Reviewer: Rowena Midnight Angel by Lisa Kleypas
Series: The Stokehursts #1
Publisher: Harper Collins, Avon
Publication Date: January 1st 1995
Pages: 373
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A noblewoman of frail beauty and exotic mystery fakes her own death to escape the gallows. And now she must flee. In disguise and under a false identity, she finds unexpected sanctuary in the arms of a handsome and arrogant yet gallant British lord—who must defy society to keep her safe . . . and overcome a tragic past to claim her as his own.
***As part of our 10 year anniversary celebration, we’ll be re-posting old reviews that make us cringe, laugh or sigh all over again.
This week, we’re checking out an old Lisa Kleypas review that I wrote so long ago. I haven’t re-read this book in so long so I don’t even know if I’d give it the same grade today and gah, I sound like…nothing good. sigh.***
I’m reading about 3 different books right now and this is the book that I kept going back each and everytime I picked up a book to read. There was just something about this book that had me coming back for me. I’ve said this before in my reviews that when a story has fantastic characters, I fall right into the story and characters can make me love the most basic of storylines and even the most cheesiest of storylines…and though this wasn’t a basic or cheesy storyline, I did end up really enjoying this book.
Lord Lucas Stokehurst is a widower who loved his first wife very much. He’s got a young daughter who acts beastly all the time and needs a woman’s influence in her life to teach her how to act like a true lady. Luke doesn’t ever want to get married again because he will feel guilty about forgetting his first wife, Mary.
All of that changes when “Miss Karen Billings” with many deep, dark secrets comes into his life. He is drawn to the mystery surrounding Miss Billings and as she’s his daughter’s new governess, he vows to stay away from her.
But like a moth to a flame, Miss Karen Billings carves her way into his life and into the hearts of those most close to him.
Most especially his daughter.
Emma was a young woman of 12 who needed a woman’s influence to teach her the ways of life. She needed someone to teach her the basic truths of what she was going through and she needed someone to love her the way a mother would love her. Tasia filled that role to perfection and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the scenes between Tasia and Emma. The way they grew close warmed my heart because they both needed each other, it wasn’t just Emma needing Tasia. Tasia needed Emma just as much and I loved that. They bonded together and formed the sort of friendship that Emma needed to help her get through that awkward stage in her life.
Oh and “Miss Karen Billings” real name was Lady Anastasia from Russia. She was on the run for murder and she was never to return to Russia because that would be her death sentence. She couldn’t trust anyone and it took her a whole lot to finally trust in the love Lucas was offering her and the protection he promised to give her if she would only but trust him.
This book was a wonderful read. It was a fast paced story, sometimes it was a good thing and sometimes it was a not so good thing.
It was a not so good thing because I felt like with the snap of a finger Lucas just changed his mind and was in love with Tasia. He found out about her secret and then humiliated her in front of everyone and then felt bad so he fell in love with her and tried to go and make things better for her. It just wasn’t believable to me. It would have been nice to see him gradually fall in love with her, but that bugged a little, it didn’t ruin the story for me.
I really enjoyed the secondary characters in this one. Emma was a fantastic addition, she was young, lively and just so real…I enjoyed her a lot. She truly did love her Dad and wanted what was best for him and that horrid Lady Harcourt just wasn’t it. I’m glad she got tossed to the corner, it just would have been nice if Tasia got a chance to shove her snobbiness up her throat or something because I hated the way she treated Tasia, like she was insignificant.
The age difference between Luke and Tasia didn’t bother me in the least but I guess it was because Lisa Kleypas did an exceptional job of not dwelling on it, that it made me forget all about their age but in the back of my mind, I was always thinking, “Age aint nothing but a number” just like Aaliyah sang in her song. =)
Man, Lucas Stokehurst was a stud! I hella loved him. He was everything that I love in a hero. He was strong, handsome and had an inperfection. The inperfection made him all the more sexier to me because who wouldn’t think a hook is sexy? Loved it. I loved the way he was with Tasia, even when he was jerk to her, I liked it…and the way he was with Emma was another plus with me. He loved that little girl and just the manly man that he was…the man that Charles admired and the man who was so popular with the other men was exactly Lucas and I hecka loved him, he took up someone spot in my Top 5 favorite LK men. I LOVE HIM!
I enjoyed Tasia as well, I thought she was a good heroine. When she bullheadedly told Luke that she couldn’t stay and she told him the real reason why she couldn’t stay instead of using that whole “lie to save his life” bull crap was a real plus with me. She didn’t feel the need to lie to him when he finally knew the whole truth of why she had to leave…so that he and Emma would be safe because as long as she was there with them, they would be a target and she couldn’t bear it if anything happened to the both of them.
Overall, this book was beautifully written and I thought the story was very engaging and the characters were exceptional. I fell in love with the Stokehursts and with Tasia…they made a beautiful pair and I loved how true love healed all the wounds this family had going for them, it was just a nice story to get lost in for the few hours that it took me to read this. I highly recommend this book to any of you out there, wanting to read a great historical!