Not bad, but certainly not the author's best. The narrator of the book is a teacher at an exclusive private school for girls. She was an appealing character, and I also enjoyed many of the supporting cast. Unfortunately, the hero of the novel was completely unsympathetic. The plot twist at the end was easily guessed early on, but it still made for a nice light read.

So, in spite of the fact that this one employs one of the most objectionable of romance tropes (attempted rape) and a heroine who is pretty slow on the uptake (and thus meaning that everything gets wrapped up hella quickly at the end), this manages to maybe my favorite Victoria Holt so far. Go figure.

Sometimes I love a good gothic romance, where the heroine is feisty but dumb and the hero has some dark brooding past. But this one...I figured out the mystery long before the characters did, but whatever.

My main issue was the fact that the hero would NOT take no for an answer. Ever. He kept pursuing Cordelia, while she continuously turned him down and avoided him; he locked her in a room in his house and would have raped her if she hadn't broken the one unbarred window; he said it was OK because she would have "liked it." WHAT THE HELL? Of course he redeems himself in the end, in typical gothic romance fashion. But at that point I was like:

2.5 stars. The mystery/suspense portion of the book was great. However, the romance part was disturbing, even accounting for the time period. Victoria Holt is supposedly a "read alike" to Mary Stewart, but so far, I have been a bit disappointed.

It has been a VERY long time since I've read any Victoria Holt books, but I remember that I loved getting them from the library and this one was no exception. This is one of my favorites! She has a formula that works for a quick light read and I have yet to be disappointed by it. Don't expect to have your mind blown or challenged, but great read for by the pool or on the beach.

While I love VH, I have the same problem with all her books - 100 pages too long with the same phrases and scenes repeated until I'm really tired of reading identical text, and the worst romantic heroes this side of harlequin romance. Did she really think sleeping through a village and trying to rape the heroine was romantic? It may be awhile before I pick up another VH, but I know I will because she's addictive and wonderful for a totally immersing read.

Time of the Hunter’s Moon by Victoria Holt is a 2013 Sourcebooks Casablanca publication. (Originally published in 1983)

Victoria Holt writes a Bodice Ripper?

While attending school, Cordelia Grant and a group of her friends, indulge in a little harmless folklore by gathering at a specific location, at the time of the Hunter’s Moon, in hopes of finding their future husband. Sure enough, a man emerges in their midst, striking up a brief conversation with the girls, paying close attention to Cordelia, especially.

Upon graduation, Cordelia takes a job at an all- girls school. After meeting the mysterious stranger again, only to have him disappear, Cordelia tries to search him out, only to have the mystery deepen. Over time, she tries to put the odd experience out of her mind.

As it turns out, she has more troubling things to concern herself with. One, is a student that needs extra attention, and another is a group of girls who intend to challenge her authority. But the most upsetting issue is that she has somehow managed to catch the attention of Sir Jason Verringer, a land baron, with a wicked reputation… including the rumor that he may have murdered his invalid wife so that he could marry his mistress.

Once Jason has set his sight on Cordelia, he manipulates, schemes and connives to spend time alone with her. His attentions flatter her, but he also seriously frightens her, especially after his mistress suddenly disappears….

Maybe I have mythologized Victoria Holt over the years, or perhaps I have selective memories. I have not read all of her books, so maybe I read a handful that were tame compared to the others-I’m not sure.

But, this book, written well past the Gothic Romance/Suspense genre’s prime, felt like an attempt by Holt to cash in the wildly popular historical romance/bodice ripper trend of that time, write something that appealed to a more mature audience, and still make her romantic suspense fans happy. The result was a mix of bad writing, and an almost unforgivable attempted rape scene.

If I had been reading a historical romance written in the early eighties by any other writer, I would have braced myself for such an inevitable scene, but I certainly wasn’t expecting that to pop up in a book written by Victoria Holt!

I'm sure long time fans will enlighten me as to whether or not I am likely to encounter this situation again in her books- or if this was an anomaly- but for me-this was definitely not one of Holt's finer moments-

2 stars