Wait Until Midnight: Amanda Quick

"Gentle Reader,

"It could have been a scene from one of my novels.  As a rule, respectable ladies do not accept calls from Mysterious Gentlemen on business of the most grave importance--but I confess that I was possessed of lively curiosity.  The past three years had been so determinedly dull, I hoped My. Adam Hardesty would offer a tiny respite from it.  Indeed, upon first glance, Mr. Hardesty had such a formidable, thrilling presence, he quickly became the model for the villain in the sensation novel I was currently writing.

"Imagine my shock and distress then, them Mr. Hardesty accused me of being party to a plot of murder, blackmail, and general villainy!  I knew nothing of such occurrences, and proclaimed my innocence.  Unfortunately, Mr. Hardesty left unconvinced, and I had an uneasy feeling over what his search would uncover.  You see, Gentle Reader, though I live a most uneventful life now, my past contained a Great Scandal that would be ruinous if resurrected.  To protect my secrets from Mr. Hardesty's investigation, I concluded that I would need to conduct an inquiry of my own, and if that meant sharing my findings with Mr. Hardesty, so be it.  And my course of action had nothing whatsoever to do with the illicit, passionate feelings that he aroused in me--feelings that propriety would definitely frown upon...

"Yours most sincerely,

"Caroline Fordyce"

Here's yet another one to add to my Amanda Quick kick as I pick my way through my sizable "to be read" pile (or, more aptly, my "to be read shelf" now that my husband has finally gotten around to hanging the shelves in my office!).  According to fantasticfiction.com, this is a standalone novel.  I can see, however, how this could have been a series when you incorporate some of the secondary characters from Adam Hardesty's family.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find several connected stories amongst her voluminous resume.

I have noticed a trend for the supernatural in each of the books I've read by Quick.  While this can be a dime a dozen in this genre, I find her take a bit more refreshing in its realism.  The books seem to have characters fascinated with the supernatural, yet the underlying current is one of skepticism which manages to ground the readers rather than whisk them away on a fanciful cloud.  There's nothing wrong with this cloud, per se, but if that is what you're looking for with Quick, then I must say that I have yet to find it.  Her characters are worldly and far more grounded than others I've found in more supernatural stories.  This lands Quick's works solidly in the middle between realistic and paranormal -- an interesting place to be for those readers who aren't too fond of paranormal or supernatural, and yet they desire something with a bit more intrigue than a typical book of this genre.  Indeed, I feel that her books might even lean toward mystery in that aspect.  Her characters always seem to be on the hunt to uncover a secret, solve a crime or murder, or generally involve themselves in rather risky situations.  This lends an air of excitement to her works; Wait Until Midnight was no exception.  I found the pacing quite good and all of the secondary characters to be well-formed and beneficial to the plot and character development.  The murder, mystery, and nefarious plots moved the story along and kept me interested from the first page.

We are introduced to Adam Hardesty as he examines the scene of a horribly violent crime.  Someone has murdered a woman who proclaimed to be a medium.  In the all the obsession with the paranormal which marked the Victorian Era in England, was this woman murdered by a vengeful spirit from the Other Side, or was a more worldly rage her downfall -- perhaps there was an unhappy sitter at one of her recent seances?  This leads Adam to the home of Caroline Fordyce, noted author of serial sensationalist novels.  Being far more worldly and practical, Adam has not heard of Mrs. Fordyce prior to their meeting; however, he soon realizes that he'll not soon forget her.

Caroline Fordyce is taken in by curiosity as an obviously-wealthy stranger calls on her at an odd hour.  She knows he gives her a false name and his mysterious inquiries and accusations set off alarms in her head.  But there's something about this man which draws her to him.  In fact, she decides to use him as the inspiration for the villain her current novel.  By the time the man leaves, Caroline has realized that something horrible is afoot and, if she doesn't act quickly, the potential disaster could destroy everything she and her aunts had worked toward over the last several years.

Somewhat reluctantly, Caroline and Adam work together to uncover the truth behind the medium's gruesome murder -- and locate the diary which Adam knows contains secrets which could destroy his family and everything he'd achieved to secure them a safe place in the world.  Adam has secrets of his own which he must protect...but he finds himself willing to open up to the enticing, intelligent Mrs. Fordyce in a way that he never has before.

Overall, I enjoyed the plot.  There were many twists and turns which kept it fast-paced and captivating.  As far as the characters, themselves, I liked both Caroline and Adam well enough.  Caroline was interesting because she viewed so much of her world through an author's lens.  Adam felt slightly less-developed.  It wasn't until 3/4 of the way through the novel that it was mentioned how powerful and notoriously reserved he was...but if his name was so well-known then how had Caroline never heard of him?  I realize she didn't travel in the same social circles as Adam and his family, but there was a good amount of indication that he was someone to be recognized and he had a name which was more than a little bit well-known.  It was something I found a little bit odd.  I liked his history, as well as Caroline's past.  I think those lent them each their own unique flair.  As for the romance between them...I missed it a bit.  I don't believe there was enough build up of tension before they acted upon those impulses.  I love a bit of delicious torture, and I found it lacking a bit here in lieu of developing the very complex and mysterious grander plot thread.  There was little to no hesitation on Caroline's part when it came to sleeping with Adam.  There was no reason or explanation given for this either (not even a, "Well, he's hot and I'm not getting any younger!"), nor did she seem shy in the slightest.  I suppose I wanted her to be a bit more demure about it all.  I realize she was not who she claimed to be, but even her internal dialogue missed the mark.  Yet again, I also found the lack of physical descriptions of the characters throughout the book to be a bit sad.  I want to know more about their appearances than their clothing.  What were their features like?  The angle of their eyes, the length of their lashes, the shadow of a beard?  I want something to flesh them out a bit more.

I am still recommending this book, so please don't take my criticisms as a reason to stay away.  I'm merely making some observations and comparisons between Quick and some of the other authors I've read.  I enjoyed the book and cruised through it rather swiftly.  I believe this may be one of the last ones I own by Quick, so there may be an unintentional hiatus before I can obtain more.  Happy reading!

Mystique: Amanda Quick

 

"A tantalizing tale of a legendary knight and a headstrong lady whose daring quest for a mysterious crystal will draw them into a whirlwind of treachery--and desire.

"When the fearsome knight called Hugh the Relentless swept into Lingwood Manor like a storm, everyone cowered--except Lady Alice.  Sharp-tongued and unrepentant, the flame-haired beauty believed Sir Hug was not someone to dread but the answer to her dreams.  She knew he had come for the dazzling green crystal, knew he would be displeased to find that it was no longer in her possession.  Yet Alice had a proposition for the dark and forbidding knight:  In return for a dowry that would free Alice and her brother from their uncle's grasp, she would lend her powers of detection to his warrior's skills and together they would receive his treasured stone.  But even as High accepted her terms, he added a condition of his own: Lady Alice must agree to a temporary betrothal--one that would soon draw her deep into Hugh's great stone fortress, and into a battle that could threaten their lives...and their only chance at love."

This is yet another Amanda Quick novel which has sat upon my shelves unread for many years.  I really enjoyed another of her novels just prior to this one and enjoyed it so much that I thought I'd grab another of her stories from my shelf (or, rather, the floor of my office because my husband has yet to finish hanging shelves for me...).

I finished reading this book rather quickly.  The pacing was good and it kept me interested.  I wouldn't call it quite the page-turner "Dangerous" was, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.  I enjoyed the premise of a bastard knight seeking to bring honor to his family's history and finally have his own place in the world, yet he drags along with him an intelligent, whip-tongued young woman on a mission of her own.  Hugh brought a new facet to the knightly archetype.  He was neither entirely "black knight," but nor was he a straightforward "white knight."  He was known for his ruthless, relentless drive and skills on the battlefield; his dark coloring and penchant for wearing only black; and everyone knew of the venomous feud between Hugh and his father's family.  However, he was also intelligent (not just braun over brains), unfailingly true to his word, and honorable.  Alice was also a play on the typical headstrong, outspoken woman.  If anything, she was almost more outspoken than a great many of the other "headstrong" female leads I've encountered.  She seemed to suffer from a severe lack of manners or filter.  I can see how her struggles in life could have created this attitude, but it even made me cringe on several occasions.  I think this may be the reason why I didn't enjoy her as much as I could have.  By all accounts, Alice was extremely intelligent, capable, strong, and brave...but she also sometimes came across as crass or even petty -- especially once Hugh frees her from her uncle's care.

I did also notice a very definite trend in Quick's writing (maybe because I just so happened to read this one immediately after "Dangerous").  Both female leads were considered "odd," they were older sisters to younger brothers, orphans who felt they were in charge of finding their brothers better lots in life, and they fall in love with their male leads rather easily despite being so strong and seemingly content to be without a romantic relationship.  The male leads are both dark in coloring of their hair and clothing, as well as their attitudes and reputations, they're both bastards (or, at least, they're presumed to be) after their fathers become attracted to seemingly-unsuitable women who put them at odds with their families and their plans, their fathers have scorned fiancees, they each have a male first-cousin with whom they have a great amount of enmity, and they both have amber-colored eyes.  As you can see, there were a great many similarities in these plots and the development of these characters -- almost too many where it felt a bit "recycled."  To be fair, I think Quick found a formula which worked; I cannot really blame her for reusing it.  The different layers of history and current conflict create an interesting plot.  The strong personalities and opinions of her characters make for amusing and entertaining action.  What might have helped some differentiation between these stories (besides the very different eras in which they're set) would probably have been some better identifying characteristics of the male leads.  The female leads are fairly well-described; I felt like I could picture them.  The male leads...not so much.  Other than the color of his eyes, hair, and clothing, I got almost no sense of what Hugh looked like.  Did he have bold, stormy brows?  Was his nose slightly crooked from having been broken so many times in battle?  I longed to know more about Hugh's appearance and I think we missed out a lot on his characterization because of this.

I do feel like, overall, the plot was interesting.  Alice sometimes came off a bit unlikable, but I think she was a brave female lead.  I loved how she stuck up for her brother and for women in general (you'll have to read to find out what I mean -- I promise it's worth it).  I liked Hugh's multifaceted personality; however, I wanted a bit more of a description of him.  That left a bit of an unfortunate gap in a novel of this genre.  I liked the blend of realism and legend in this story.  I don't often read books set so far back in history (and I haven't often enjoyed all of them) mainly because I sometimes struggle with the living conditions and mentalities of these ages (even just a few centuries make a world of difference, believe it or not), but I did find this one enjoyable.  It was a quick read with pleasant pacing that kept the story moving along.  I liked the conflict and found the dialogue to be very in-character.  I do recommend this book, though not as much as I did my other recent Amanda Quick read.

Dangerous: Amanda Quick

"From a magnificent ballroom ablaze with lights to an imposing country house steeped in shadows comes a breathtaking tale go an impetuous miss--and a passion that leads to peril...

"At five and twenty, Prudence Merrywhether knew very well the risks a woman took by visiting a gentleman in the dead of night.  But bearding the notorious Earl of Angelstone in his den was the only way to stop him from engaging her hot-headed brother in a duel.  And that was why she found herself ushered into Sebastian's forbidding presence at three in the morning--and thoroughly kissed before dawn,

"She was a country-bred innocent--and an intriguing experience for a man who dwelt more in the shadows than in the sunshine.  Yet as her boldness drew Prue into one dangerous episode after another.  Sebastian found himself torn between a raging hunger to possess her and a driving need to protect her.  And the reckless beauty would soon need all the protection she could get..."

It has been about 11 years since I last read a book by Quick.  Do yourself a favor and don't go and read my old reviews...I did and they're painfully brief and none-too-detailed.  However, I did seem to enjoy her writing quite a bit.  Reading Quick was like a breath of fresh air after the book prior ended up taking me months to finish (no exaggeration).  I read this book in a matter of only a couple of days!  Basically, this book was everything you could want in a period romance novel.  The characters were fun, the plot was unique and intriguing, and I didn't want to put the book down.

The pacing of Quick's writing was much quicker than some other authors I've read, but it worked out quite well.  This book is proof that one does not need to write about every single event, every single moment, every single conversation the characters have in order to build a story and a relationship.  I thought she was quite clever in the way in which she chose to omit certain days and events and, instead, opted to backtrack a little bit in her characters' musings and conversations as a way to "fill in the blanks."  I think this kept the pacing fun and made the story move along at an interesting clip.  Along these lines, the dialogue was witty and amusing.  I really enjoyed the back and forth between Sebastian and Prue; they were well-matched and entertaining together.

As a male lead, I found Sebastian secret hobby a great depart from the usual "black devil, evil lord of darkness" archetype which occurs so often in this genre.  This gave him more depth and personality than I thought he would have when I first began reading.  I also appreciated the lengths Quick went to develop his backstory and make her readers fully appreciate the depth of the animosity between Sebastian and his relatives.  This was no mere feud, and this was nothing to be taken lightly.

As a female lead, Prue was fun, intelligent, self-assured, and brave.  I appreciated all of these things without her and, had she been underdeveloped in any of these areas, then I probably would not have believed her capable of handling Sebastian as she did.  Her own unique hobby was intriguing and I don't believe it's something I've encountered in one of these books before.  It helped to create some common ground with Sebastian, as well as it made her stand out amongst the crowd.  I liked how well she challenged Sebastian and how she was never ashamed to do what she felt was important or right.  I will say, however, that I think her backstory really fell away after only a few mentions -- even her brother seemed to disappear quite fully.  I think a lot of his had to do with the fact that the perspective shifts much more in favor of Sebastian than Prue.  Readers gain far more insight into his musings and his movements than those of Prue.  She got a bit swallowed up by the enormity of Sebastian's character at the end.  For this, I might deduct very minor points.

Above and beyond the captivating chemistry between Prue and Sebastian, I thoroughly enjoyed the plot.  There was a blend of mystery and the supernatural woven in with the traditional romantic tones.  This kept everything fresh and interesting.  Though there were dark undertones due to the natures of Prue and Sebastian's interests, I was impressed at how the story -- for the most part -- remained light enough to lose myself in enjoyment.  The romance made me enjoy the characters, but the plot and mystery kept me turning the pages much longer into the night than I probably should have.

I have a few more standalone novels for Quick sitting on my office bookshelves.  After the year we've had and my (surprising) pathetic reading track record, I may have to dive right into another one and lose myself in what I expect to be another very entertaining read.

The Seduction of Lady Phoebe (Marriage Game, Book One): Ella Quinn

 "Polite society has its rules for marriage.  But for Ella Quinn's eligible bachelors, their brides will show them that rules are for the faint of heart...

"Phoebe Stanhope is not a typical Lady.  As feisty as she is quick witted, no one can catch her, especially when she is driving her dashing phaeton with its perfectly matched horses.  And unlike her peers, experience has guarded her against a growing list of would-be suitors.  But when she encounters Marcus Finley, what she fears most burns deep within his blue-eyed gaze...

"For Lord Marcus, the spark of recognition is but a moment in the love he has held these many years.  Not that he's returned to England, all the happiness he desires rests on Lady Phoebe never finding out that he was the one who turned her heart so cold and distant.  He must work fast to gain the advantage--to convince her what she wants is exactly what she denies--but in order to seduce her into his arms, he must be willing to give up more than he can control..."

This book was a very sweet, thoughtful Christmas gift from my husband.  Fully aware and supportive of my (slight) addiction to period romances, he saw this cover and felt it would be my perfect cup of tea.  He's not a big reader at all, so the fact that he went and physically shopped for a book for me at a brick-and-mortar store was a shock.  That this book actually happened to be the first in a series was a lovely surprise.  I was new to Ella Quinn, but looked forward to diving into this book.

I am currently about a quarter of the way through this book, and it's taken me quite awhile to reach this point.  One would think I'd have been all over my "to be read" stack during this pandemic and the ensuing quarantine, but, alas, my mind has been too preoccupied and my downtime too filled with an ever-increasingly mobile, rambunctious little boy!  I was excited to dip back into my reading of this book because the first several chapters gave such promise.  However, I simply had to put it down after cruising through only a few more pages because I knew I had to start this review.

Quinn's style is not what I am used to.  To be fair, I'm sure a lot of my other favorite authors have a more relaxed style of writing, so this is probably why I sometimes find the dialogue and narration a bit grating and overdone.  It reads like a Jane Austen novel.  This is both good and bad.  For the average reader of romance novels, this may not drag her in as easily as another book might.  Even for someone with my background in literature, some of the turns of phrase were still a tad awkward and (almost) overworked.  I've lost count of all of the different characters and I'm not even 100 pages into the book.  I understand Phoebe has a large family, but there is very little presented in order for the reader to more easily separate them in her mind's eye.  It's almost as if many of them already had their own novels and one is expected to know about their personalities and backstories.  I feel like I'm missing something!  Many of them are already happily married with allusions to wonderful love stories and happy romances of their own.  If they're not developed more and don't serve more than to just pop in and give their private opinions of what's going on with Phoebe, then I don't feel like they're really necessary.  It understand that it's a style of writing (again, very Austen-esque) to bounce from perspective to perspective, opinion to opinion, and character to character, but it's just drags this out and takes away from the actual development of Marcus and Phoebe's relationship.  I want to be invested in them and not the other subplots going on well in the background.  If these were grand supporting characters (a well-developed best friend and confidant, perhaps), then I might've cared more and seen the benefit to their perspective a bit more.  Even if these were characters who did, indeed, have books of their own and I already knew their stories and their personalities, then I might have placed more stock in their opinions.  As I've already mentioned, this is the first book in this series, so that is simply not the case here.  I love it when characters are brought back in other stories and this could have worked well here if Marcus and Phoebe's wasn't the first story in this series.

Then there was the matter of just how closely Phoebe and Marcus were related by marriage.  I don't think I've come across quite such a close relation-by-marriage in a romance novel before and, though no blood was technically involved, something just made it feel a bit odd to me.  I cannot locate the specific law or when it was abolished, but I swear there was something in English law that forbid marriage or relations with one's in-laws--I think having this in the back of my mind the entire time made the plot rub me the wrong way.  I could be wrong and it could have been perfectly legal, but I do believe I read something to that effect during one of my British literature and history courses.

Now to address the fact that Phoebe didn't recognize Marcus.  This was all well and fine.  Time changes people, and the human memory is flawed.  Not to mention I'm sure that his time away would have altered Marcus emotionally, mentally, and physically.  I felt it far less believable when he was pointed out and identified as Lord Marcus from across the room at a party...and then she somehow didn't notice it was the same man who'd just been identified as Lord Marcus when she encountered him in the library?  What?  It was just odd and unbelievable.  I understand what Quinn was going for, but it seems to have missed the mark just a little bit.

I'm going to try to plod along.  I hope for more than just superficial chemistry between Phoebe and Marcus.  I want to see their fire in Phoebe to which the teaser and beginning alluded.  I want to see more romance and passion.  I really hope this book doesn't fall flat and it focuses more on the main characters than it has up to this point.

***

I began writing this review on 08/15/2020 and I finished the book a few days prior to completing this review on 11/29/2020.  Christmas would mark this book being in my possession for precisely one year, so I was very near to that mark before I was able to complete it!  I wanted to love this book -- really, I did.  I think the biggest hurdles I had were the language and the sheer number of characters.  The formality of the dialogue made it a bit more straight-laced than I was used to, and some of the colloquialisms were foreign even to me -- someone who is well-versed in this genre, as well as contemporary and classical British literature!  It is no exaggeration to admit that I struggled at some points.  I just didn't have the same amount of fun I normally do when I read a great romance novel.  The characters...there were so bloody many of them!  I get that Phoebe had a lot of siblings and she was the last of them to be married off, but I lost track and never really got a good sense of who was married to whom when it came to her twin sisters. There were so many of them that I didn't get a sense of their personalities and they added so very little to the plot.  Again, I feel like I would have appreciated them more had they had their own stories and this were not actually the first book in a series!  I felt like I was missing out on something the entire time.  Each of them seemed to hint at great backstories (even her aunt and uncle did!), but I had no knowledge or reference from which to appreciate the insinuations or understand the character development.  I simply must be missing something here...  If this is not actually the first in a series, or if some standalone novels were intended to come before it, then I wish it would have been mentioned somewhere (or maybe this one shouldn't have been labeled the first in the series).

There were aspects I did like.  I think Phoebe and Marcus had great chemistry.  I enjoyed the plot twists as a villain was introduced.  It gave the plot much more depth in the latter half of the book than the beginning.  It all seemed to wrap up rather abruptly, however.  This can be taken one of two ways:  I was pleased that I'd finished reading this book which had taken me so long to finish, but I felt like the ending didn't quite do the characters thorough justice.  The climax hit (no pun intended -- I promise that's not a bad romance novel joke), and that was that.

This book is not for the casual reader of romance novels.  It's far less lighthearted than I normally enjoy.  The points of view and language are quite difficult to follow, as are the myriad of secondary and tertiary characters.  I doubt highly that I will read any others in this series.

My husband, who, if you will remember, purchased this book for me, saw that I was finally near the end and he asked me what I thought.  I so loved the hopeful look in his eyes when he asked that, but I told him the truth.  This book really should have been right up my alley.  The genre and time period were spot on...there was just something about the writing that made me struggle to lose myself.  Some of the phrasing went way above my head.  This author is just not for me, but he couldn't possibly have known that -- I didn't even know that until my reading of the book was well underway.  I sincerely appreciated his thoughtfulness, but maybe I'll give him a list of my favorite authors from here on out.

Tempting a Proper Lady (Brides of Nevarton Chase, Book One): Debra Mullins *UPDATED*

I've finally caught up on all of my reviews!  I finished this book last night.  Going through my original review of the book (which can be found HERE and, for once, isn't too horribly written), I realized that this book took me a terribly long time to read the first time around as well.  At the risk of sounding far too blunt...it was almost painful this time around.  I had to force myself to finish it with the promise that I could read something fun as soon as it was over.

The plot had SO much potential!  The idea that an American heiress was being taken advantage of by an evil, impoverished English lord and the only one who can save her is her former fiancé, a dashing American sea Captain, is fun and exciting.  The way everything played out felt too forced.  There were good bones, but not enough substance.  Everything felt like it started off great, but then it fell to the wayside for a half-baked romance between Cilla and Samuel.  Their attraction was sudden, but the ease with which Cilla allowed Samuel "liberties" lost me.  She wasn't all that "proper" now, was she?  It was too quick.  The abruptness of it all left a funny taste in my mouth.  The ease with which Samuel and Cilla embark upon their "romance" did not sit very well with me.  I think one of the biggest issues was that I didn't care enough about the characters.

The attraction between Samuel and Cilla felt unrealistic and very superficial.  Part of the problem was that we essentially knew VERY little about Samuel other than that he was born a bastard, loved the Baileys as if they were his own family, and he became a sea captain.   That's it.  We know none of his hobbies, no anecdotes, nothing beyond his desire to save Annabelle from a disastrous marriage to the man who'd tried to kill him.  He was horribly underdeveloped.  As I noticed during my first reading of this book back in 2013, I didn't fall even a little bit in love with him...and that's the downfall with any book in this genre.  Readers have to care about the male leads; we have to be attracted to them; we have to have the opportunity to find things we love about them - whether a personality quirk, something they do that's sexy, or even the steamy image we generate in our own minds...I had none of that with Samuel.  I don't even think I ever got a good description of him beyond that he had tanned skin and dark hair.  For the life of me, I don't even know what color eyes he had.  Cilla was pretty much the same.  She had a bit of a better backstory; perhaps because a great deal of the book was told from her perspective.  This may have also contributed to my issues with Samuel; maybe if more of the story had been from his perspective, then I might not have found his character so lacking.  Unfortunately, Cilla still fell a bit short for me.  She was nearly as hollow as Samuel.  The fact that she'd fallen from grace by running off and marrying a man against her family's wishes, she was forced to work for wages, and yet she was still invited as a GUEST in high society was extremely unrealistic.  This, and the informality which all of the characters seemed to speak and address one another felt a bit amateur.  Some of the wording in the dialogue felt off as well (some of it even too modern to suit the story).  I don't know if it was an attempt to make the Americans seem different, but it was more abrasive than realistic.

Additionally, there was a huge revelation about Raventhorpe in Samuel's investigations regarding the lord's underhanded business practices and possible human trafficking...and it was brushed off...almost forgotten and didn't feel as weighty as perhaps it should have.

The story's pacing felt a bit wonky as well.  I flew through the first part, excited to see where the story was going to go.  Then...everything slowed down.  No exaggeration, this book took me months to finish because of this.  And then, all of a sudden, there were 20 pages left in the book and it all came about rather abruptly.  Where was the development?  Where was the real building of a relationship between Cill and Samuel that DIDN'T focus around bedroom antics?  WHY did they fall in love?!  Overall, I was a bit frustrated with this book.  As I mentioned, it had so much potential, but it simply didn't live up to what it could have been.  I have enjoyed books by Mullins in the past, so I don't know why I struggled so terribly through this one.

Lady Sophia's Lover (Bow Street Runners Series, Book Two): Lisa Kleypas *UPDATED*

The original review I wrote for this book way back in 2008 can be found HERE.  (Again, it's probably not worth your time...my poor little eighteen-year-old self wrote it).  While I was on maternity leave, I made a very slow, well-intentioned effort to start reading some of the books I'd amassed in my extensive collection.  I don't have the exact date I completed my re-read of this book (newborns are a bit distracting), but I believe it was sometime in January of 2020.  This updated review was penned on May 19, 2020; I'm going to do my best to provide a decent review of the work.

I enjoyed this book a great deal the first time around, but less so this second read.  My original review  raved about the plot and well-developed characters.  It took me bit longer than usual to get through this book, and I think that is in part because moments felt rather flat to me.  Overall, I liked it a great deal more than the first book in this series.  The characters were much more "fleshed out" than Grant and Victoria were.  Sophia's plan for revenge is, for the most part, I feel better contrived than Grant's desire for revenge in Someone to Watch Over Me.  I understood it much better - she had more realistic motivation to want to bring down Sir Ross.  However, there were moments where her tactics seemed to get a bit hazy.  I realize she's no expert and she's supposed to lose sight of her goal as she falls in love with Sir Ross, but I just got the feeling that there was something missing.  No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't put my finger on what felt off.

Sir Ross was a decent character.  I liked him a great deal in the first book, so it was nice to see him again.  He was better developed than Grant was as the male lead.  His backstory suited him and the plot.  His family was where I felt it got a bit iffy.  His mother, in particular, didn't seem to fit the role I expected and sometimes her interactions felt contrived just plain "off," for lack of a better adjective.  Grant, as a secondary character, felt like a completely new person.  I realize it's intended to show how true love changes a man, but there was no shadow of the man he used to be (other than his work ethic).  Then again, who am I to say who Grant is or isn't...because I sure didn't get a really good sense of who he was in his own book.  But I digress.  Basically, Sir Ross was a better male lead than Grant, but I found his sudden acceptance of his attraction to his new employee (Sophia) to be a bit unrealistic, and rather below where I expected his morals to be.

I thought the plot was interesting, the characters were better developed than the first book in the series, and I was pleasantly surprised by the big plot twist toward the end of this book.  I'll just say that Kleypas earns some serious points for keeping this twist hidden so well.  It was a creative enticement to read the next in the series.

Overall, I have definitely read better books by Kleypas, but there are some redeeming qualities to this particular book.