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avacyn731's review
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
readerette's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
As long as you're okay with familiar romance tropes and privileged people not recognizing their own privilege, this is a decent little two-in-one love story, heavier on the sex scenes than what I'm used to with Kleypas, though she tends to be generous in that regard.
A little heavy handed with the melodrama of two adults who refuse to tell one other important information for really no discernible reason, but not in a fashion atypical of the genre. There were noticeable typos in the digital copy I read, which I've noticed before with Kleypas books.
A little heavy handed with the melodrama of two adults who refuse to tell one other important information for really no discernible reason, but not in a fashion atypical of the genre. There were noticeable typos in the digital copy I read, which I've noticed before with Kleypas books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Classism, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Miscarriage, Child death, Outing, Death of parent, and Cursing
lakeness's review
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
So this one is on me. After hating Someone to Watch Over Me so much I don't know why I thought I'd like Lisa Kleypas' other books. In my defense romance communities never stop talking about the Wallflowers and everyone was constantly telling me I needed to try this. Anyway here I am. In short, I had no emotional connection to any of these characters, I didn't buy their connection to each other either, and I found about 70% of the book boring and superfluous.
The writing is fairly good, in an overly dramatic purple telenovela way - which can be a lot of fun, so I was into it for the first few chapters. It only needed a little humour to be glorious campy pulp, but sadly it takes itself too seriously for that. Unfortunately Lisa Kleypas writes heterosity on steroids. I never want to see the words 'virility' or 'primal' ever again. She also tends to slow down the pace terribly by dropping in lengthy descriptions of largely irrelevant surroundings or everyday routines almost as if to prove she's done a lot of research about Life In Those Times. Which is doubly strange because her characters keep talking in 20th century American slang. I'm not a stickler for historical accuracy at all, I'm just here for a good time, but gawd I wish this book had been edited down to novella length.
Plot wise there was so much to work with - childhood friends! class differences! a second chance! - all things I love. But all these sources of conflict were cleared up by literally Chapter 5. After that it was just the two main characters being very stupid. What was even the problem??? Her snobby dad is dead she controls her own life; he's rich and respectable now and back in England. Here's your happy ending, the book could have ended right there. There was no need for 400 pages of hate sex, that featured a lot of 'impaling' and 'rending' which sounds quite painful and not all pleasurable. Also many pleasant thoughts like this
The writing is fairly good, in an overly dramatic purple telenovela way - which can be a lot of fun, so I was into it for the first few chapters. It only needed a little humour to be glorious campy pulp, but sadly it takes itself too seriously for that. Unfortunately Lisa Kleypas writes heterosity on steroids. I never want to see the words 'virility' or 'primal' ever again. She also tends to slow down the pace terribly by dropping in lengthy descriptions of largely irrelevant surroundings or everyday routines almost as if to prove she's done a lot of research about Life In Those Times. Which is doubly strange because her characters keep talking in 20th century American slang. I'm not a stickler for historical accuracy at all, I'm just here for a good time, but gawd I wish this book had been edited down to novella length.
Plot wise there was so much to work with - childhood friends! class differences! a second chance! - all things I love. But all these sources of conflict were cleared up by literally Chapter 5. After that it was just the two main characters being very stupid. What was even the problem??? Her snobby dad is dead she controls her own life; he's rich and respectable now and back in England. Here's your happy ending, the book could have ended right there. There was no need for 400 pages of hate sex, that featured a lot of 'impaling' and 'rending' which sounds quite painful and not all pleasurable. Also many pleasant thoughts like this
It was possible that he had made her pregnant. The thought filled him with primitive satisfaction. To see her big and helpless with his child, overtaken with his seed, dependent in every way on him…yes, he thought grimly. He wanted to occupy her with his own flesh, and chain her to him with a bond she could never break. Aline didn’t realize it yet, but she would never be free of him—or the demands he would make of her.
Eternal damnation is too good for this scumbag.
Disappointingly Aline has very little personality beyond generic feminine femininity and, some superficial disabilities that are meant to make her tragic and mysterious I guess? Even the resolution to that non-conflict was so heavy handed and uncomfortable, trampling over boundaries and infantilising her. Her most important, or only, personality trait is preserving her virginity. For twelve years. Of course Whatshisface Rapey Man wasn't a virgin even when they were children and has been happily sleeping his way around the world since then, no doubt spreading STDs left and right.
There's another set of MCs, Livia and Gordon, who were similarly virile and feminine etc, and interchangeable with Aline and McKenna if I'm being honest. I put the book down for a bit in the middle of a sex scene and when I came back I couldn't tell who I was reading about. Manliest Man and Womanliest Woman up to Passionate Passion with some slight changes to hair and eye colour.
I was still chugging along, playing mobile games to keep me entertained while I read, when I reached the very last straw. I should explain there was a closeted Gay Best Friend character, Adam Sandrine, who exists only to drum up some jealousy in the charming male lead and then conveniently pop off to wherever gay people go when they've fulfilled their sole purpose of being useful to str8s. This was cringey enough to begin with, but I lost my shit when Aline, supposed best friend and ally, OUTS HIM to Whatshisface, the very embodiment of toxic masculinity and unlikely to be anything but violently homophobic. In a time and place where gay men faced the death penalty. Aline, you awful ratfink trash person.
Well, I can't imagine this review is useful to anyone really, because this is presumably what LK fans love about her books, and LK haters are smart enough to stay away. Here it is anyway for the impressionable idiots who get peer pressured into reading it and find it's really not their thing (there are dozens of us! dozens!)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia and Outing
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