Title: Once Upon a Summer Night
Author: Nancy Scanlon
Series: Mists of Fate #3
a wonderful mix of staid modernism and fanciful notions
I would like to thank Nancy Scanlon, Diversion Books, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Colin O’Rourke aims to expand his matchmaking business to the UK, but Miss Winifred Emsworth, a popular gossip columnist, is not a fan. She holds a lot of sway with the public, and Colin needs her endorsement to be successful. He asks what he can do to convince her his company is as great as he purports—and she gives him an ultimatum: find her niece a suitable love match, or his new branch is DOA.
Because the Fates have something against him, he discovers Emsworth’s niece, Miss Ellie Carberry, is the same woman he’d met in his cousin’s garden a few days prior—the same woman he’d known, instantly, to be his soul mate. But Colin didn’t meet Emsworth’s list of requirements, nor was he prime happily-ever-after material. He was going to have to weather the pain of marrying off the woman he loves—the only woman he ever would—and make peace with a lonely future, for the good of his company—and the good of Ellie.
I seriously enjoyed this book! I couldn’t stop reading it. Had it done inside nine hours or something. I have a favorite line: “Rainbows will sprout wherever you walk, and unicorns will prance under them in joy.” Delivered in wry humor, of course.
But in retrospect, I do have some problems with the story.
First, I’m a little disappointed in the Celtic Connections matchmaking company. It was said that the company “deals with life partners.” I can get behind that 100 percent. But then Colin goes on to say that “[m]arriages are the end goal.” As someone who admires commitment but isn’t interested in marriage, I find that unfortunate. Also, I never gleaned any sort of indication that the company matches any orientations besides hetero. In this day and age, I thought that restriction unfortunate as well. Of course, I could be wrong on both counts, and the author simply didn’t think it necessary to specify.
Second, this book can be read as a stand-alone. Everything that needs to be explained for the sake of the plot is explained. BUT I did feel that I was seeing a small piece of a much larger picture. Or as if I had walked in at the end of a long conversation and only heard the last bit. Since this is the third book in the series, obviously there’s a story behind the characters of Brianagh and Nick and Emma and Aiden—which I have already purchased and plan to read—but I was absolutely fascinated by Reilly and this time traveling business. He was a complete mystery, and I want soooo badly to know what his story is. So badly that it almost distracted me from Colin and Ellie.
Colin was thoroughly a martyr and took choices away from Ellie before she even knew she could make them—not only that, but he teased her with them, dangling them in front of her face before tearing them out of her grasp—which very nearly irritated me to the point of disliking him…but I could see where he was coming from, and he was so kind and smart otherwise, I let him get away with his pity parties. He was one of those heroes who was so selfless that he was, in fact, being quite selfish. Some might call him an asshole, actually. But he realized the error of his ways and all was well.
Ellie was a darling. I related to her very much, as I, too, am a clumsy, timid bookworm. But I did have a couple issues with her. While I adored her overall, her character arc prodded a sore spot with me. She had a bad experience when she was young—a public one—and in defense, she retreated into “invisibility,” spending all her days working in her bookshop and, as I understood it, most of her nights at home with a book. When Colin comes into her life and toys with her heart, she realizes she’s been hiding and needs to get out and experience life. It’s also implied that, with this realization and in light of her recent adventure, her love of books has faded? There’s nothing wrong with that, per se (though if I were her, I’d have called it a nightmare, not an adventure, and would be very eager to return to my books). I understand the philosophy and respect its merits, but I also don’t think she should be ashamed of living a quiet, book-filled life if that was what she wanted. Only arrogant extroverts would say readers are hiding from life. I think you should do whatever makes you happy, and if you feel you’ve lived a full life, then you have.
The second issue pertains to her past trauma. It’s talked about just once, at the beginning, and I kept waiting for it to come up between Colin and Ellie, but it never did. And now that I think on it, Colin’s issues and misgivings with life take the stage while Ellie’s wait in the wings. While she, herself, cerebrates on it, no one else ever asks her why she’s so resistant to dating and marriage. They just assume she’s antisocial and timid, and they take her for a one-dimensional creature. Gwen might have discussed Ellie’s past briefly, because she would have known about it, but if she did, I don’t remember the passage. If they weren’t going to do anything with the miscarriage (which isn’t really a spoiler, because it had little significance, as I’m explaining), they should have omitted that bit.
And that leads to my final complaint—the ending seemed rather abrupt. While it was satisfying in the moment, I feel there was more that needed to be said between Colin and Ellie before I could sign off on their happily-ever-after. I guess I have to assume there was full disclosure and they worked it out.
Other than that, I might have noticed a typo or two, but I was so enthralled with the story that I don’t even remember what they were. The writing style was smooth, intelligent, and uncomplicated.
Lastly, I have to commend the fact that this book contained no sex scenes whatsoever, not even almost-sex, yet it was very sexy. What’s more—I didn’t even want a sex scene! Actually, I was so wrapped up in the story that it didn’t occur to me until the end that there hadn’t been any sex. And I was okay with it. The story didn’t need it. That’s not an easy feat for a romance.
