelings and suspense of how after many obstacles, Charles and Carole were able to reveal their love to each other.
Moral:
According to me, the writer has tried to highlight three main facts of real life.
The first and the most important is that no matter how hard we try, things will happen to us that lead us to our destiny.
The second fact is that it does not matter whether a nobleman or a young lady is in love, the love in itself is blind to all likewise. They are unable to see the bad side of their lover.
The third fact is that a person, in greed of wealth, can go as low as he can. He even does not bother about his dignity.
The quote states about destiny. No matter how hard we try in the end somehow we are dragged towards our destiny. The midnight match is one of the novels having the same story.
The writer of this novel Zabrina Faire is the writer of many regency romance based novels. Regency romance novels are those which contain the sensational emotions of romance along with historical backgrounds. In this novel, it is mainly the historical background of England.
As the title of the book tells about two strangers having their own love life, met in an accident and ends up to be destined together, forever until the end. The main characters in this story are Carola, Charles, Major Savage, Eugenia, Cecil.
Carola was a young girl, living with her father and brother. Her mother died when she was very young. A man named Major Savage after facing some accident came to their territory. Carola used to spend a lot of time with him and so she was getting very interested in him. On the other hand, major also showed her affection and finally purposed her. She had known that her father would never approve of this proposal but she asked Major to ask her father. As expected her father refused it and he went away from her, showing his grief to her. After some time Major contacted her through a letter, in which she was being requested to meet him. Carola keeping in mind that he was hurt, decided to meet him, without knowing the wicked intention behind it, and she was being abducted by him. She came to know that Major was never in love with her but was after her wealth. She was taken to an inn where she was supposed to wed Major. While Major was forcefully harassing Carola, her screams were listened by two men.
They came to her rescue. One of them was Charles. Charles took her with him and assured her that she will be sent home safely. Later on, during their journey at midnight, they were attacked by thieves. There, one of the thieves was about to shoot Charles, but he was saved by Carole from attaining serious injuries.
Although Carola saved him he was shot on the shoulder, and due to a lot of blood leakage Charles became unconscious and started to call for his love Eugenia. He, in his unconsciousness he thought that Carole was Eugenia, and insisted her to marry him at the spot, as he thought he was dying. The Other companion of Charles also insisted her to do as he asked, as it was not reliable to bring him to any more pain. He asked her to go ahead with the mock marriage.
Who knew that it was their destiny to bind together
Later when Charles recovered and discovered that he was being married to Carola, he decided to continue the marriage. Carola was guilty as she thought he loved Eugenia but sacrificed his love for her devotion and honor. Whereas Charles thought that she was not happy living with him.
Although both were so amazingly in love with each other, they had misunderstandings that prevented them to show their love.
Mean While Eugenia and Cecil tried to plot a wicked plan to separate them and tried to get their hands on Charles wealth. Discover the sensational feelings and suspense of how after many obstacles, Charles and Carole were able to reveal their love to each other.
Moral:
According to me, the writer has tried to highlight three main facts of real life.
The first and the most important is that no matter how hard we try, things will happen to us that lead us to our destiny.
The second fact is that it does not matter whether a nobleman or a young lady is in love, the love in itself is blind to all likewise. They are unable to see the bad side of their lover.
The third fact is that a person, in greed of wealth, can go as low as he can. He even does not bother about his dignity.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews