Patricia Catacalos, $3.99, ISBN 978-1301646364
Paranormal Romance, 2013
Patricia Catacalos’s Hypnotic Love is actually a historical romance with traditional regency sensibilities, with a paranormal bent in that the heroine Elyse Richardson is claimed by many to be able to communicate with ghosts.
Like many boink-free historical romances that attempt to channel their characters’ burgeoning passions on something else, however, this one heavily focuses on a mystery, so much so that the romance feels like an afterthought.
The opening scene sets the stage for the mystery. Two little girls, Elyse and Ariel, sneak into the study of Elyse’s father. It’s a place that they are forbidden to enter, which explains, of course, why they sneak into it. They come across an unusual scene: Elyse’s mother sneaks in as well, and takes something from a pouch kept in a secret safe.
Elyse dropped her doll on the floor earlier, and her mother spots it, leading the woman to call for her daughter’s name. However, the mother is distracted by the sounds of approaching footfalls.
When Elyse wakes up the next morning, the doll has been returned to her, no doubt by her mother… or is that the case? This is because the poor woman is found dead that same morning.
Cue the opening credits, had this been a TV show.
Now, our hero is Charles, Viscount Chesterholt. He’s the usual sort: proper, doesn’t want to get married or have an heir until he absolutely has to, his best friend already married and knocked up some woman in a previous story, he drinks a lot because alcoholism is romantic when a hot man has it, he meets the heroine at a party in which he is pushed to attend because he is single, et cetera.
There is a twist, though: he is convinced that Elyse is the woman that he’s caught breaking into his study and vanishing without a trace when he tries to apprehend her. When they meet at a party, he lets her know clearly what he thinks of her.
On Elyse’s part, she wonders whether there is any truth to his accusation. Perhaps she did do what he said she did, only somehow she didn’t remember doing it? The reader, of course, is expected to recall the opening chapter and wonder how that scene ties up to this Elyse. So, a mystery is born.
The romance is very muted, so much so that I often feel that Elyse and Charles are in love because the author feels that it is expected of these two characters to marry in the end. I don’t see any chemistry between these two, and I sometimes wonder whether the story would have been better if there had been no forced romance in it.
Then again, probably not, because the identity of the villain isn’t well concealed. Let me put it this way: the author lets the reader know that, in this story, one’s physical appearance matches the personality within, and given that most people here are hot and sexy, the rare ones that aren’t stand out like a “Look at me! I did it!” neon sign. Also, the motivation of the villain is a typical of villains of this sort.
Hence, this is a story in which things actually deescalate. The start-up is fantastical, but instead of our duo getting tangled up in a cult of Hastur or something, the whole thing increasingly resembles a typical and genetic suspense plot in a generic historical romance instead. Given how the romance doesn’t compensate for the blandness of the mystery, this results in a bland story with an anticlimactic payoff.
The narrative is the rough side, as well. The author can’t seem to stop herself from adding extraneous, superfluous details into things.
Opposite to where Charles lounged, Gabriel sat on a leather chair. He rested elbows on his toned thighs, dangling his hands between his legs while displaying a bright toothy grin. He was a darkly handsome man, magnetic in his charm and animalistic in his physical attraction. Charles with his light colouring and affable personality was the perfect contrast to Gabriel’s dark colouring and occasionally brooding manner.
Gabriel is the friend that found his ball and chain in a previous story, so in the above, I don’t know why the author needs to expound on how hot Gabriel is and how he is the complete opposite of Charles in terms of looks. After all, Charles and Gabriel aren’t lovers and won’t be anytime soon, so the wasted words on Gabriel’s thighs and teeth like he’s a prized horse on sale are unnecessary.
I’m also not too fond of the heavy-handed use of flashbacks , which feels too gimmicky for my liking.
Having said all this, I should also say that this one is actually a painless read despite the rough edges in the narrative. The main characters don’t have much personality aside from some cursory stereotypical traits, but they are on the whole okay in a not-too-annoying way, and I can finish this one in a single sitting without feeling any form of indigestion.
Thus, I waver a while between giving one two or three oogies. It doesn’t make me recoil like a typical two-oogie read would, but at the same time it doesn’t deliver a satisfying mystery or romance. While I have no problems reading it, I also have no fun doing so. This is what seals it in the end: three-oogie reads, to me, still have some kind of fun elements, and this one doesn’t as far as I’m concerned. Two oogies it is, then.
