NIGHT'S BLOOM

In Von Kannon’s historical novel, an American woman agrees to a propriety-driven proposal from a French diplomat.

In 1804, Eleanor McCallister spots her younger sister Amelia Hampton, age 18, flushing when François Déguerre, the best friend of Eleanor’s merchant captain husband, arrives at their temporary Paris abode. Amelia privately confesses to Eleanor that she has loved the decade-older French diplomat since first meeting him in the sisters’ native Salem, Massachusetts, two years earlier. She promises that “no one . . . will ever know” as she stays behind, living in François’ father’s home, to continue her studies as the McCallisters return to America. This scheme unravels when Amelia, sheltering in a shack with François after being rescued by him from a violent demonstration, reveals her love and asks for a night to remember. François complies, then feels compelled to propose marriage when his father witnesses the couple’s early-morning return home. Proud Amelia at first refuses but soon becomes a successful diplomat’s wife, navigating such situations as the fascination her red hair brings in Tangier. Amelia is poisoned and later held captive by a surprising enemy; François joins forces with a British spy to rescue her. Von Kannon impressively encapsulates the era’s fast-shifting political winds, detailing how the Terror was experienced by the Déguerres and others alongside François’ growing disenchantment with Napoleon. At the core of the narrative is a series of satisfying lovemaking scenes that effectively develop this appealing and rather swashbuckling couple’s physical and emotional bonds (“Her cry of release was violent, convulsing the whole of her body, sending a rippling reply through him. Despite her modesty, despite her faltering inexperience, it was clear she possessed an explosively passionate nature”). Their fate is left a bit open-ended at this book’s conclusion; perhaps Von Kannon plans to bring this couple back in the way this novel picks up from the McCallister romance covered in the author’s Heart’s Blood (2020).

Sexy, sweeping historical fiction with world-stage intrigue.