Devil At Midnight by Emma Holly 
Paranormal Romance
November 2, 2010
Paperback, 352 Pages
Berkley

Reviewed by Tori

Favorite Quote: “Why would he think she would never comes back when she always had before?”

Grace Campbell lives in fear of her abusive father. When she is brutally beaten by him, she “dies” and finds herself in a waiting station. She is offered the chance to help someone make an important decision. She soon finds herself transported from 1950 America to 1450 Switzerland. Here she meets Christian Durand. A mercenary in his father’s army, Christian lives a harsh life with his cruel father and does what he can to protect his men.

When Grace and Christian meet-sparks fly and desires flare. Loving a ghost isn’t easy and when the vampire queen Nim Wei sets her immortal sights on Christian, he must choose between his darker urges and a powerful love that spans centuries…

Grace is sent back to Christian as an angel, ghost-still unsure what she is-to befriend him and help him make a life altering decision. When Christian sees Grace for the first time he is shocked and believes he is losing his mind. But soon he accepts her presence for what it is and their journey begins.

When Christian’s father sets up a mission for Christian and his men; both he and Grace know that something is wrong. Their client, Nim Wei, is to be escorted to her new home but her rules for her transportation leave them all expecting the worse for she is not what she seems.

As Grace follows along side Christian and does her best to protect him, Christian is trying his best to protect his men who Nim is slowing bringing under her spell. When Christian’s father makes a devil’s bargain with Nim, Christian is left making a decision that will cost him his life and his love.

This is a hard review for me to write. I have never read a book where I loved the characters but didn’t like the story they were written into. The story and the characters have a distinctly modern feel to them despite being set in the 1400’s. Strong and personable; I found myself very taken with them all. Our protagonists have a good report and the interaction between them and others is genuine and believable. They both have abusive fathers that play large roles in shaping their lives; they are both starved for love which is reiterated through out the book. The plot however is a mess of confusion though. So many contradictions made for uneasy reading. There is so many events that happen without foreshadowing or conclusion that I was often left in the dark. Christian and Grace’s actions left me thinking constantly, “This makes no sense.” For example, after 24 hours of knowing each other, they both exhibit a bond that’s better reflected in those who have known each other for years rather then hours. Also, Christian and Grace show no real curiosity in each other’s past lives. Honestly, If I met someone from the past or future I would ask questions. The love interest between Grace and Christian is fast and under developed. They go from A to Z in 60 seconds. SPOILER: There is one scene where he masturbates in front of her within 12 hours of meeting her. The fact she isn’t shocked or even a little put off was strange considering she is an 18 year girl from 1950.

The book plays heavy on them becoming friends-soul mates-and you get the feeling that they are and more but it happens so fast you can’t justify WHY they are. And that’s the whole problem I had with the story. Everything just happens.

The action is non stop and the story pacing is fast but scenes happen, again, without any foreshadowing. We aren’t given adequate knowledge to justify their actions. I was really left in the dark about our villains Nim Wei and Christian’s father. We get the whos and whats but no real whys.

The ending comes at you hard and fast and leaves you with a lot of questions. Quite a cliffhanger. While I enjoyed the characters and the premise of the story, I didn’t enjoy how it was presented. I will read the next in the series just because of the characters and I want to see what happens to them. I can only hope that storyline settles down a bit.

Rating: C-

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