The Harlequin Superromance line has never engaged me. I’ve tried recommendations, I’ve picked ones at random, and I still haven’t found a memorable story. The Moon That Night is a passable way to spend two or three hours, but it hasn’t changed my opinion.

It’s a well-balanced story that tells a decent suspense plot involving decent characters. The latter are James Riley, military man, and Kate Dillon, museum curator. Making a long story short, a crazy guy is forcing them to steal ancient statues around the world, while he holds Riley’s sister-in-law and daughter hostage.

The good news is that the three elements – plot, character, setting – work. Kate and Riley have some history together, enough to give them background but not enough to prevent character growth. There are European cities to goggle at, a teenager running around being a teenager, and the plot moseys along at an acceptable pace. There’s also a happy ending, despite conflict between Riley’s demons and Kate’s family plans, and there’s little or no illogic to the proceedings.

So with all the good qualities, why do I sound so unenthusiastic? Well, not to put too fine a point on it, I found it kind of boring. It’s deadly predictable, for one thing, and Kate and Riley didn’t make one move, didn’t say one thing, that made me raise my eyebrows. (Although I did think that Kate’s spiritedness occasionally came too close to stupid for comfort.) And for another, the prose is more than competent, but again predictable and perfunctory. There isn’t much life in this story, for all its merits, and I don’t see myself reading it again.

But let’s get our priorities straight, shall we? Are my expectations high? Nope. Is the book a passable, unproblematic way to pass the time? Yup. So I can recommend The Moon That Night with the above provisos. It didn’t change or even add to my world, but at least it wasn’t a waste of time.