Quick Thoughts: Wait Until Midnight

Wait Until Midnight

by Amanda Quick

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  4.0 Stars

Adam Hardesty has a serious problem: a diary containing his family's darkest secrets has been stolen and, in the course of investigating his would-be blackmailer, he discovers the dead body of a prominent psychic.

His only lead is a list of the psychic's last visitors. The most likely suspect is a young woman named Mrs. Caroline Fordyce, whom he confronts in her parlour only to discover an inconvenient attraction to this beautiful young widow. But Caroline has secrets of her own and will do anything to avoid another scandal, even if it means journeying deeper in the the shadowy world of psychics, mediums and con artists, to help the enigmatic Mr Hardesty catch a killer.

I guess it’s entirely possible that I subconsciously recalled the heroine of Wait Until Midnight being a sensational novelist when I had read the summary blurb; but the truth is, it’s kind of coincidental that I read two Amanda Quick books in succession and both involved a novelist as one of the main characters. What’s more astounding is that Wait Until Midnight proved to be the engaging, enjoyable, and entertaining historical mystery and romantic suspense book that I had been expecting from Amanda Quick when I had picked up her other book, ’Til Death Do Us Part.

Especially when I hadn’t really been expecting much more than something similar to ’Til Death Do Us Part.

I’m not entirely sure why I feel this way. Both books had their faults and neither book was entirely, one hundred percent perfect. Neither were either of the books really all that terrible either. But while one ended up being a slightly less than mediocre read, the other was a very enjoyable, very likable story.

I can’t entirely pinpoint why it is that I liked one over the other, but there was definitely a different feel. While ’Til Death Do Us Part felt like a rush project through and through, Wait Until Midnight actually felt like there was plenty of thought put into the story’s entire process, from the writing, to the progression, and especially with the characters.

Even the murder mystery was pretty intriguing. Sure, there were a lot of over-dramatic twists and secret reveals that were a little more over hyped than I would have liked, but all in all, this was the far superior of the two books. I found that I enjoyed the tidbits about psychical investigations and what it was like during historical times. I like the way our couple goes about their discreet investigations much more so than the awkward partnership from the other Amanda Quick book.

But anyway, enough of the comparisons. This should be a post about Wait Until Midnight. Except that I don’t really have much else to say about it.

Character-wise, I loved Caroline’s eccentricities and loved that she didn’t let any of society’s restrictions on women hamper her ability to live life the way she needed to live it. I loved that she wasn’t just another meek little woman, or that even though she IS innocent in some ways, in other ways she’s technically more experienced than many others who would be in her position.

Adam was hard to like in the beginning, and being that he exhibited every bit of carbon-copy main male hero trait that could be possible, I didn’t expect much from him. And while he DID start off as a bit of an ass, I’m satisfied that he and Caroline end up being a great couple and a great set of partners during their investigations. The romance COULD have been a little steamier or a little spicier, but I actually kind of found the first sex scene a bit more pragmatic than you would typically see in most category romances.

Not that the love story and the sex didn’t also exhibit some dated ideals, but this IS historical fiction after all and I’ll take what I can get when I’m thoroughly enjoying the book, even if there are a lot of things that DID make me wince or roll my eyes. It didn’t escape my notice that both Amanda Quick books I have read have had a heroine who is a virgin, and who neglects to tell the man she’s about to have sex with that she is a virgin… and then awkward moments ensue for a little bit after they still manage to have breathtaking sex. Frankly, I found the similarities of both scenes in the two different books (both written a decade apart) glaringly obvious and kind of distracting.

Nonetheless, setting aside some of the tackiness and the cheese, Wait Until Midnight was extremely enjoyable!


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2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge