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.

Someone to Watch Over Me (Bow Street Runners Series, Book One): Lisa Kleypas *UPDATED*

 This is another re-read of an old book in my personal collection.  Unfortunately, I'm not entirely certain when I finished reading it for the second time, but I do know it was after I gave birth to my son, but before the end of 2019.  I'm going to estimate it was in early December of 2019.  This review was penned on May 19, 2020, so please forgive me if it's not my most elaborate.  You can find my original review of this book HERE.  The review dates all the way back to 2008, so I wouldn't really recommend it...it's far too vague and brief to be of much good to anyone.

I seem to have enjoyed this book less than I did the first time around.  Maybe it's because I'm more jaded from the last 12 years, or maybe because I am mature enough to recognize just how unhealthy the relationship between Grant and Vivien really is...  There is something to be said for a man wanting revenge, but I feel like Grant's reaction was a bit disproportionate to the slight he received at the hands of Vivien.  As he continues to press forward with his plans, I didn't find it sexy or romantic...I found it borderline reprehensible.  I didn't see love blossoming; I saw fascination and obsession.  Grant set out to do something vile and I think that made me take a step back from his character.  Because of this, I found myself less attracted to him than I should have been, given the genre of this book.  We readers are supposed to fall in love with the male leads in these books, but I fell short of that with Grant.  Sure, his character was flawed (and I DO really love a well-written, flaw-inducing backstory), but not always in a way that made him charming or attractive.  I got glimpses of what he could have been, but I never, ever really felt much for him as a character.  Aside from his revenge plot, I think part of the problem was that we didn't really get to experience much of what made him unique.  We know more about him from accounts given by other characters.  I wanted him to be more fleshed out by his own actions, hobbies, hopes, dreams, etc.

Where do I start with Vivien?  I KNOW she doesn't remember who she is or what her life was like before she was attacked; however, she fell short for me as well.  She was so accepting of Grant's stories and was relatively acquiescent when it came to her belief that he'd want to share her bed because, as he'd said, they were in a relationship.  I found it less than believable.  A true, strong female lead would never have allowed it -- would never have just taken his word for it -- not when she thinks over and over again how wrong it feels and foreign the notion is to her.

One of the biggest issues I encountered was I couldn't put my finger on WHY Grant and Vivien fell in love.  They were attracted to one another, to be sure, but Grant didn't actually know anything about Vivien...and we saw so few personal details about Grant.  Though I finished the book rather quickly and I can appreciate the plot twists and the ending, I think some of the components fell short.  Lisa Kleypas has written some wonderful books, but this older one just did not resonate as much with me anymore.

Worth Any Price (Bow Street Runners, Book Three): Lisa Kleypas

“What is the price of love?

“Nick Gentry is reputed to be the most skillful lover in all England. Known for solving delicate situations, he is hired to seek out Miss Charlotte Howard. He believes his mission will be easily accomplished—but that was before he met the lady in question.

“For instead of a willful female, he discovers one in desperate circumstances, hiding from a man who would destroy her very soul. So Nick shockingly offers her a very different kind of proposition—one he has never offered before.

“He asks her to be his bride.

“And he knows that this will be much more than a union in name only. For he senses what Charlotte does not yet know—that her appetite for sensuality matches his own. But what Nick learns surprises him. For while London’s most notorious lover might claim Charlotte’s body, he quickly discovers it will take much more than passion to win her love.”

This was yet another wonderful book by Lisa Kleypas! I LOVED Nick and Lottie and—once more—I was struck by the author’s ability to bring back characters from the other books in the series and maintain their quirks and personalities.

I found myself smiling on so many occasions while reading this story! It was fantastically sweet and the characters were unbelievably real. This was the perfect conclusion to the Bow Street Runner series by Kleypas. She is an amazing writer who has a knack for making you care about her characters and believe that they suffer and go through these ordeals. I can’t wait to read another of her books, but I think I may have to make myself take a one-book-break from her reading because I have so many other books checked out from the library!

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

“Why is Lady Sophia looking for a lover? And could she seduce the most marriageable man in London?

“Lady Sophia Sydney would do anything to ensnare the unattainable Sir Ross Cannon. Her goal—to ruin his reputation and cause a scandal that would be the talk of all London. So she insinuates herself into his life by gaining his trust and living in his house.

“Every morning, her lush presence tempts him beyond all reason…the way she bends over the table to serve him the meals she has prepared…the way her hands oh, so gently—yet sensuously—brush against him. Every night, she promises with her eyes—and her body—that the hours before dawn could be spent in unbridled passion instead of restless sleep—if only he’d let her share his bed.

“She knows he is falling more in love with her each day. But she never counted on falling in love with him. And she never dreamed he might very respectably ask for her hand in marriage…”

Lisa Kleypas has once again impressed me! I really loved this book! It was a very sweet story with many plot turns that developed the characters thoroughly. (I was really nice to have characters from her first novel brought back—like Sir Grant Morgan, Victoria, and Dr. Linley. You can tell a lot about an author by their ability to incorporate characters’ personalities from pervious books from a series.) I very much enjoyed how much more in depth the readers got to see into Sir Ross Cannon’s character. Sophia was a perfect match for him with her persistent ways and wily charm. The background for this plot was both captivating and readable. So often authors make fantastic plots and then you go back to think about it and go, “Wow, that actually has zero possibility of occurring in the real world,” but Lisa Kleypas certainly didn’t disappoint!

Someone to Watch Over Me (Bow Street Runners Series, Book One): Lisa Kleypas

“She couldn’t remember who she was…

“A temptingly beautiful woman awakens in a stranger’s bed, rescued from the icy waters of the Thames, her memory gone. Told that she is Vivien Rose Duvall, one of London’s most scandalous beauties, she finds herself under the protection of enigmatic, charming Grant Morgan. Her life is in his hands. Deep in her heart, she knows he has mistaken her for someone else…

“He was the only man she could trust.

“As one of London’s most eligible and unattainable catches, Grant Morgan is a man who has known every kind of woman. And the one in his arms now seems so innocent, so vulnerable, that he can’t help but be enchanted. And as his love for this mysterious beauty grows, he’s determined to unravel the secrets of her past and discover the truth—no matter what.”

Again, Lisa Kleypas has worked her magic! I loved this book! At first, I thought the character of Grant was going to be too stereotypical, but he turned out to have his own quirks that set him apart from all the rest of the tall, dark, and devilishly handsome male leads of the romance novels. There were interesting plot twist to the story (though I will admit that I saw more than one of them coming) that kept the story interesting. I was again thoroughly impressed with the author’s writing style and it was difficult to put the book down. I cannot wait to read the next book in this series!