Rating:
Published: 1994
Illustrator: Elaine Duillo
Book Series: Malory & Anderson #4
Published by: Avon
Genres: Historical Romance, Regency Era Romance
Pages: 406
Format: Audiobook, eBook, Paperback
Buy on: Amazon, ThriftBooks, AbeBooks
Reviewed by: Introvert Reader
SPOILER FREE REVIEW
The Magic of You and No Time for Romance
By the time Johanna Lindsey‘s The Magic of You was published by Avon in June 1993, I was a rising Junior in high school.
From 7th to 9th grade, I had been obsessed with romance novels, reading everything from Lady Chatterley’s Lover to category romances to thick, door-stopper historical epics.
So at that time, I was not as fanatical about reading for fun due to a full course load at school, with no lunch period and little time for extra-extracurricular activities.
On the day I came upon that blue Elaine Duillo and Fabio step-back paperback at a Waldenbooks in the local mall, I squealed in delight. It was a sequel to one of my favorite Lindsey books Gentle Rogue.
I excitedly plunked down $5.99 plus tax (oh my, how expensive books had gotten; only 3 years earlier, a mass-market paperback could go as low as $4) and hurried home to read it.
To this day, The Magic of You remains the only book I have ever read and finished TWICE in one day.
The Heroine in Pursuit
The heroine-in-pursuit plot seems like such an unusual trope in historicals. If it isn’t, it’s at least rare in the romance novels I read.
More often, it’s the hero pursuing the heroine, if not out of love, because he wants her body.
Here, Amy wants it all from Warren: his body, his love, and his laughter.
A free-spirited, confident heroine in pursuit of an uptight, stuffed-shirt hero who tries his best to resist her is my absolute favorite trope. I don’t think I’ve seen it done better in any book than this one.
Lady Amy Malory is female, but that doesn’t mean she’s distinct from her libidinous Malory uncles. And she’s much more so than flirtatious cousin Regina.
Amy might be a 17-year-old virgin, but she knows what she wants. That would be Warren Anderson, the brother of her uncle’s James wife. The dour American is much older at age than her at (I think) 36.
Yes, there’s a considerable age gap between the two, but it doesn’t make any difference in The Magic of You.
Amy is strong-willed, determined, witty, and utterly charming.
Warren is the complete opposite: a stick-in-the-mud type who was deeply hurt in the past by the woman he loved. Now the only woman he has any feelings of consideration for is his sister, Georgina, and his newborn niece, Jacqueline.
“I want you, Warren Anderson.”
The Magic of You
The Hero in Flight
Warren hates the Malory family. In particular, his brother-in-law, James.
When James Malory compromised his sister, Georgina, it took all five burly Anderson brothers to take turns beating James into a pulp to force him to marry her. James has never forgotten that.
Nor have the Andersons forgotten that James was a pirate who plundered some Anderson family ships. Not to mention that he’s a blasted Englishman, while the Anderson are American.
The blood feud runs strong between the two families, despite George and James’s marriage.
So it’s no surprise that Amy’s uncles are vehemently opposed to any union between Warren and Amy. But Amy doesn’t care. She will use all her feminine wiles, all her charm, all the magic of her love to transform bitter Warren into a happy man.
And because she’s a Malory, Warren has met his match.
Final Analysis of The Magic of You
The Magic of You is an imperfect book, I know. It’s not one of Johanna Lindsey’s most well-written historical romance novels.
Doesn’t matter. I loved this one. Loved, loved, loved it.
5 Stars
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| Overall: | 4.8 |
Synopsis
As wild and reckless as the most incorrigible of her male cousins, Amy Malory has reached a marriageable age and has set her sights on a most inappropriate mate: the straight-laced American ship captain who once nearly had her Uncle James
hunghanged for piracy.Warren Anderson is shocked by the brazen advances of his despised enemy’s beautiful niece. Though determined to resist her, he burns for the enchanting British minx. And an impassioned heart implores him to surrender to a love that could stoke the smoldering fires of a family feud into a dangerous, all consuming blaze
THE MAGIC OF YOU by JOHANNA LINDSEY