Touch of Night begins a series about the members of the Seymour family who are all greater or lesser wizards. It begins well, sags in the middle and then ends with a magical duel. This is the beginning of a series and the author introduces a lot of characters – so many that the hero and heroine have a tendency to get lost in the mob.

Niclas Seymour is from a powerful and respected family who have magical talents, which they keep secret from the outside world. Niclas is not one of the Great Magicians like his cousin Malachi Seymour, Earl of Graymar, but he has his talents. Niclas is an empath who can “read” people’s emotions. One day, he let his best friend Drew know that his wife was cheating on him, and Drew killed himself. This act put Niclas under a blood curse – for three years he has been unable to sleep and is slowly going mad. The only way to lift the curse is for Niclas to perform a great deed for a member of Drew’s family, and even that may not be enough.

Miss Julia Linley is a distant relative of Drew. She needs help rescuing her aunt from Niclas’ uncle, who is trying to “persuade” her to marry him. While this may not seem to be a great deed, Malachi thinks helping Julia and her aunt may help lift the blood curse, and Niclas is desperate. When Niclas meets Julia, he finds that her touch drowns out the voices that constantly assail him, and he is moved by her gentleness and beauty. While on the way to meet Julia’s aunt, the two run into Morcar Cadmaran, the Earl of Llew. Morcar is as powerful as Malachi, and he is evil, with no scruples.

Morcar and Niclas have a showdown at the end of the book, but a long section of the middle is devoted to introducing a number of characters whom I am sure will show up in the next book. Julia and Niclas seem to spend a lot of this portion of the book wandering around in faerie land. It’s misty and magical but frankly, kind of boring. Julia fades out during this section while Niclas tells her about the family history and who is who. About this time, I wished for a genealogy table.

Niclas is a decent, but rather bland tortured hero and the scenes of him in the beginning of the book are the best. He wanders around London, unable to sleep, unable to shut out the clamor of emotions that assail him at every turn – a man who longs for peace of soul but unable to find it.

Julia really doesn’t register very strongly. She is pleasant and kind but passive – she isn’t very proactive till the very end. She mostly drifts through the book while Niclas explains things to her (and us). There is a sweet and powerful scene where they are just holding hands and Niclas realizes that when he is with her his torment is gone, but that’s about the only time where there’s much sexual tension between them.

Touch of Night has some good scenes in it, but overall it is not all that interesting. The beginning is powerful and so is the end but I’ve seldom read a book with such a draggy middle section. Add to that a nice but bland hero and heroine and you get a nice but bland book.