Marrying Winterborne (The Ravenels, Book Two): Lisa Kleypas

"A ruthless tycoon

"Savage ambition has brough common-born Rhys Winterborne vast wealth and success.  In business and beyond, Rhys gets exactly what he wants.  And from the moment he meets the shy, aristocratic Lady Helen Ravenel, he is determined to possess her.  If he must take her virtue to ensure she marries him, so much the better...

"A sheltered beauty

"Helen has had little contact with the glittering, cynical world of London society.  Yet Rhys's determined seduction awakens an intense mutual passion.  Helen's gentle upbringing belies a stubborn conviction that only she can tame her unruly husband.  As Rhys's enemies conspire against them, Helen must trust him with her darkest secret.  The risks are unthinkable...the reward, a lifetime of incomparable bliss.  And it all begins with Marrying Winterborne."

First and foremost, I liked this book infinitely more than I did the first in this series!  And that's somewhat of an understatement...  These characters were far more believable, likable, and, perhaps best of all, they had true chemistry and I could feel the sparks between them.  I had a feeling I would enjoy this book because I liked Rhys and Helen even back in the first book of this series (so much so that I thought they were such strongly-crafted characters that they actually overshadowed Kathleen and Devon -- the characters who really should have shone.  I loved the passion and the tension between Helen and Rhys.  As a male lead, I found Rhys dark, enticing, and captivating.  His intelligence and work ethic were poignant, as were the little things he did to show Helen that, in his own way, he really did care for her.  One example of this was his care of her very delicate orchid and the fact that he'd purchased numerous books on the subject.  Little details like this endeared him to me and made me enjoy the book all that much more.  Though I already liked Helen, I hoped that she wouldn't be took prim or demure in a book all her own.  Needless to say, I was thrilled when, right off the bat, she was determined not to let others speak for her or to allow her voice to be drowned out any longer.  This made for a much more interesting story and even better interactions with Rhys as he came to terms with her newfound strength and outspokenness.

I definitely appreciated the little details that were included in this story -- like Rhys's Welsh phrases and glimpses of his background, as well as his love for peppermint creams.  I think those kinds of things are what truly breathe life into a character and it is exactly what was missing from the first book.

One new character I found myself liking tremendously was Dr. Gibson.  She was lively, strong, and I really do hope to see more of her in the coming stories.  I haven't read much of the more recent works by Kleypas, but I think there may have been a crossover character from another series, though I won't reveal my suspicions until I am sure.

As far as criticism goes, I still found Kathleen's primness grating -- especially when she, herself, became pregnant out of wedlock while she was still supposed to be in mourning (I find her more than a little hypocritical, to say the least).  The twins, while a bit amusing, were still so over the top that they're a bit hard to stomach at times.  I have already picked up the third book in the series, so we will see how that one goes.  The language was occasionally stilted, as if too much of an effort were being placed on propriety.  This was not helped by some of the "thesaurus words" -- words that, while technically correct, are overly flowery and so complex that they do not necessarily fit with the rest of the tone (as if the author wanted a better word and opened a thesaurus to find one).

I do recommend this book and I clearly enjoyed it better than the first in this series.