Long Night Moon by Theresa Weir

I only have one Theresa Weir book left. She's not always great, but when she is, she's not like any other romance writer.

Long Night Moon by Theresa Weir
(1995, Contemporary) 4/1/08
Grade: 4

When troubled reporter Nash Audubon first sees Sara Ivy, all he sees is the mask she shows the world - the perfect wife of a rich businessman. But he keeps probing, and finds out there’s much more underneath - but after years of abuse, can Sara find the courage to break free?

Looking back on this book, I can see the flaws - but when I was reading, they didn’t matter. I couldn’t put it down, the characters were so compelling. Sara could have been a cliched martyred heroine, but she was more than that, with her flashes of rebellion and strength, as well as her understandable (but unheroine-like) escapes into alcohol and pills. Nash sounds like the typical loner romance hero, but his characterization also goes deeper - he’s beyond “romance novel troubled”, he’s hit bottom, but he also has moments of rebellion, just like Sara. The villain was cardboard evil, and the big confrontation a little cliched, but they were relatively minor problems. I’m not sure how Weir made these two work, but she did, and I was completely sucked in.

In an odd way, I didn't feel emotionally moved by this book, the way I am by more traditional romances. But it was very compelling, and I just couldn't put it down.