Rowena’s review of Married by Morning by Lisa Kleypas.

Hero: Leo Hathaway
Heroine: Catherine Marks

He is everything she wants to avoid…

For two years, Catherine Marks has been a paid companion to the Hathaway sisters—a pleasant position, with one caveat. Her charges’ older brother, Leo Hathaway, is thoroughly exasperating. Cat can hardly believe that their constant arguing could mask a mutual attraction. But when one quarrel ends in a sudden kiss, Cat is shocked at her powerful response—and even more so when Leo proposes a dangerous liaison.

She is not at all what she seems…

Leo must marry and produce an heir within a year to save his family home. Catherine’s respectable demeanor hides a secret that would utterly destroy her. But to Leo, Cat is intriguing and infernally tempting, even to a man resolved never to love again. The danger Cat tried to outrun is about to separate them forever—unless two wary lovers can find a way to banish the shadows and give in to their desires…

It’s been a long time coming, this book and me. I have no idea why it’s taken me so long to read this book and I’ve already kicked myself in the shin more times than I can count because I absolutely adored this book. For me, Leo was the business! It’s been a while since the reviews for this book have hit the blogs and I can’t remember exactly what everyone was saying about them other than some people weren’t too thrilled with it.

Man, I loved it!

This book follows Leo Hathaway on his way to true love. If you’ve followed the series from the beginning, Leo has certainly come a long way from the jerk of an older brother that he used to be. He was the most selfish, out of control punk on that side of the world and he didn’t care. Man how the times have changed because not only has Leo turned himself into an upstanding (well, as upstanding as he can stomach) gentleman who has taken the reigns of his title and started to take care of his family again….and his sense of humor is better than ever.

I cannot tell you guys how much I fell in love with Leo over the course of this book. It’s hilarious because back in Amelia’s book, I couldn’t stand him. I hated his guts and to see me now, with stars in my eyes over him makes me laugh uncontrollably.

Leo and Beatrix’s governess have made no secret of their intense dislike of each other. Although, Leo likes to fight with her because she annoys him whereas Marks, really doesn’t like him. Mostly because of the same reasons I didn’t like him all those books ago. She hated the kind of man he was and she thought he was a selfish prick and wasn’t shy to air her opinions on that. The only thing about this is I couldn’t for the life of me understand why Leo stood for her biting remarks thrown in his direction. He was her boss and he let her get away with far too many insults but whatever, it’s what brought them together so I can’t hate on her all that much.

Catherine Marks has a dirty little secret that she can’t let anyone know about. She’s been on the run for so long that it’s become second nature to her and she hides herself in plain sight by masking her appearance with bad hair dye jobs and wearing unremarkable clothes. Leo is most interested in uncovering her secrets and he uncovers them throughout this story.

Watching Leo and Marks battle it out with their words and then fight their attraction to each other made for some entertaining reading. Every time they were together in a scene, their chemistry leaped off the pages and I ate it all up. Mostly, I ate up Leo.

How can you not when Leo’s saying things like:

“And you still love her,” Catherine’s voice was bleak. “That’s why you’ll never marry.”

“No. I have an extraordinary fondness for her memory. But it was a lifetime ago. And I can’t ever go through that again. I love like a madman.”

“It might not be like that again.”

“No it would be worse. Because I was only a boy then. And now, who I am. What I need. It’s too much for anyone to manage.” A sardonic laugh rustled in his throat. “I overwhelm even myself, Marks.”

*sigh*

Oh man, I loved that guy. I was surprised at how much my feelings for this guy have changed from the first time we meet him. The mighty change that formed in him throughout the time that it took for us to get to his book was great. I loved it. Watching him fall in love with Marks with each page had my heart sighing and my smile widening with each page. Lisa Kleypas is a fantastic writer because she redeems her heroes so well.

If you haven’t read this story, fix that. This book is wonderfully romantic and the laughs will keep up late at night until you’ve read the entire story. You won’t want to put this book down and you can take that to the bank!

Grade: 4.75 out of 5

Reading Order:

This book is available from St. Martin’s Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

Rowena’s review of Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas.

Hero: Capt. Christopher Phelan
Heroine: Beatrix Hathaway

She harbors a secret yearning.

As a lover of animals and nature, Beatrix Hathaway has always been more comfortable outdoors than in the ballroom. Even though she participated in the London season in the past, the classic beauty and free-spirited Beatrix has never been swept away or seriously courted…and she has resigned herself to the fate of never finding love. Has the time come for the most unconventional of the Hathaway sisters to settle for an ordinary man—just to avoid spinsterhood?

He is a world-weary cynic.

Captain Christopher Phelan is a handsome, daring soldier who plans to marry Beatrix’s friend, the vivacious flirt Prudence Mercer, when he returns from fighting abroad. But, as he explains in his letters to Pru, life on the battlefield has darkened his soul—and it’s becoming clear that Christopher won’t come back as the same man. When Beatrix learns of Pru’s disappointment, she decides to help by concocting Pru’s letters to Christopher for her. Soon the correspondence between Beatrix and Christopher develops into something fulfilling and deep…and when Christopher comes home, he’s determined to claim the woman he loves. What began as Beatrix’s innocent deception has resulted in the agony of unfulfilled love—and a passion that can’t be denied…

I’m so sad that this series has come to an end. I hope that we get a Hathaway Christmas story or something similar to the Wallflower Christmas story. I’d love to see more from this family. Oh how I love them so!

This book follows Beatrix Hathaway, the animal lover of the family find her happy ending. Beatrix is the last man standing on the single train and it’s time for her to find her Prince Charming. She hasn’t any kind of hope since she wants the kind of marriage that her brother and sisters have found and it doesn’t seem likely that she’ll get it. She’s much more comfortable around animals and that doesn’t help her case too much, especially with the only person in all of town that she can’t seem to bring herself to like because of something she heard him say about her.

He said that she belonged in a stable.

So yeah, Christopher Phelan isn’t too high on Beatrix’s list but Christopher heads off to the war and starts up a flirtation with Beatrix’s friend Prudence. Prudence receives a letter from Christopher and when Prudence brings up the fact that all he talks about in his letter is about a stupid dog, Beatrix’s interest perks right up and she asks to read the letter. After reading the letter, she begs Prudence to let her respond the letter and from there things get away from Beatrix.

What started out as one letter turns into more letters and before Beatrix knows what’s what, she has gone and done the unthinkable.

She’s fallen in love with Captain Christopher Phelan…and he has fallen in love with her. It’s amazing how much power words have when you’re lonely. The letters exchanged between “Prudence” and Christopher were so cute and I loved every single one of them. Hell, I fell in love with Christopher and Albert.

When Christopher comes home, things get interesting for everyone. It broke my heart to see Beatrix hurting the way that she was because Christopher was such a shit to her when he returned. I loved her take no bull shit attitude where he was concerned. She was hurting on the inside but from the way that she continued to do what she thought was right and what Christopher needed, the more my heart ached for her. I admired the strength in her. She was so strong and so deserving of a happy ending that I couldn’t read this book fast enough to see her happy ending come to life.

While I was reading this book, I was emailing and texting with my favorite animal lover, Ames. I couldn’t stop gushing over how much I was enjoying the book and I couldn’t stop kicking myself for waiting so long to read the book either.

I enjoyed this book so much that after I finished the book, I went back and read all of my favorite parts over and over again. When Christopher finally finds out that it was Beatrix that wrote all of those letters? Yeah, I read that scene at least thirty times. I enjoyed it that much. This book has it all, it’s got a great cast of characters (those Hathaways are just the best kind of family, don’t you think?) and the hero and heroine were both fantastic and they carried this book so well. Their romance was the perfect kind of romance. This book has everything that one would want in a romance novel and big kudos to Lisa Kleypas for writing another winner. This is definitely going on my keeper shelf and I’m pretty sure that I will be re-reading this one often.

I loved it.

Grade: 4.75 out of 5

Reading Order:

This book is available from St. Martin’s Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.