Overall Response

This is one of my favorite books because it has one of my favorite romance tropes: the characters are already married. I’m always dumbfounded by people who complain about this type of storyline — apparently it takes some of the fun out of it for them. You’re reading romance, a genre in which the HEA is guaranteed (or I demand my money back). The journey is what makes the book worthwhile.

Anyway, Nick Gentry returns from a bit of an uneven appearance in Lady Sophia’s Lover. I didn’t entirely love him but I’m thinking maybe Lisa Kleypas hadn’t quite figured how ruthless she wanted him to be so I can forgive it. It’s three years later, and Nick has turned into one of Bow Street’s best runners and commands the respect of even Sir Grant Morgan (Someone to Watch Over Me‘s hero). He takes a private commission to locate the runaway fiancée of Lord Radnor, Charlotte (Lottie) Howard who is hiding out with Lord Westcliff as a companion for the Dowager Countess. Nick convinces her to marry him to free her from Lord Radnor’s really creepy clutches because her family won’t help. And that’s all in the first 50 pages.

The book is about their marriage and how Nick adjusts to the changes presented to him once he’s married. Sir Ross Cannon (Lady Sophia’s Lover) has petitioned for Nick to take up his title and birth name of Lord John Sydney, and Grant tells him that the runners are likely to be disbanded within some months. Lottie also has to contend with the creepy Radnor and her ridiculous family.

So the characters and the romance are amazing. I go back to this book often because I really like Lottie and Nick and the way Kleypas brings in a supporting cast of old and new characters. This is actually the first time we meet Lord Westcliff (which explains a huge issue I have, which we’ll talk about in spoilers) but because I’ve read the entire Lisa Kleypas universe, he feels like an old friend here. I love seeing Ross and Sophia, though I’m surprised by how little we ever get to see Victoria, Grant’s wife. She makes maybe two cameos, one in each book.

I thought Nick’s back story presented some interesting obstacles for his marriage to Lottie and her resilience and naturally upbeat nature provide him a foundation to deal with the demons of his past and I like how Nick grows over the book and where he ends up at the end. Lottie’s best stuff happens in the first half of the book–this is really Nick’s journey.

The plot is probably where this book falls apart. It’s almost dual plot — and Nick’s part holds up relatively well. His acceptance and reluctant embrace of his birthright feels real, and I happy with where it ends up.

It’s Lottie’s half of the plot that is crazy pants. Her family seems relatively one dimensional–her parents are basically selfish people who don’t really get any kind of comeuppance and the resolution to the Radnor plot feels like maybe Kleypas built herself up to something she didn’t know how to stop. It just kind of ends.

But this is a really good book with a good romance and does a good job ending the trilogy.

Read more

Overall

I was so excited to get to this book–it’s always been one of my favorite romance novels because it takes place over a longer period of time. A lot of novels, particularly in the last decade or so, tend to take place over a couple of weeks but rarely span longer than a month, maybe two. This novel is probably at least six months, if not more, and it really allows the romance and characters to develop.

The plot is a bit of a misdirect–Sophia’s desire for revenge is really more of an inciting incident and it doesn’t take her long to start rethinking her opinion of Ross and the actual plot kind of meanders a bit. That’s not a bad thing because if Sophia stuck to her original plan I feel like that would have caused the story to drag.

The characters are great — Ross was a good supporting character in Someone to Watch Over Me, and he remains solid here. He’s a principled man of honor and it’s fascinating to watch him apply his own vision of justice. Sophia is a great lead — I like that she does revise her opinion and plows her own path, even if she’s occasionally quick to jump to conclusions.

The romance is good and develops well. I like that Ross never seems to shy away from his feelings for Sophia but I could have done without her former lover or Ross’s brother. I know they were there to provide a contrast to Ross, but it did get annoying having Sophia blackmailed and propositioned at ever turn.

Read more

Overall

I have to admit that I was nervous when I put this series on my summer reading list because while I’ve read the other two books in this trilogy several times, I can only remember rereading this book maybe twice since the first time I read it in 2004. It didn’t stick with me as well as the rest of the series.

I’m happy to say that while I still like the other two books better, this is by no means a weak story. The aspects about the plot that I was worried about — Grant’s so-called revenge — was actually handled better than I had remembered. While the romance is a bit more superficial than I typically like, it’s still pretty good.

I actually liked the journey Lisa Kleypas took Grant on — he’s a very hard character in the beginning and “Vivienne” does kind of force him to re-examine himself. Given his origin story, I can understand why he is the way he is, but I guess maybe I wish he’d been punished a bit longer.

The plot is fine — it’s a standard mystery but it’s never really the focus. It’s always about Grant and his confusion that Vivienne isn’t acting the way he’d expected her, too.

Still, this is a good introduction to one of my favorite trilogies — I love Bow Street Runners, and Sir Ross’s book is ridiculously good (at least I remember it being good). While this book doesn’t have the depth in the plot, characters, or romance that the rest of the series does, this is a good book. I really like Grant and “Vivienne” and was happy for them to get their happy ending.

Read more