Marrying Winterborne (The Ravenels #2) by Lisa Kleypas

After months and months of actually waiting... I finally got to read Marrying Winterborne.

Fin.

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Long version:

Truth is... I'm kind of let down. I actually liked it. I wasn't expecting it to be the love story of the ages, but I was expecting a little more.

I have been obsessed about the release of this book since I first encountered Cold-Hearted Rake, a story so much more about introducing everyone else that the love story almost became an afterthought. It was so lukewarm that if it wasn't for the introduction of Rhys Winterborne halfway through, I would have written that book off as boooooooring. Alas, there should have been so much more in Marrying Winterborne. Well, at least Pandora isn't as annoying as she was in the first book.

In short, Marrying Winterborne is more of a coming-of-age story for Helen Ravenel rather than a romance. She's a brilliant character, one of those characters who is always underestimated, but turns out to made of sterner stuff. She finally meets her real father (there were hints dropped in Book 1), discovers and saves his half-sister, and married her true love. It's a great book for self-discovery, but compared to the seemingly take-charge attitude her love interest employed in the first book, Rhys Winterborne seems to be have been relegated to a sub-plot and cash machine.

What the hell? Helen is decked out in all her
finery and Rhys couldn't give two figs about
buttoning up!?

Someone fire Quincy! 

I wouldn't have minded it if this story was in another genre. Fuck yeah, girl power or whatever. However, this is a romance and it seems like the love story part was over and done with by the first few chapters and the other story overtakes it.

To her credit, Lisa Kleypas didn't end up employing the Simon Hunt (Secrets of a Summer Night) tactic of using his wealth and influence to save the day. However, that places Rhys into the corner for time-out as a passive character. Apparently, the only character development Rhys needs is to learned how to wait to get what he wants. Really... after he becomes a swoon-worthy romantic lead in the beginning chapters, that's all he needs. In the end, all he ever did was to sprout out lines about how much he loves Helen (the child of his most hated person in the world) and, yes, he doesn't mind taking care of the child of his dead cuckold best friend's dead wife and said most hated person in the world.

For God's sake, that's a lot to take in! Even for someone of Rhys' robust constitution, he still needs to be eased in to the kinds of secrets Helen has been keeping. Instead of being handed one pot of orchid at a time, he's being dumped all of 200 pots and have him carry it all.

What I expected more of: trust issues.

However, the fact that it's Helen and his love for her supersedes everything. I expected there to be a little more conflict between he and Helen about her unwillingness to confide in him or ask for his assistance. Then there is also a little more of the inner-workings of Rhys' thoughts - the fact that the girl you love more than anything in the world is the child of your worst enemy can really fuck up with someone's mind. No internal conflict? Not even slightly taken aback at the thought? No thought process for him of how it all doesn't matter and will help Helen get through it all anyway?

No. Helen, as by way of explanation.

All in all, it's a pretty pleasant read, but I think it relies more of my anticipation from the last book. However, it's very hard to read it as a stand alone. It's a continuation, that's about it. If someone who hasn't read Cold-Hearted Rake, the opening chapters would come across as coming out of nowhere.

Married By Morning (Hathaways #4) by Lisa Kleypas

I love Married by Morning... it has mostly to do with Leo Hathaway really.

Leo has come from the annoying emo wreck of a brother into a wonderfully delicious romantic hero. I actually adore that he did not come from the dissolute wastrel to an overtly serious lord of the manor. It would be out of character for the Hathaway family. I also like the fact that he didn't become one of those "Oh, I can never love again because of my dead girlfriend" types. Instead, what I was presented with was a much more poignant notion of...

"...I have an extraordinary fondness for her memory. But it was a lifetime ago. and I can't ever go through that again. I love like a madman." 

"...it would be worse. Because I was only a boy then. And now who I am, what I need... it's too damned much for anyone to manage."

This is one of the best interpretations I have read to address the Dead Girlfriend plotline. I also like how Leo doesn't take every rejection against Cat, instead acknowledges that there's still something more he can and must do to get through her defenses.

Well... he is still has a shirt on.

I also liked Catherine Marks. Her back story has a little bit too soap opera but that's usually the case for governess stories and it still well within my suspension of disbelief. Tethering on the edge, but it's still there. The Harry Rutledge connection is the bit too much, but I think I developed an appreciation for it because it finally satisfied the character development I desired for Harry that I found so lacking in Tempt Me In Twilight.

I really didn't mind the story line involving Lattimer and Althea because... well, they're insane. Also, they kind of fit in with the soap opera that is Catherine's over-the-top life. What I found a little jarring was the copyhold story line. The story would have gone on without it. Leo doesn't give a damn about it at all and it doesn't propel, inspire and push him into his pursuit for a wife. All in all, the copyhold clause story line becomes a footnote and an afterthought once he and Cat left Hampshire, away from the people who actually cared about keeping Ramsay House.

One of the things I like about Married By Morning is that, finally, Harry Rutledge finally becomes human. He is far more relateable as a brother rather than as a husband. I think this is a writing trick LK employed - similar to Cam Rohan's from Mine Till Midnight. However, Cam had no real expectations of getting anything more other than his ending in Midnight, but with Harry there was still a promise of being a big brother to Cat and it was to be expected that since Marks was the h in this book, Harry will be involved.

Tempt Me At Twilight (Hathaways #3) by Lisa Kleypas

Tempt Me At Twilight has got to be one of the biggest case of HR blue balls I have ever received reading historical romances.

It starts out very promising. I actually really, really like the first few chapters. However, at some point, it starts becoming much like Poppy's cooking specialty: hodge-podge.

"The Mysterious Harry Rutledge" sentence has become one of the staple statement in the Lisa Kleypas universe. As a reader, I have this impression in my head that the guy's entire life revolves around the hotel. While I appreciate that he was written to be a man of many talents and interests, it takes away from what has been impressed upon me after reading many books and I never really get a clear picture of the guy. Unfortunately, Harry is more of an archetype rather than as a person.

I get the back story. I appreciate all the things that made Harry as he is. However, it hardly makes an impact, except to establish the back story for Catherine Marks. Anything else, it hardly has an impact on his character. He had a great deal of self-awareness enough to understand what his past is and he's rarely impacted by it. By the end of the story, Harry hardly had any character development, except being a brother to Marks'. Finally getting everything he wants from his marriage is hardly a development, especially when the compromise had to come from his love interest.

Just like Harry, Poppy also had dedicated sentences in the other two Hathaway books - the pretty sister who only wants to get married. However, she was like the quintessential middle child. Not by the family, but by the author herself. Amelia is the eldest girl and the take-charge type, Win is the ill girl/delicate creature and Beatrix is the weird, nature-loving tree-hugger. What about Poppy? Oh, pretty, wants to marry, done and done. So much personality have been given to the other sisters that Poppy is also an archetype rather than a person. I don't really need an elaborate back story, but while some things move on for some of the siblings, she is the stunted character of the siblings. Even the lack of tease for Beatrix's story, she is more of a presence than Poppy.

They look like they're in room.
Did he even have a shirt on in the first place?

As I mentioned, the first few chapters were really interesting and had me anticipating the romance to come. However... it becomes... meh. I was highly anticipating the courtship, especially with the toe-curling statement:

"You were courted by a boy, who had to do as he was told... You should try it with a man, who needs no one's permission."

After that it all falls apart.

The promise of being courted by a man is sadly unfulfilled for me as a reader. In the end, I get the emotionally-stunted, possessive man trying to win over his wronged bride. It all seems to be just a bunch of fluff strung together to create the rest of the story.

The climax of the story makes sense. The big bad also makes sense to an extent. However, I could have appreciate it more if Harry was in another profession, not a mere hobbyist to what actually happened. He might as well be an arms manufacturer instead of a hotelier. In fact, I would have even preferred the big bad be Michael Bayning - the ultimate personification of what makes Poppy so unattainable to Harry, someone Poppy had to hold back from what Harry actually wants. With all the build-up and all of Bayning's subsequent actions, it promised a great love triangle. In the end, he is just a lame, pathetic third party who turned blegh just because he didn't get what he wanted. Poppy's whole "making the best of a bad situation" attitude just grates on me. Mostly because she was so wronged by Harry and he really didn't do much to atone, but rather was simply blessed with Poppy's forgiving nature.

If I were to recommend Tempt Me At Twilight, I would recommend it to someone who has read the read the Hathaway series and would want to complete the series. As a stand-alone series, it's an old, overused story line with the plot of how a girl gets comfortable being a trophy wife.