Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas
Series: The Ravenels #4
Also in this series: Cold-Hearted Rake, Marrying Winterborne, Devil In Spring, Devil's Daughter, Chasing Cassandra, Devil In Disguise
Published by Avon on February 27, 2018
Genres: Historical Romance, Romance
Pages: 400
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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A woman who defies her time.

Dr. Garrett Gibson, the only female physician in England, is as daring and independent as any man—why not take her pleasures like one? Yet she has never been tempted to embark on an affair, until now. Ethan Ransom, a former detective for Scotland Yard, is as gallant as he is secretive, a rumored assassin whose true loyalties are a mystery. For one exhilarating night, they give in to their potent attraction before becoming strangers again.

A man who breaks every rule.

As a Ravenel by-blow spurned by his father, Ethan has little interest in polite society, yet he is captivated by the bold and beautiful Garrett. Despite their vow to resist each other after that sublime night, she is soon drawn into his most dangerous assignment yet. When the mission goes wrong, it will take all of Garrett's skill and courage to save him. As they face the menace of a treacherous government plot, Ethan is willing to take any risk for the love of the most extraordinary woman he's ever known.

I’m continuing on with my Lisa Kleypas reading, and I keep finding myself amazed by the fact that I’m not tiring of Lisa’s books. Usually I finish a book and then need a change in genre or writing style or whatever, but as soon as I shut a Lisa Kleypas book I immediately reach for the next one! This has never happened before, and I think I’ve found my new favorite author. Hello Stranger is the 4th book in the Ravenels series, and probably my next favorite after Marrying Winterborne! I love Dr. Garrett Gibson’s story of falling in love with the ever mysterious and suave Ethan Ransom! As always, my main points are bolded.

1. First and foremost, Garrett is an amazing character. I have loved her since I first met her in Marrying Winterborne, and was so excited when I discovered that she was going to get her own romance. She’s the only female physician in England, so she is strong, confident, and a force to be reckoned with. I loved reading about her career, her home medical office, her medical knowledge, and her caring personality. She uses her medical profession for good and goes out to help those who need her. She’s passionate about her career, independent in every sense of the word, and will not hesitate to beat a man with a cane if he underestimates her power as a woman and tries to take advantage of her. She tirelessly fights to be seen as an equal, and I love her. I saw her as a little cold and standoffish in the previous books, but she completely melts and shows a vulnerable side with Ethan.

2. Speaking of Ethan… Don’t ask me to choose my favorite Kleypas man (boy, does she write good ones), but Ethan is a favorite. He’s very much the sarcastic, flirtatious, mysterious type who toes the line between right and wrong (as far as the law is concerned). He was born a bastard child and grew up having to fight for everything he had. He used to work as a detective, but now he’s a bit of a spy and possibly an assassin, who lives a life of unattached solitude. It’s dangerous and lonely, and he never really knows if he’s going to live to see another day. I also met Ethan in Marrying Winterborne when Winterborne himself hired Ethan to secretly shadow Garrett on her medical rounds to more dangerous parts of town. Unbeknownst to readers at the time, Ethan falls into a sort of unrequited love at first sight thing that has continued into this book when we discover he has continued keeping an eye on Garrett and watching out for her safety. After popping up a time or two, Garrett realizes this herself and begins to reciprocate his feelings. He gives her a whistle to blow if she ever needs him and he’ll come running. How incredibly romantic is that? She watches out for him on her evening rounds and sometimes blows the whistle just because she misses him. Of course, he tries hard to keep her at arm’s length for her own safety but it doesn’t work so well for him.

3. As I said before, the romance is so romantic. The very nature of Ethan’s work means he has a lot of enemies, so the stakes are high. Ethan finds himself in quite a situation and Garrett has to decide very quickly if she wants to entangle herself with a man so many people want dead. Ethan has to quickly figure out if his love for her is worth risking her life to be with her. I love stories like this, where both partners would rather be dead than apart. It makes for a very intense and passionate romance. Even though things happen quickly, it felt real. There’s a lot of obstacles for Garrett and Ethan, and they are tested a lot. Ah, it was so enjoyable to read!!

5. You get a very big dose of the sickbed trope, which I didn’t know I loved until I started reading Lisa Kleypas. She loves to have one love interest take care of the other love interest, and it was done so well in Hello Stranger.

4. DANGER. So much danger and tension. I flew through the pages so quickly. 

5. I loved, LOVED seeing the other Ravenels that I’ve grown to love so much. We are taken back to Eversby Priory, where the first book in the series takes place, and Devon and Kathleen are there. I loved seeing them again. West plays a huge role in this book, which made me love him even more. The evolution this man has gone through is stunning. I can’t wait for his book.

Ok, so I’m just going to say you need to read this book. Actually, you need to read this series. I am having so much fun following this family of people, who love each other so much. And they love their people so much. Lisa Kleypas writes the best characters, the best dialogue, and the best stories. Her writing is flawless. I’m a fan for life.

 

Devil In Spring by Lisa Kleypas
Series: The Ravenels #3
Also in this series: Cold-Hearted Rake, Marrying Winterborne, Hello Stranger, Devil's Daughter, Chasing Cassandra, Devil In Disguise
Published by Avon on February 21, 2017
Genres: Historical Romance, Romance
Pages: 288
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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An eccentric wallflower.

Most debutantes dream of finding a husband. Lady Pandora Ravenel has different plans. The ambitious young beauty would much rather stay at home and plot out her new board game business than take part in the London Season. But one night at a glittering society ball, she’s ensnared in a scandal with a wickedly handsome stranger.

A cynical rake.

After years of evading marital traps with ease, Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent, has finally been caught-by a rebellious girl who couldn’t be less suitable. In fact, she wants nothing to do with him. But Gabriel finds the high-spirited Pandora irresistible. He’ll do whatever it takes to possess her, even if their marriage of convenience turns out to be the devil’s own bargain.

A perilous plot.

After succumbing to Gabriel’s skilled and sensuous persuasion, Pandora agrees to become his bride. But soon she discovers that her entrepreneurial endeavors have accidentally involved her in a dangerous conspiracy—and only her husband can keep her safe. As Gabriel protects her from their unknown adversaries, they realize their devil’s bargain may just turn out to be a match made in heaven . . .

Here I am with my 4th Kleypas book! Somehow I’ve turned this year into my Kleypas Reading Adventure, and I’ve been flying through both the Ravenels and the Wallflowers series! I’ve been chronicling it all on my blog, but am spacing the reviews out for some variety. lol. Don’t want you to get tired of me and all this historical romance! Last time I reviewed Devil In Winter, which is the third book in the Wallflowers series. I purposely traveled about 30 years back in time, before the Ravenels, so I could read about Sebastian St. Vincent’s and Evie’s love story. They are the parents of the hero in Devil In Spring, so I knew I had to read about them first. So now it’s back to the Ravenels for the romance between Gabriel St. Vincent and Pandora Ravenel! As always, my main points are bolded.

1. The meet-cute in this book is pretty hilarious, and sets us off on a very romantic and suspenseful journey. Pandora finds herself in a sticky situation while helping her friend avoid getting caught in an even stickier situation. She sneaks away from a fancy ball to find an earring that her friend lost during her secret rendezvous with a man. In the process of finding it, she gets stuck in a piece of furniture and Gabriel stumbles upon her and helps get her loose. But they are spotted, and just like that Evie’s reputation is ruined. Because any time a man and a woman are found alone together during this time period, surely that means that they’ve been getting hot and heavy and her womanly purity has been stolen from her. Gabriel offers to marry her on the spot, but that’s her worst nightmare. In an effort to try and convince her to become his bride, he invites her and her entire family to his family home on the beach so they can all get to know one another. 

2. Pandora bugged me a little bit in the previous Ravenels books. She seemed silly and immature, but I liked her so much more once I got to know her better in Devil In Spring. She’s ambitious and is not the least bit interested in doing the conventional marriage agreement. She’s been working hard on developing her board game company, and wants to be independent and run a successful business. Married women were not allowed to own businesses and make their own money during this time, so as soon as Gabriel and Pandora got married everything she had worked so hard for would become his. She would legally not be allowed to make any business decisions or spend her money as she saw fit. She had no interest in hiding behind her husband, having to ask him to act on her behalf. I completely understood how she felt, and was pulling for her all along. At the same time, though, her reputation has been ruined and not marrying Gabriel would tarnish her family’s reputation as well and her twin sister, Cassandra, might not be able to find a suitable husband because of it. So Pandora is very torn between following her own dreams and protecting her family. Oh, and she’s also kind of falling for Gabriel. Oops! 

So, she’s ambitious, honorable, caring towards her family, and wants to be happy. She’s also challenging societal norms. It’s so refreshing to see a character like this in historical romances. She’s got this sweet innocence about her, as all the Ravenel girls do, because she was so sheltered growing up. I have so enjoyed watching these girls learn and experience the world. Pandora really touched my heart.

3. Gabriel, much like his father, is a notorious rake. He has avoided marriage for years, and has a mistress who takes care of his needs. Now he’s been caught in a trap and wants to do the honorable thing. He does this begrudgingly at first, before being completely captivated by Pandora. Again, he’s just like his dad. All it takes is the right lady to have him changing his ways and falling all over himself for her. And oh my, what a caring and perfect man he is. He doesn’t push Pandora, but instead he wiggles his way under her skin. He endears her to him, rather than outright seducing her and I thought it was so sweet. 

4. Lisa Kleypas sure does know how to write romances that stick with you. The tender affection Gabriel and Pandora have for each other is heartwarming. Pandora is disabled after some trauma at the hands of the family she lived with before, and he takes such care to make sure she feels safe. She can’t dance, so he comes up with a way to dance with her. She can’t see in the dark, so he carries her. He fully supports her business endeavors, and pays the right people off so he can marry her without forcing her to say she will obey him in her marriage vows. He stands by her side no matter what, and falls so deeply and unconditionally in love with her. And he’s willing to wait for her to catch up to him. Wow, these romances just make me so happy!

5. I loved the springtime setting at Gabriel’s beach home! They go to the beach and collect shells, and spend time sitting outside in the sea breeze chatting and looking out at the water. It felt like a little vacation for me.

6. It was so fun to see a salt-and-peppered Gabriel St. Vincent again. And Evie is still so caring and sweet. It’s been around 30-35 years in their lifetime, but only a few minutes for me since I last saw them. They’ve had children and have gotten older, but they love to show us that they’re still the sprightly, and very much in love couple we saw in Devil In Winter. I also loved catching up with Devon and Kathleen and Winterborne and Helen. The Ravenels are such a wonderful family. Devon and Kathleen are Pandora’s guardians, and their views on marriage are so refreshing for the time period. They tell her time and time again that she doesn’t have to marry Gabriel if she doesn’t want to. Devon is the perfect father figure to her, and tells her he just wants her to be happy and to not worry about what anyone else things. Cassandra echoes the same sentiment, not caring at all about what Pandora’s reputation will do to hers. She just wants Pandora to be happy and end up with the life she wants. Oh, and we see Dr. Garret Gibson again, who is the doctor for Winterborne’s employees and advised Helen so much in Marrying Winterborne. I love Garrett, and think she’s the coolest.  I just really love all these characters, and they’re all so unique and have made such an impression on me that I’m remembering their individual stories and personalities from book to book, which I sometimes struggle with.

7. As I’m coming to expect, Lisa Kleypas gives us some danger and suspense in this book again and I loved it! While working on some business things, Pandora stumbles across something she shouldn’t have learned about and things get very dangerous for her. I was so intrigued that I couldn’t put the book down!

All in all, another glowing review from me for Lisa Kleypas! And Devil in Winter ends in a bit of a cliffhanger, with some ends that have not been quite tied up yet so of course I’ve already jumped into the next book: Hello Stranger. Garret gets her own romance, and I looooove where this book is going already. Stay tuned for my review in a couple of weeks!

Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas
Series: The Ravenels #1
Also in this series: Marrying Winterborne, Devil In Spring, Hello Stranger, Devil's Daughter, Chasing Cassandra, Devil In Disguise
Published by Avon on October 27, 2015
Genres: Historical Romance, Romance
Pages: 419
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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A twist of fate.

Devon Ravenel, London's most wickedly charming rake, has just inherited an earldom. But his powerful new rank in society comes with unwanted responsibilities . . . and more than a few surprises. His estate is saddled with debt, and the late earl's three innocent sisters are still occupying the house—along with Kathleen, Lady Trenear, a beautiful young widow whose sharp wit and determination are a match for Devon's own.

A clash of wills.

Kathleen knows better than to trust a ruthless scoundrel like Devon. But the fiery attraction between them is impossible to deny—and from the first moment Devon holds her in his arms, he vows to do whatever it takes to possess her. As Kathleen finds herself yielding to his skillfully erotic seduction, only one question remains: can she keep from surrendering her heart to the most dangerous man she's ever known?

Well. I have finally done it. I have finally read Lisa Kleypas. I have been seeing her name and her covers for ages. I have been hearing about her heroes and her worlds for so long, and I finally decided to throw caution (aka my pile of review books) to the wind and jump in to her books! I think Cold-Hearted Rake was a great place to start, and I’ve set myself up for a whole lot of amazing reading in the future because I really loved this book! As always, my main points are bolded.

A great cast of characters will make or break a historical romance for me. I’ve always been a character-driven reader, but the characters are more important to me in historical romances than in any other book genre. Luckily, Cold-Hearted Rake has such an amazing cast that I can’t think of anyone I didn’t like. Devon is exactly what the title proclaims him to be. He’s cold-hearted, but only on the surface. I found him to be very kind and honorable as I got to know him better. His cousin, Theo, dies in an accident and Devon finds himself the earl of an estate that’s in shambles. He is also now responsible for Theo’s younger sisters, Pandora, Cassandra, and Helen, as well as Theo’s widow, Kathleen, who had been married to him for only 3 days before his death. This is a lot for a rake to take on! Devon comes in, sees what he has to deal with, and decides it would be best to sell it all and move on. He quickly changes his mind, though, when he comes to care for the girls and Kathleen, and when he begins to see how many peoples’ lives would be ruined if he sold. Farmers would lose their family legacies and homes, and families would be displaced. He brings in workers to renovate and repair the estate, and begins strategizing on how to bring in more money. One of these strategies includes bringing in his brother, Weston, to help investigate what needs to be done and how they can best support the tenants.

I liked West so so much. I loved seeing what coming and living/working at the estate did to him. He found a sense of purpose, got healthier (he was always drunk before), and fell in love with the four ladies of the estate. He saw all of them as sisters to protect and love, and I thought that his relationship with all of them was very sweet and endearing. Kathleen was harder for me to like because she was quite a stick in the mud. Tradition states that a woman who loses her husband must follow a strict timeline of mourning for over a year, and even though she was only married for 3 days, she is hell-bent on following these rules. So she wears a veil and all black, insists on living behind thick black curtains that are always closed, refuses to allow visitors, refuses to go out and do anything fun or enriching, and makes sure Theo’s three sisters do the same thing. I can’t fault her too much, because she’s trying to be a proper lady and follow the customs of the time, but she was very frustrating. I can’t imagine she was much older than these girls, but she very closely mothered them and I didn’t fell like it was her place to do that (especially since she met them the day of her wedding). She was also very opinionated about what happened to the estate, which bugged me since she had absolutely no ownership over it. She was a Ravenel for three days, but acted like everything was hers and everyone should answer to her. Pandora and Cassandra were silly and immature, and I thought for sure they were 12-13 before finding out they are nearly 20. But they were endearing and I feel like I’m going to see a lot of growth from them over the course of the series. I really loved Helen, and was quite excited to see glimpses of the romance she’s going to get in the next book with Rhys Winterborne. I actually loved Helen’s love story more than Devon and Kathleen’s! 

I loved exploring the estate grounds, sitting with and listening to the ladies chat while they did embroidery, the suspense of a train accident that adds a lot of intrigue and foreshadowing of events to come, celebrating Christmas with the family and decorating their home with them, and reading about this unconventional family whose devotion and love for one another trumps social rules and expectations. There’s so much more I can say, but Cold-Hearted Rake didn’t feel like every other historical romance I’ve read. I feel like for most of my time reading historical romance, I’ve done a lot of glazing over while reading political discussions in between sex scenes, and frequently unlikeable characters who went through little character development. Maybe I’ve been reading the wrong books, or perhaps they just weren’t what I needed at the time. In Cold-Hearted Rake, though, I got to learn a lot about the characters. I got to fall in love with them and I was actually interested in what they talked about and how they spent their time. I grew attached to the family and their lighthearted interactions. I just can’t wait to continue this series!