Grade: B

A while back, I read a bunch of Lisa Kleypas and pretty much gorged myself on her books. After that, I needed to take a break from her for a while, so this is my first Lisa Kleypas in a few months. This book is also the 3rd in Kleypas’ Wallflower Series–I haven’t read the other two–and stars a stuttering virgin and a profligate, penniless rake who is a rake for no reason. The stuttering virgin, the daughter of Ivo Jenner who was the business rival of Derek Craven in Dreaming of You, stands to inherit her father’s fortune, but her scheming, devious family wants to get their hands all over it, so Evie has no choice but to run away to the most notorious rake she knows and beg him to marry her. The rake, who is penniless and was desperate enough to abduct the heroine in the previous book, gladly accepts because… duh, he’s poor and Evie is an heiress to a large fortune. They get married, Evie tells him that they will only have sex once for the purpose of consumating the marriage, and the rest of the story deals with the hero trying to get Evie to have sex with him. That’s about it. There’s some crap about a syphillitic psycho trying to kill Evie because he thinks the Jenner forture should have gone to him, but it seemed like a throw-away storyline, ’cause really, this book is just about the hero trying to get into the heroine’s drawers. Ain’t nuthin’ wrong with that!

Evie Jenner is the typical wallflower type that you’ve probably read about a hundred times before if you regularly read historical romance novels set in 19th century London. She doesn’t think she’s pretty, is shy to the point of stuttering, but has more outgoing, more loud-mouthed friends to speak up for her. Evie’s father is a well-known owner of the largest gambling establishment in London, while her mother is the daughter of… I don’t know, I think she’s gentry. I don’t want to look it up. Anyway, her mother dies in childbirth (?) and her father Ivo sent Evie to her mother’s family to live because he doesn’t think a child should be raised in a gambling den. Unfortunately, Evie’s relatives are assholes and her uncle in particular enjoys kicking her ass as a hobby. Her relatives also want her to marry her nasty, fat cousin so that they can get control of the money that Ivo, who is dying of consumption, will be leaving her. To add insult to injury, they won’t let Evie visit Ivo, either, and Evie really wants to be by her father’s side as he lays dying. Out of desperation, Evie successfully escapes from them one night and rushes over to the house of Sebastian, Viscount St. Vincent, who had attempted to kidnap her friend Lilian–an heiress–in the last book and got his ass soundly kicked by the hero, who also happened to be his best friend. Oh, yeah, spoiler. I shouldn’t have read this book without reading the previous ones. Damn it.

Sebastian, Viscount St. Vincent, is a yummy, yummy man. He’s sarcastic, would rather cut someone to ribbon’s verbally than physically (my kind of guy), and pretty much more of a decoration than anything else. Sebastian is awesome because he doesn’t use his fists to fight. His ultimate weapon is basically his wit. His father is a duke, but Sebastian is broke all the time, so when Evie offers herself and her dowry to him, he jumps on it like a fan-girl on Nathan Fillion at Comic Con. In fact, when he is required to physically fight to save Evie, he doesn’t really do very well. I’m just happy to read about a hero who’s just… I don’t know, a guy… and not a superhero who can take on fifteen people at once. I think he even gets his ass kicked here a couple of times and that just makes him more human to me. I also adored the way he treats Evie, even though the world–especially her friends–thinks he’s pretty much a dick. My favorite scenes of this book are when the two of them are just hanging out, especially while the two of them are rushing to Gretna Green to get married. He pretends not to care about her, but takes the time to find her a foot warmer so that her feet are nice and toasty while they’re traveling. That’s so sweet! I love a guy who thinks of little shit like that. I also liked that he is the way he is for no reason. He’s cynical, sarcastic, and kind of self-centered, but that’s just the way he is. He wasn’t scorned in the past, his daddy didn’t abuse him… I liked that he had no drama. He’s not even all broody and weird. I was a little unconvinced, though, about the profligate rake turning out to be a shrewd businessman. I mean, if he were so damned shrewd, why was he so broke all the time? Was that explained in the book and I just missed it?

In this book, we’ve got the usual resistant female who’s all “no, no, don’t touch me” and “we’ll have sex only once, okay, and never again ’cause I don’t want you break my heart,” but what’s cool about Evie is that she doesn’t drag this drama out and allows herself to feel desire for Sebastian. If I were her, I’d be a little worried about him, too, especially since he’s a rake and as everyone knows, rakes will sleep with widows, opera actresses, girl servants, and pretty much anything female. Not only would I be paranoid about his fidelity, I’d be worried that his skanky ass would be carrying a particularly virulent form of herpes ’cause he’s slept with half of London and probably some of France, too. I totally understand her reluctance to just bed down with Sebastian and respect her for it, too. In fact, I actually kind of liked Evie. She was in a desperate situation and she got herself out of it. Sure, she kind of annoyed me a couple of times, especially her insistence in hanging out in the gambling den when there’s all sorts of unscrupulous characters all around… and oh, a syphillitic psycho who wants to kill her. At least Evie’s not stupidly stubborn, though. She won’t do everything that Sebastian tells her to do–wouldn’t respect her if she did–but she at least listens and thinks about what he has to say instead of just yelling at him and acting like an all around fool.

I think the main reason that this isn’t an A book for me is that much drama and fuss was made about how evil Evie’s relatives were, but nothing really happened with that storyline. There was just one little scuffle with them and then they were gone. I mean, I guess I was just expecting them to be the main bad guys and for Evie to find it within herself to tell them off or have a direct confrontation with them where she wins, but it felt like Kleypas just wrote them off after that one little scene. I was not satisfied at all by how that was resolved, dude. I mean, this chick married a well-known rake to get away from these guys and they go away like, “Oh, you’re married now? Okay, that’s cool. We won’t bother you any more.” Come on, now! Where’s the drama?

All and all, I really enjoyed this book. The main storyline isn’t terribly complicated–virgin needs rake to marry her to get away from her family, rake needs the dowry that the virgin offers, they fall in love–and Sebastian is just a very charming, delicious hero. The writing itself is breezy and fun and there aren’t a lot of angsty moments. I even enjoyed the cameo appearances of the people from the previous books–even though I hadn’t read them–because they actually added to the storyline and seemed useful. They weren’t just advertisements for the previous books and I appreciated that. I might have to check them out later. As for Evie and Sebastian, I really enjoyed their courtship, as well as their bantering. It’s not the Greatest Love Story of All Time, but I was okay with that ’cause I enjoyed them as people. If you’re looking for a light, fluffy read on a quiet night or a nice Sunday afternoon, I recommend you check this book out. It’s really very… cute.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 21st, 2006 at 11:09 pm and is filed under Books, Grade: B, Romance: Historical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.