Lisa Kleypas: Smooth Talking Stranger

Smooth Talking Stranger: B-
Ella Varner & Jack Travis

Ella Varner grew up with a troublesome mother and an insecure sister, but she has managed to come out of it reasonably sane, with a good (if vegan) boyfriend, Dane, and a job as an advice columnist. All of this gets turned upside down when her sister disappears and sticks Ella with her newborn, Luke. Determined to find Luke's father, Ella tracks down a likely suspect—millionaire playboy Jack Travis. The encounter results in Travis and Ella unexpectedly engaged in an irrepressible attraction. Meanwhile, Ella grows fond of baby Luke and fears what will happen when Tara returns. As Ella grapples with conflicting desires, she learns some important lessons about love and trust... (amazon)


Here is another installment of a Travis man, Jack Travis, and though the book had great potential, as do all the Travis men, it fell short of the greatness I was expecting.

I normally love love Lisa Kleypas' books because she is able to develop the characters and really portray the growth of the hero and heroine's relationship. The journey is as wonderful as the end, since we all know endings to romance novels are happy. Even knowing that the hero and heroine will end up together, LK makes it exciting.

This one, however, was a combination of unpleasantness, on several different levels.

1, the hero and heroine have chemistry (as Jack is hot hot!) but they don't really develop their relationship because...

2, Ella is taking care of the damned baby. I have nothing against babies, however, the fact that LK is sticking babies into romance stories left and right is starting to irritate me. Taking care of a child is a HUGE responsibiilty and needs to be of the utmost priority. But in this story, Ella is thrown into her new role as a mother around the same time she meets Jack. Things are crazy, no doubt about it, but with duties as a new mother, where is the time for romance? For love? I'm sure it happens in reality, but not in the way LK portrayed it. There needed to be more details, more development, especially because the story is not only handling a love story, it's handling a story about a mother and child. She did neither story justice.

3, Um, the ending? What was that? It was rushed and lame. And rushed.
Kind of like: "Ohhh, we have twenty pages left, so I love you Jack!"
"Oh yea, I forgot to tell you that I love you, too."
"Yay!"

4, Lack of development of Ella. She obviously grows up in a very dysfunctional family. So... I can kind of assume how she became the woman she is, but I don't want to assume. I want you write your beautiful prose, LK, and tell me, dang it!

5, Excess sex scenes. ...which, for me, without relationship development, is like too much icing. Unsatisfying and uncool to swallow.

It was decently fun to read and Jack is hot hot, but don't expect a stunner out of this one.

Lisa Kleypas: Blue-Eyed Devil

Blue-Eyed Devil: A+

Haven Travis & Hardy Cates
Sequel to Sugar Daddy


Scenes of domestic abuse and the journey to recovery make Kleypas's modern romance anything but fluff. A Wellesley grad and daughter of a Houston energy baron, Haven Travis is an unlikely romantic heroine until her brief but ardent encounter with a man who turns out to be Hardy Cates, the East Texas roughneck from Sugar Daddy who worked his way up from poverty and then outmaneuvered the Travis clan in a business deal.

Haven's engaged to Nick Tanner—a man her dad thinks is unfit for her—and though she and Hardy have a charged interaction, she elopes with Nick, and her father cuts her off. Nick turns out to be a bad guy, and a beaten and bruised Haven returns to Houston, where Hardy's still at odds with her family. Their passion proves as fervent as ever, but demons from Haven's recent past—as well as strife with her family and troubles at work and in bed—stand in the way. Kleypas isn't a literary stylist, but she delivers a page-turning, formula-breaking romance that takes on social issues and escalates passion to new heights. (amazon)

Ohhhhhh my goodness, I am so in love with Gage Travis and Hardy Cates. It’s unbelievable. Even though both men are in the oil industry, I forgive them for it.

Haven is the only daughter of the Travis family, younger sister to Gage, Jack, Joe (I could be wrong about this particular Travis. He is still very obscure to me). The book starts out at Liberty
and Gage’s wedding. Sugar Daddy was also a very satisfying read (but one whose ending I did not like) and I loved seeing them again in BED.

It is at their wedding that Haven first meets Hardy Cates. Tall, weathered, tanned, and broad-shouldered, he is what dreams are made of. And who can forget those electric blue eyes? Hardy is at the wedding, but is uninvited, due to the debacle that happened at the end of Sugar Daddy. Haven is attracted to Hardy (though honestly, who wouldn’t be?) but she has a boyfriend whom she is in love with, and one her family disapproves of. Feeling that Nick is the man of her dreams, they marry… and Haven’s life is changed forever.

She is domestically abused and returns to her family when she divorces Nick. It’s then that Hardy reappears in her life – tanned eyes, blue eyes all. Haven is thrown into a funk when she is unable to tamp down the attraction she feels for Hardy and struggling to put her past behind her. It’s even harder when Nick refuses to disappear from her life, and she is plagued with a jerk boss at work.

To tell you the truth, I thought Hardy was a douchebag when Sugar Daddy ended. But readers, do not fear. Hardy fully redeems himself in Blue-Eyed Devil. Not only is he an amazing kisser and smoking hot, he is with Haven as she battles her sexual insecurities and memories of her ex-husband. He saves her life and in turn she saves his. The love that they experience is fast-paced, but the tale is so engrossing, you can’t help but to believe that what they’re experiencing is true.

The book is in first-person, so I still don’t really know what Haven looks like. And I don’t know what Hardy really thinks of her, as you would know in a regular third-person story. But really, that’s not important because you get a wholly satisfying story with a very delicious hero. I love Hardy! I love Gage! I love this book!

I keep striking gold with Lisa Kleypas… and I’m so glad. I hear that the next contemporary is going to be Jack Travis’s story. I’m psyched for it – it’ll be an auto-read (and maybe auto-buy, depending on the state of my back account) for me.