marikitORG random thoughts, some nuts and bolts

Lisa Kleypas’ Married by Morning and Love in the Afternoon

I have always loved Lisa Kleypas' historicals. Her latest two books, Married By Morning and Love In The Afternoon, released one month after the other, are the final books to her latest series, the Hathaway series. I've been looking forward to this two since last year, right after reading Tempt Me At Twilight, so I kept on pestering our local bookstore if their store copies have arrived. Once the bookstore informed me my copy has arrived I rushed off to get it and immediately started reading it that same day.

Married By Morning (A-)
Lisa Kleypas

Married By Morning is the fourth book in the series. It's the story between the Hathaway governess, Catherine Marks, and the only Hathaway man in the family, Leo, Lord Ramsay. Leo needs to find a wife and sire an heir within a year or else the Hathaway family will be booted out of the Ramsay. Though Leo was reluctant to marry anyone at first, he eventually sets his eyes on Catherine Marks.

From the previous books, Seduce Me At Sunrise and Tempt Me At Twilight, the chemistry and banters between these two were funny. It was great to see Kleypas integrate that into this book. Though early on, we get to see them develop from rivals to two people realizing their attraction to one another, the bickering between them isn't lost and that's what makes this two special.

In this book, we also get to see Mark's background. A lot of the books in the romance genre usually has the hero as the tortured soul that needs saving by the heroine. Though Leo previously qualifies under this description especially in the first Hathaway book, Mine Til Midnight, he was able to slightly conquer it in the succeeding books. And in this one, one of the reasons that makes this book pretty great was instead of the hero being overcome with his past, the heroine was the one who was still trapped in her past. But with Leo's insisting presence and unflagging love, Marks eventually succumbs and they both live happily ever after.

This book proves once again why I really like Lisa Kleypas. It's a light and easy read with two great main characters with sizzling chemistry, a thieving ferret to the rescue and kissing quizzes that kept me giggling. It doesn't topple Tempt Me At Twilight on the top of my Hathaway series list but it really comes a close second.

And right after finishing reading that, I immediately read the fifth and final Hathaway book, Love in the Afternoon. Lisa Kleypas, back-to-back.

Love in the Afternoon (A-/B+)
Lisa Kleypas

Love in the Afternoon is the story of the youngest Hathaway sibling, Beatrix, and the newly returned soldier, Captain Christopher Phelan. Christopher is a war hero and during those tumultuous days of him trapped in battle for England, the thing that kept him going were letters from Prudence. In truth though, these letters were sent by Beatrix penning her friend's name instead of hers since she remembers Christopher's negative comments about her. And through these letters their relationship develops. But when Christopher returns to England, the real identity of the letter's authors baffles him.

Of all the Hathaway siblings, Beatrix is probably my most favorite. I love her, her love of animals, her caring personality, her perceptiveness and her charm. Ever since Seduce Me At Sunrise, I have been looking forward to her book. I seriously thought hers would be the fourth instead of the last one. Maybe because I love her so much that I had high expectations of this book. Sadly, I was a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I still like the book a lot, but there just seems to be something missing.

The book started nicely for me. I liked reading the letters that Beatrix and Christopher exchanged. With the start of these letters, you could see how their relationship and love for each other developed. I think at first, Christopher's initial letter tugged at Beatrix' instinct to fix or heal. Beatrix has been healing animals ever since that when she read Christopher's letter, she knew that she should write back to him and help him in overcoming his depression during the war. Later when he arrived back at England, he had post-traumatic stress disorder that hindered him in getting back to his normal pre-war life. He had assumed that the Prudence he had been exchanging letters with will be his guiding light on his life once that he's back. But when he finally meets Prudence, it wasn't the same girl he was writing letters to. Events happened and he later discovers that Beatrix is the girl that had saved him.

From the discovery until the end of the book, it felt for me that everything was crammed into the remaining pages. Or maybe there were just some really minor things that I wish was at least tackled. For one, even if it might be due to PTSD, I didn't like the fact that Christopher was unconsciously trying to create a gap between him and Beatrix. Beatrix was ready to give all to him but he's always trying to hold a part of himself back. At least that got resolved in the end as it should be. Also, I would have liked it better if there was a resolution with the relationship between Christopher and his mother. His mother moved out. Yes, she's happier with her family but what about her only remaining living son? Also, being the finisher to a series, I was hoping to see more of the other Hathaways. Sadly, Win and Kev, Poppy and Harry were almost non-existent except for a mention and one-liner dialogues here and there. Lastly, I like Matthew Bennett a lot. I wish Kleypas saved him for a better book than just saying that he met Audrey and they somehow clicked. There was a lot of potential there that now won't be explored.

In the end though even with those small gripes, it still is an adorable book. Engaging characters. Great story. And I absolutely love Albert. We had Dodger the ferret in MBM and now we have a dog that gets honored and was presented with his own honorary collar by the Queen herself.

Now that the series is done, ranking the Hathaway series, I would say that Tempt Me At Twilight is still my most favorite. Followed by Married by Morning and really closely followed by Love in the Afternoon. Then by both Seduce Me At Sunrise and Mine Til Midnight. I wonder what's next in Lisa Kleypas' historical agenda. From the excerpt in the back of the book, it looks like her next one is a contemporary, which I don't want to touch for the meantime. But nevertheless, I would definitely buy her next historical whatever series that is and whenever that will come out, which I hope will be soon.

( What Animal Are You?  )