A Deeper Magic

I became a fan of Jillian Hunter this past year. I recently read her books, "Daring" (excellent), "Abandon" (good), and "Seduction of an English Scoundrel" (very good) and now, "Deeper Magic". I really like her well developed characters, interesting plot lines and hints of magic, dreaming and other worldly things. Her books are creative and usually memorable. This book was written back in 1994 - all the others I mentioned above came after this one so...her writing craft was still being developed during "Deeper Magic". The setting for this story was Scotland in the mid 1800's. A time when medicine slowly become modern and coming out of the dark period. Medicine was finally being based on research and development and not just old wives tales. Our hero Ian MacNeill was a doctor in search of the latest developments to benefit mankind. He was thoughtful, kind, intelligence, experimental and emotional. All the necessary things to be found in a man of medicine dedicated to saving and preserving lives. Our heroine Margaret Rose was a hurt, disappointed and disillusioned young girl on the brink of womanhood when the two meet up the first time. Margaret is suffering long term from the loss of her mother and youngest brother in a water accident many years earlier and her father has never forgiven her for being involved in the tragedy. He sends her away to a remote island in her late teen years as he feels she is out of control and he cannot look at her without remembering the accident. Although she is his beloved child, she is also the child of tragedy. So...away she must go and she does. Margaret spends many years on the island and slowly becomes accepted by the locals, begins doing her own healing with herbs and plants with the help of the local old charmer Morag. Margaret does well in her healing as it involves items from nature, the art of learning and a dose of caring. She develops from an isolated child to a woman of warmth and kindness in a harsh land far away from the contemporary world. Ian and Margaret meet up years later on the island when he is sent there to find her and bring her back and do work for the local people. They have some early antagonism as Margaret is set in her new ways and wants no part of her old life. Ian is a modern man with modern ideas and that clashes with the old ways of the island. Together they journey toward merging old and new ways to help keep people healthy and how to deal with the attraction they have always felt toward one another. The story has many side plots: is the ghost people Margaret sees and hear real, why do odd things happen around Margaret, who might be trying to hurt her, can their families accept the other, can Ian and Margaret finally get together even with outside influences affecting them and can they merge old and new ways to save lives. This wasn't an adventuresome story or extremely passionate but, it was very appealing and entertaining. I liked how it seemed that Ian and Margaret were

This early offering by Ms Hunter far surpasses all of her subsiquent offerings. Not that those books aren't good but this one is exceptional. She has the hero meet the heroine the first time in a less than perfect light but one in which a die has been cast. When they meet again on the lonely Western Scottish island this meeting creates magnificent sparks as not only do they feel the pull of attraction for each other but sparks fly as her magic mingles with his science and the result is a love story that is what classic romances are made of. The transformation of the heroine from a self centered party girl of sorts into a woman of deep passion for the land and people is a wonder to behold. Yet it is thru this transformation that Ms Hunter allows the hero to also experience his transformation creating a wonderful blend of strong Beta male laced with a pinch of Alpha for good measure. This one will leave the reader with a deep satisfied sigh. A DEEPER MAGIC may be one of those books hard to find now that it is out of print but you can't claim to be a historical reader if you haven't read this one. It is well worth the search and will be read and read when one needs to feel that contented warmth of classic romance.