On the Night of the Seventh Moon Mass Market Paperback – 1973

This book is good enough that you can see why Victoria Holt remains a big name in gothic romances decades after writing this. There are a lot of interesting twists--many characters turn out not as they seem at first, and few are purely good or purely evil, but an interesting mix of the two. The plot did not develop the way I initially expected it to, and I really enjoyed the book because of that.However, I give the book four stars rather than five because I found it WAY too long--it plods slowly from one plot development to another, expecially in the middle of the book. I did something I hardly ever do--skipped ahead to skim through the slow plot developments and get to the chase, so to speak. This book could have been edited down to about half its length and not really miss anything. After skipping ahead, I did go back and read the book thoroughly to make sure I hadn't missed anything. (I hadn't.)

Set in Germany and England from 1859 to 1870 (with an end note in 1901), this tells the story of Helena Trant whose parents were so much in love they had little time for her. Still, hers was a happy childhood among books in Oxford where her father had a bookstore. When she was old enough, her parents sent her to Germany near the Black Forest to a convent school where her mother had been educated.Helena loves the forest and the fairy tales surrounding it. She hears of the legend of the night of the seventh moon "when mischief is abroad and is routed with the coming of dawn." On one night, she gets lost in the mist of the forest and is rescued by a man who takes her to his hunting lodge. She taken with him that she might have allowed him to have his way with her but for the intervention of a housekeeper who took measures to preserve Helena's virtue. But Helena never forgot the man even though she did not know his name.Years later, she returns to Germany and on another night of the seventh moon Helena meets and marries her German at his hunting lodge, but then she wakes from her idyllic honeymoon to discover she has been drugged by a physician who tells her she has escaped a horror that befell her in the forest. Helena lives in a fog of dreams and wonders where truth is.I have to say that I love Holt's writing, and this story sucked me in immediately. It is labeled as a romantic suspense, but I didn't see it containing any more suspense than many historical romances. But it does have a Gothic feel and there is a mystery. Holt had me wondering what had really happened. She did an excellent job of that. The book is a bit slow in the middle, and the hero and heroine are separated for years. In that interim, I found passages that seemed repetitive, but the ending is a great one. As always, Holt is a master storyteller and creates wonderfully vivid characters. I recommend it.

Like other reviewers here, I read this book many year ago...over and over again. I remembered it recently and hunted for it in the Used Paperback Bookstore I use. But, alas, there were NO Victoria Holt books to be found. So I purchased a kindle copy.This is a book that will appeal to any lover of historic romantic mysteries. It has no sex scenes so can be shared with a daughter, granddaughter or teenage acquaintance.The book description and the sample available to be read for free on Amazon or sent to your kindle tell you the premise of the story. This is a true fairy tale romance with lots of angst. Helena's naivete allows the reader to make fairly good guesses as to how this young lady's world is going to be set on its ear one day. But it is so romantic. A school girl being educated in a Duchy away from her English roots is rescued by a "handsome stranger on a white horse" after being lost in the fog! Does it get any better than that? Separations, trips back to England, unknown "relatives" or travelers needing help/showing up and offering to take our Helena back to the Duchy for a vacation, and then the Night of the Seventh Moon celebration leads her on one heck of a trip...but is it into fantasy land or...did it really happen? Was this all a dream, a matter of her romantic notions? But why would Ilse lie to her? Heart break and then redemption. Sigh!Victoria Holt tells a great story. But this one has always been my favorite. I highly recommend it to those with a taste for a good romance/mystery.

ON THE NIGHT OF THE SEVENTH MOON by Victoria Holt is a fairy tale set in the years 1859 to 1870 in Germany. A young English girl gets lost in the mists and is picked up by a young man on horseback, who takes her to his hunting lodge for the night. Too innocent to realize that he has ungentlemanly designs on her, she nevertheless locks her door at night, as instructed by an old woman, who appears to be the young man’s nurse. Next morning, the old woman takes her back to her boarding school.And there thing would have ended, except that he cannot forget her.This plot bears some similarity to THE TIME OF THE HUNTERS MOON, also by Victoria Holt, but instead of a young man and his sister working to murder wealthy young women to inherit their fortunes, ON THE NIGHT OF THE SEVENTH MOON is a tale of true love. Five stars.