Devil’s Daughter (The Ravenels, Book Five): Lisa Kleypas

“Although beautiful young widow Phoebe, Lady Clare, has never met West Ravenel, she knows one thing for certain:  he’s the rotten bully who terrorized her late husband while at boarding school.  But when Phoebe attends a family wedding, she encounters a dashing and impossibly charming stranger who sends a fire-and-ice jolt of attraction through her.  And then he introduces himself…as none other than West Ravenel.

“West is a man with a tarnished past.  No apologies, no excuses.  However, from the moment he meets Phoebe, West is consumed by irresistible desire…not to mention the bitter awareness that a woman like her is out of his reach.

“But before long, Phoebe sets out to seduce the man who has awakened her fiery nature and shown her unimaginable pleasure.  Will their overwhelming passion be enough to overcome the obstacles of the past?

“Only the Devil’s Daughter knows…”

Here's yet another May read I'm finally getting around to posting!

This book was another collision between the Wallflowers and Ravenels series by Kleypas.  The way in which she’s able to weave threads of past and present for her characters is masterful and, not to say the least, fun!  I personally really enjoy seeing generations of characters interact; it reminds us that these characters we come to love so dearly in these three-hundred-or-so pages continue to live on even after we close the book.  Their pasts come to haunt them and the lessons they learn can impact their own children.

This story follows West Ravenel, younger brother of Devon (his book is the first in the series) as he continues on his newfound path of determination and hard work on the Ravenel lands.  He’s come a very long way from the lush we first meet in book one.  He’s cleaned up his act, whipped himself into shape, and even managed to create profit from his elder brother’s once-miserable lands.  He’s an innovator who isn’t the least bit afraid of getting his hands dirty.  This, however, doesn’t mean that the rake in him has been completely done away with.

Meanwhile, we met Phoebe in Pandora and Gabriel’s book (the first instance of the collision between the Wallflowers and Ravenels).  She’s Gabriel’s sister; a woman honor bound to follow her dear, late husband’s wishes and determined to raise her two young sons in a happy, healthy environment.  She struggles a great deal with moving on after the loss of her partner and best friend, but her struggles are only made more confusing and difficult after she meets West amongst the bustle of Gabriel and Pandora’s wedding…because West was once the boy who tormented her husband so terribly that he had to be removed from school.

Phoebe is determined to hate West, but it isn’t long before she comes to realize that the children we once were are not necessarily the people we come to be.  Despite her best efforts to put him off, West slowly begins to charm her, unknowingly finding the chink in her armor when it comes to her two little boys.  All the while West struggles to come to terms with the reprobate he once was and the new life he leads.  He feels tremendously guilty for his sins and seems to try to atone for them with a life of backbreaking labor and long hours.  He finds himself drawn to his beautiful, red-haired houseguest…and things between them inevitably heat up.  West finds his senses of right and wrong at war with one another.  What if his past comes back to haunt him?  People may praise him for his current accomplishments, but what if his former depravity bites them all?  What sort of example does that set?

Both Phoebe and West must come to terms with their own pasts and have to realize they can only have a future if they learn to live in the present.

I found West charming, as usual.  He’s been a common thread throughout the series and I’ve always enjoyed his playful sense of humor and razor-sharp sarcasm.  It isn’t often that we get to see a character grow and develop so much in a series within this genre, and I think it truly did take every book for him to finally become the man he was in this installment.  The progression was both believable and entertaining.  I can’t, of course, forget about Phoebe.  I thought she was going to be a depressed little mouse, but I had a pleasant surprise when she turned into a witty firecracker.  Certainly, I knew she had to be one if she was going to be any sort of match for West’s huge personality.  I admired her devotion to her late husband and her sons, but I think it appreciated her ultimate realization that she had to be happy if she was going to make anyone else happy.  This felt like a realistic development (and something that so many people seem to forget).

I found the romance to be moving and passionate.  The development of their love story was captivating and fun – I found myself laughing aloud several times.

Overall, I’m very pleased with this installment in the series and it just might be one of my favorites.

The Governess Game (Girl Meets Duke: Book Two): Tessa Dare

"HE'S BEEN A BAD, BAD RAKE--AND IT TAKES A GOVERNESS TO TEACH HIM A LESSON

"THE ACCIDENTAL GOVERNESS

"After her livelihood slips through her fingers, Alexandra Mountbatten takes on an impossible post:  transforming a pair of wild orphans into proper young ladies.  However, the girls don't need discipline.  They need a loving home.  Try telling that to their guardian, Chase Reynaud:  duke's heir in the streets and devil in the sheets.  The ladies of London have tried--and failed--to make him settle down.  Somehow, Alexandra must reach his heart...without risking her own.

"THE INFAMOUS RAKE

"Like any self-respecting libertine, Chase lives by one rule:  no attachments.  When a stubborn little governess tries to reform him, he decides to give her an education--in pleasure.  That should prove he can't be tamed.  But Alexandra is more than he bargained for:  clever, perceptive, passionate.  She refuses to see him as a lost cause.  Soon the walls around Chase's heart are crumbling...and he's in danger of falling hard."

What a pleasant way to start the new year:  reading a new book by one of my favorite authors.  And this latest installment in the Girl Meets Duke series took me only a single day to enjoy.  I very much enjoyed the first book in this series and really looked forward to reading the second.  Unfortunately, at that time, it hadn't been released yet.  So I had to wait...and it felt like forever (when it was really only a few months) and I was thrilled when I finally got my hands on a copy of "The Governess Game".  There is little I love more than an excellent series with recurring characters who were once secondary and now have books of their own -- especially when those characters are vivid, lively, unique, and have very strong personalities.

We first met Alexandra and (very briefly) Chase in Emma and Ash's story, "The Duchess Deal".  Alexandra is presented as rather quiet, extremely intelligent, and devoted to her work.  The glimpse of Chase we are given hints that he's in charge of small girls -- though why, we do not know -- and that he's a devilishly handsome flirt.  This book stayed true to that information, though Alex really seemed to find her voice.  I'm glad because a shrinking flower rarely makes a fantastic female lead.  Alex turned out to be determined and interesting, with a very unique and captivating backstory.  I really enjoyed how she handled her accidental position as governess and her reaction made it much more realistic.  I appreciated her methodical thought processes and her determinedness to give Daisy and Rosamund what they so desperately lacked.  Her unconventional tactics were charming and lent an air of fun and fantasy to the story.

Chase was, for the most part, a very good male lead.  I thoroughly enjoyed his personality and his very quick wit.  I believe I said something very similar about Ash; I think Dare has really perfected the art of the charming, intelligent, humorous male lead without making him seem too goofy or macho.  This is one of the things that can really make or break a story in this genre.  So many think it's easy to write good romance (even my husband -- who rarely takes note of my reading materials -- has mentioned that he thinks books of this genre are far too common), but these critics have no idea what it takes to write really captivating male leads.  It takes another level of author entirely to write excellent romance.  They key is to make the readers fall in love with the characters.  To be able to write unique characters (and not simply spout out very slightly different versions over and over again because the formula works) is an art.  I know I can hear some scoffs out there, but I assure you that I've read enough books -- both romance and other genres -- to say that it is not as easy as one might believe to craft characters with whom the readers can truly connect on numerous levels.  Chase is a good example of this.  He has a good backstory and a complicated life.  While there was a good portion of the book from his point of view, I felt like a vast majority of it was dedicated to his feelings about Alex or his past/present/future as it might relate to or impact her.  I can understand the rationale behind his decisions, but he bordered ever so slightly on a dramatic martyr.  This is, perhaps, one of my only critiques.  I just wanted a touch more about his personal life or experiences -- not necessarily solely as they related to Alex.  What were some of his hobbies -- other than perfecting the libertine arts?  I found his personality charming (as charming as the rake was intended to be) and his humor was fun to experience.  By far the quick banter between Chase and Alex had to be one of my favorite aspects of this book.  He was a man after my own heart with his subtle caring ways and his willingness to play along with Daisy's penchant for holding funerals for her beloved doll after gruesome "illnesses."

Daisy and Rosamund were, quite obviously, the most prominent secondary characters.  And I found them spectacular.  They were quick little girls who were bruised by their past and reluctant to open their hearts.  Some might feel them a bit over the top (I'm referring to the repeated doll funerals), but I had cousins just about their ages exactly and I can tell you that these were some rather perfect characters.  Their precociousness and knack for trouble made them fun, but their unique personalities and fascination with "unwomanly" things made them special.  They suited the plot and the other characters quite well.  I was charmed by their determined little spirits and their delightful torture of their guardian and governess(es) -- yes, that was intentionally plural.

We also see Nicola, Penny, Emma, and Ash once more.  Emma and Ash seem to have settled quite nicely into their marriage (yay!  I do so love happy endings); Penny is her usual, animal-loving self; and Nicola is baking away and tinkering -- ever protective of her friends.  I've some reason to believe Penny's will be the next in the series and, with her trusting and open-hearted nature, that could make for a very interesting story, indeed

I absolutely recommend this book; was there ever a question that I wouldn't?  As much as I've always loved Dare's writing, I think it's only continuing to get better.  Her characters are becoming even more alive and their stories are fun and unique.  Her writing has a way of drawing you in and you never want to put the book down.  My only regret is that I finished reading this book so darn quickly.