Once Upon a Moscow Night
by Judith McGuiness
iUniverse
2008
ISBN: 978-0-595-49240-4
243 pages
Trade Paperback
Romance

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Kate Barnes spent her isolated childhood developing a love for all things Russian. Time has now painted her as an unusual beauty, one that catches the eye of every man on the hunt. So, while Kate is living her dream of holidaying in Moscow and bumps into the eminent Viktor Cherkasov, there’s no reason for her to feel any different about him than she has the men who have come before him. But Kate does. Can her love conquer a large age difference, cultural barriers and a venomous son determined to keep Kate and Victor forever apart? And can it do so in just ten days?

Once Upon a Moscow Night is a novel meant for the true romantic. Its pace is leisurely: you get to visit all the places Kate does, you’re exposed to the thoughts and feelings of each player in the story and you’re ever so gently pulled down into the romance until you have no choice but to see it through to the end. And, of course, the denouément includes perfect solutions to all problems, followed by the same gentle, even graceful, glide to the finish.

These are all good things. Or they could be. Judith McGuinness puts sentences together very well, and she cares deeply for her characters. I think, however, she should care as much for her readers. You see, Once Upon a Moscow Night is a story completely told by the blurb on the back cover. There are no surprises. One reads the book only to participate in a “knight on a white horse” love affair set in an exotic place. There’s nothing else. Deep character development isn’t possible, because there’s no real conflict. Never, in the 243 pages of this book did I feel convinced the romance was truly in danger. The hurdles felt exactly as they were: contrivances.

If the author was doing her job, story movement, the ever-changing and unique actions of the characters would have defined specific feelings, morals, traits, etc., for us. Instead, the reader is too often fed repetitious actions, words and thoughts of both Victor and Kate. In my opinion, we’re told of the romance more often than we’re shown.

Let me put it this way: Once Upon a Moscow Night is the perfect, undemanding romance to transport you away from a dreary and boring afternoon. It’s not a novel of substance.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2009