Pub. Date: October 2, 2007
ISBN-10: 0312949804
ISBN-13: 978-0312949808
I have enjoyed many of Lisa Kleypas‘ historical novels for their unique slant on how London life went on outside the highest eschelons of society. Lately, however, she’s gotten away from that and I was hoping this book would be a bit of a return considering the backgrounds of the main characters.
Mine Till Midnight is the story of Cam Rohan, a half-Irish/half-Romany manager for Jenner’s gaming club, and Amelia Hathaway, the oldest, practical Hathaway sister who has more than her fair share of trials heaped upon her shoulders — a kleptomaniac sister, another who’s wasting away after a bout with scarlet fever and a brother who lost his fiancé to the same fever and is hellbent on his own destruction. The pair meet when Amelia travels to London to rescue her brother who recently inherited the Ramsay title which is said to be cursed with bad luck. The rest of the book centers on restoring the balance between the good luck curse Cam believes he’s under — the man can’t seem to throw money away on even poor investments and his increasing wealth is an embarassment to his Romany roots — and the horrible luck of the Hathaways culminating in Ramsay House burning down which in turn leads to questions about the identity of Merripen, the Romany fellow the Hathaway family took in as a boy, while further detailing the depths of despair into which her brother.
Instead of proving her family can stand on their own without her, Kleypas instead resorts to Rohan’s saving them in just about every conceivable manner. He throws his vast fortune at problems, pulls miraculous cures he remembers his grandmother using, outsmarts the villain and even battles spirits to win his love. Kleypas deals a bit more sucessfully with his own reconcilliation with his inner demons and how to decide which of his backgrounds has the stronger pull on him.
Win and Merripen tried to take over this book instead of staying quietly in their roles as secondary characters with several familiar faces. It’s a good thing their story is next up from Ms. Kleypas.
Overall, the book was an enjoyable read, but I doubt it will hold up as one of her more memorable stories for me.
Which ones will you recommend for someone who has never read her books before?
I have her seasonally titled Wallflowers Quartet and 4 others.
The ones I really liked were Someone to Watch Over Me, Stranger in My Arms and Suddenly You.
The Wallflowers:
Secrets of a Summer Night
It Happened One Autumn
Devil in Winter — we meet Cam Rohan in this one
Scandal in Spring
These and Then Came You had their moments or they wouldn’t still be on my shelf, but they were just good reads, not memorable like I said.
Someone to Watch Over Me — The heroine wakes up with amnesia and is told she is one London’s most scandalous beauties, but that doesn’t sound right to her. She’s under the protection of a Bow Street Runner who falls for her and seeks to unravel the mystery surrounding her past. Part of a trilogy with: Lady Sophia’s Lover and then Worth Any Price. I should probably track those down.
Stranger in My Arms — Victorian: A widow discovers her husband wasn’t lost at sea and is by a man who looks exactly like him who knows secrets only a husband would. The only difference is his behavior toward her — attentive and loving instead of cold and passionless.
Suddenly You — London, 1836: A novelist decides she can’t face 30 without making love to a man, so she hire’s one. In a twist of mistaken identities, she ends up with a notorious rogue about town, Jack Devlin — now that’s a hero’s name.
Sorry these probably don’t do any of them justice, things are a bit hectic today.
Thanks for the review. I have this on order from Amazon.co.uk and wondered what other people thought.
Devil in Winter was my fave of the Wallflowers, so I wanted to give this a try.