if I had read thisyears ago I would have rated it higher, But yes, it is that old, and kind of silly, Lately, Ive been getting caught up with “Thats Show” on Netflix, I only saw the first couple of seasons during its initial run and I refuse to watch the final season, as that show just devolved into wretchedness, but the firstseasons were entertaining with its retros shtick: a group ofyearold kids just hanging out, falling in love and being stupid.
I have a recentlyturnedyearold daughter, who is set to graduate from high school this June, Shes a very intelligent kid, as far as kids go, Since watching “Thats show” Ive realized something of myself as a parent, I am Red Forman. He was right!/yearolds are dumbasses,
What the heck does any of this babble have to do with Anne Mathers Moon Witch Well, “Thats Show” depicted Midwestern American teens doing what dumbass teens do: obsess over sex, TV, drugs, candy, and Rock n Roll.
Not being British nor having been a teen in thes, I cant attest if that depiction is also accurate for English teens of that era, but Im going out on a limb and assume that in rurals UK, dumbassyearold kids were, you know, aware of their own existence! The teenaged heroine of Moon Witch is a dumbass specifically because she has no clue about life.
Heres the plot of Moon Witch:
Littleyearold orphan Saras grandfather has just died, Shes finished her freaking O levels at school and has no one to turn to, Shes temporarily taken care of by a cranky neighbor withkids, but fortune is on its way to save our heroine from ending up on social services.
In his will, Saras grandfather left her guardianship to his former boss and CEO of Kyle Industries, Jarrod Kyle, Only he didnt specify exactly which Jarrod Kyle, so in a bizarre HPland twist Sara is made the ward of the son and new CEO, also named Jarrod Kyle.
Instead of being an old grandfatherly sort, this Jarrod is more of a fatherly sort being only twice Saras age: a silverblond haired, tanned, cherootsmoking, sexgod who drives a Mercedes one day, a Ferrari the next, then a Rolls Royce on Sunday.
He flies planes and owns and sails a yacht, He has multiple girlfriends who practically come to a catfight over him near the books denouement, in addition to an overbearing mommy who wants to run her sons lovelife but he aint listening to her.
Thats the set up, This innocent, shelteredyearold beauty is now the legal ward of a/year old guardian, Fortunately, Jarrods father, JK as in Just Kidding readers, I know this plot is crazy!, steps in and takes responsibility for Sara while Jarrod flies around the world going on trips, both for business and pleasure.
Ive read tons of historicals with,,yearold girls paired off with heroes in their mids through earlys, And it's hardly ever bothered me, Historicals play by different rules,
Yet in a contemporary, this is a fine line to walk, It has to be done properly with an understanding of the difficulty such a relationship faces, In Moon Witch, the older man/younger woman thing is creepy, Even the hero knows it, so he spends half the book avoiding the heroine,
Admittedly, Moon Witch is not a “modern” contemporary, as it was written in, Plus this is a Mills and Boon/Harlequin Presents were talking about, So since its an HPwhich is as far away from real romance as Star Wars is to space travel and historyI eventually got on board.
Despite my admitted prejudices, I ended up liking it, even though the book takes a while to get going,
This is not a love story of a middleaged man paired up with ayearold college student who in the US would be too young to buy alcohol, but would at least be armed with some worldly knowledge: how to drive a car, how to read a bank statement, how to type, or do some filing.
Sara isand her only skill is how to ride a horse or pony, Her favorite subjects in school are Art and English, Shes never had any feelings for a man before, no stolen kisses with boys, no harmless dates to the soda shop shes just a pinkcheeked little girl, who looks nothing like the sophisticated auburnhaired beauty on the original cover.
The first time our hero lays eyes on the heroine, the chick is decked out in a sexy pinafore:
sitelink
Moon Witch is not written in a psychologically intense way Charlotte Lamb would handle the older man/younger woman trope as she did in the wonderful sitelinkTemptation and sitelinkCrescendo.
IMO, Lamb has written the best and the worst HPs of all time, although that was because she was like a power hitter in baseball who either hits nothing but home runs or strikes out at the plate.
Anne Mather is no armchair psychologist, nevertheless, she did write some oddly entertaining books, She was a big fan of older woman/younger man plots, evil mothersinlaw wholl stop at nothing to break up the protagonists, and cheating tropes married or engaged.
Shes written tons of crazy HPs/Mill and Boons,
This one was definitely crazy,
Theres lots of hinting at the attraction between our leads, but it comes full force when the kid, er heroine, starts dancing to some of her favorite tunes, hits from Sammy Davis, Dave Brubeck, amp Dean Martin.
Now remember this was published in, Mather couldve gone with Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Rolling Stones, Elvis, or even freakin' Tom Jonesbut no,
Thats why Ive liked the Harlequin Presents series, No matter what decade they were written in, theyre always strangely anachronistic, at the very leastyears out of style,
Side note: Thats one reason why I cant stand the recent batch of HPs the writers have ditched the weird, fake, oldtimey fantasy setting in favor of some sort of chicklit/shades of hot new adult sex fusion that is perfectly fine for just about every other contemporary romance, but not HPs! Harrumph to that, I say!
So, anyhow, Saras alone, shaking her ass, dancing to the "latest" sexy beats, turns around, and there he is: Jarrod, lusting after her.
“Turning the volume up she allowed her own inhibitions to melt away, closing her eyes, and dancing with the same abandon she had seen teenagers on television adoptSara halted abruptly, conscious of the informality of her attire, the bare feet, and the damp untidy tangle of her hair.
She switched off the radiogram, and for a moment the silence seemed as deafening as the music had been, He did not speak but continued to look at her, his eyes slowly following the length of her body and back to her face again resting for a heart shaking moment on her mouth”
Sara is given a car, starts her driving lessons, and gets to go to one measly party where all the boys her age are hot for her.
Then she immediately gets pneumonia afterward and is out of commission, laying around doing nothing for the rest of the book until Jarrod decides to take her with him on a glamorous trip.
First to NYC for some wining and dining in the finest Manhattan restaurants, shopping trips and carriage rides through Central Park, then off to Jamaica to
meet his mother.
Mather introduces another man into the story near the end: a rich, sexy, friend of the hero whos the same age as he is.
This is just to confirm that the heroine knows her heart and its Jarrod she loves, for, like,eva!!!
They share their first kiss a few pages from the end, and Jarrod reminds her there is more to malefemale sexual relations than just kissing.
To which Saras eyes open wide with awe and surprise,
Hey, if Courtney Stoddens marriage is still going strong, ETA: Sadly, they didn't they divorced, then the reader of Moon Witch can have hope that Sara and Jarrod will be happy together for many years to come.
Until Jarrod gets canceryears later from all the smoking and tanning he does and leaves Sara a wealthy widow long before she hits.
Moon Witch wasnt just a hit with readers, For Harlequin, it was an “AllTime Favorite Best Seller, ” sitelink
My copy is theth printing since the originalhardcover release, and who knows how many times its been reprinted or rereleased since.
Its available as an ebook today, sitelink
Another Anne Mather phenomenal success was sitelinkNo Gentle Possession which waslike many other HPsoffered free with dish detergent:
sitelink
Anne Mather mustve been the bomb back in thes.
Her sitelinkLeopard in the Snow was made into a movie starring, Mr,Space Odyssey Canadian cutie, well I think he was a cutie, anyways Keir Dullea,
Moon Witch reminded me of Anne Mathers sitelinkStormspell, That was a fulllength book, with a similar olderman younger woman scenario, although no guardianshipward/ temporary daddy "ick" factor thrown in, In that one, the hero was just a cheating sleaze who “initiated the heroine into womanhood” before leaving her for his fiancée, but at least we the readers got to see into the heros mind to understand him better.
Plus, in Stormspell the heroine got to spread her wings a little before she and the hero settled down,
StillI can see why this HP appealed to the romance loving masses, Moon Witch, you are an awful book, straddling a fine line between romantic and pervy, and I hate myself for liking you.
Gods above forgive me, but I do,
½
For full disclosure, I met my husbandtobe when I was, he wasand we were both dumbasses.
We'll have been together as a coupleyears this March, This was sweet story. Not a lot happens but slowly picks up pace mid way, There was a lot of tension between them but you know the H Jarrod is fighting it until she turns, It was funny how he keeps getting buffer to stop anything happening, There was chemistry but it was subdued, Enjoyed it nonetheless. Moon Witch was published inand mum purchased this as a hard back through her book club, I later purchased this as a paperback second hand from a bookstall,
Synopsis:
Sara Robins had never even heard of Jarrod Kyle until he became her guardian, He was far removed from anyone Sara, at seventeen, had known in the small, quiet world she'd lived in until her grandfather's death.
Jarrod Kyle was just twice her age, handsome, rich, successful and surrounded by sophisticated women, Perhaps it was inevitable that Sara would fall in love with him,
But was it love or only a teenage crush Whichever, Sara couldn't imagine Jarrod's returning her feelings!
It was a nice romantic story for a young reader as I recall.
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Unlock The Secrets Of Moon Witch Fashioned By Anne Mather Accessible Through Physical Edition
Anne Mather