Rather surprisingly, considering my feelings about Viviane, I enjoyed the spicy sexual chemistry between her and Niall. Ms. Cross writes a mean love scene, and Niall and Viviane are sizzling hot together. It helps that Viviane doesn't talk, or laugh like the splashing of a brook through an emerald glade, while they're making love. Much of this book is genuinely funny, especially the quirky and clever twentieth century parts. The woman who owns the bookstore where Viviane works is a wonderful secondary character, and the scenes in which she gives Viviane relationship advice are hilarious.
Men are from Mars and all that jazz.
They're like a different species. But then, she comes from the sort of Medieval World at Disneyland where the townspeople rise up in indignation when an archbishop kills a Jewish moneylender. Historically speaking, The Moonstone is kind of a joke, but to tell you the truth, I didn't see that as a serious flaw in this case. I think that anything is game if the comedy is effective and funny. I don't expect a Danny Kaye movie to be historically accurate, either.