REVIEW: Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas
B Reviews / B+ Reviewsclass-difference / department store / Historical / self made man / Victorian England13 Comments
Dear Ms. Kleypas,
Last fall, I read Cold-Hearted Rake, the first book in your new series set in the Victorian era. While I enjoyed the book, I thought the main romance was somewhat overshadowed by the secondary storyline about the heroine’s sister-in-law, the aristocratic Lady Helen Ravenel, and the hero’s friend, department store business magnate Rhys Winterborne.
In Cold-Hearted Rake, Helen and Rhys met when he was invited to the Ravenels’ country estate. On the way there, a train accident took place, one that left Rhys injured and blindfolded. This situation irritated the normally active Rhys and only Helen’s gentle ministrations could soothe him. When he recovered, he and Helen became engaged, but after his demanding kiss scared her, their engagement was broken.
Marrying Winterborne, Rhys and Helen’s story, picks up where Cold-Hearted Rake left off. Rhys had offended Helen’s guardian, Devon, with his angry threat to Kathleen, the woman Devon loves, so when Helen decides to mend their broken engagement, she has to sneak out of the Ravenels’ London house.
Helen arrives at Winterborne’s, Rhys’s magnificent department store, and demands to see him just when Rhys is brooding over the loss of her. When she gently refutes Rhys’s assumptions about her – that she doesn’t want to marry him, or is only there because of his wealth — Rhys finally gives in to her demand to resume their engagement, on one condition: that she allow him to ruin her first.
Rhys needs to sleep with her to ensure that Devon will allow the marriage to take place, but he also wants to be with Helen almost more than he can bear. He is afraid that he will be too rough and scare or traumatize the delicate Helen again.
So when Rhys and Helen steal away to his living quarters above the store, the slow seduction that follows is scorching hot, at least, if an innocent heroine’s first experience of intense passion is your jam. The sex is wonderful, but Helen nonetheless insists on a five month long engagement, and Rhys is not certain he can stand to wait that long or that something won’t come between them in the meantime.
There are still Devon and Kathleen to confront and persuade, then another injury to Rhys, and a falling out between Rhys and his friend Tom Severin, but above and beyond those events, the thing that truly threatens to separate Helen from Rhys is the discovery Helen makes, of a shocking secret about herself—one that she fears could put Rhys off from marrying her forever.
Going into this book, one of my chief concerns was Rhys’s portrayal. I wasn’t thrilled with the way he came across in Cold-Hearted Rake, specifically, the description of him as “swarthy” and rough, both of which seemed to be connected to his Welsh, middle class background.
While these issues were still present in Marrying Winterborne, they bothered me less in this book. The word “swarthy,” which I dislike intensely, since I associate it strongly with many a stereotypical portrayal of characters in various books, thankfully appears here only once.
Rhys is still portrayed as rough relative to the refined Helen, something I’m not keen on, but he’s rounded out and shown to be capable of great restraint and thoughtfulness, which makes him more appealing and less of a coarse commoner stereotype.
But it is Helen who is the true heroine of this story, most especially for the way she ultimately deals with the fallout from the secret about her own background. Late in the book, Helen takes on a daunting task on her own. At that stage, Rhys isn’t on the page for around 12% of the book, which is unusual in today’s romances, but I didn’t mind it one bit, because it gave an opportunity for Helen to grow, develop, and really shine.
The chemistry between Helen and Rhys is terrific, with hot sex scenes and tender moments of vulnerability shared between them. I did want Rhys to take at least a few moments to wrestle with Helen’s secret when it came out – after all the build up, I felt that more of a reaction was needed.
Maybe it was because I was more absorbed in this book than in some of the author’s other works, but I didn’t feel that it lacked spontaneity as I’ve sometimes felt about other Kleypas novels. The second half was especially satisfying in that regard.
A nice cast of secondary characters surround Helen and Rhys, from Rhys’s female secretary, Mrs. Fernsby and Dr. Havelock, the irascible store physician with a soft spot for her, to Rhys’s businessman friend, Tom Severin, to another doctor, this one an intrepid woman, Garrett Gibson, who comes close to stealing the show.
Kathleen and Devon make another appearance here, and while I really like them as individuals, I still find them less interesting as a couple than Helen and Rhys. Helen’s sisters, Cassandra and Pandora, have an immature streak that isn’t entirely believable, but I think it will be interesting to see how they grow out of it in the next two books.
Interesting details about Rhys’s department store, Winterborne’s, make it come alive and show what a magical place it is to characters who have never shopped in a department store before. I also liked the use of Rhys’s favorite peppermint creams.
A couple of the sex scenes between Rhys and Helen had me doubting whether these scenarios would have taken place in the real Victorian England.
Spoiler (plot spoiler): Show
While this wasn’t a perfect book, I had a lot of fun reading it, and plan to be there for Devil in Spring. B/B+ for Marrying Winterborne.
Sincerely,
Janine
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I really enjoyed this book as well. The first one in the series was a little blah for me (the Helen and Rhys set up were the most interesting parts) but I felt like Kleypas hit it out of the park with this one. I was afraid going into it that Helen and Rhys were just going to be a re-hash of some of her earlier couples but they weren’t. I really enjoyed all the time the couple got to spend together. I’m very glad no one acted like a huge jerk or TSTL. I thoroughly enjoyed the supporting characters and assume that Dr. Gibson will be getting her own story. She certainly deserves one. I’m also intrigued by Tom Severin he’s a bit of a real villain so I’m interested to see what Kleypas makes of him.
Overall I think I enjoyed it a bit more than you. I’d put it at least in A- range. A part of that may be because I saw this as Kleypas’s renaissance. Her contemporary books hadn’t been wowing me and this was the first one of hers in a long time where I was burning through the pages. I enjoyed your review and agree with pretty much every point you made (in Kleypas world you just have to accept a certain amount of historical liberties like people being OK with the unmarried heroine having pre-marital sex everywhere) but as she isn’t a “gritty” writer I tend to give it a pass on my sliding scale of authenticity along with everyone having nice teeth and being socially aware.
I was so angry at Rhys after reading the sample that I wanted to punch him, and ended up not getting the book. He kept thinking about how much he wanted to rape Helen and wasn’t going to, only because she was fragile. That was way rougher than I could handle. Which is weird because I’ve enjoyed older LKs featuring such heroes. Perhaps the recent influx of beta heroes in historical romance has me changing my standards of acceptable behavior.
@Christine: I hope you don’t mind that I deleted the duplicate comment.
I really hope Dr. Gibson gets her own book! She was absolutely wonderful and would make a very strong heroine.
With regard to Tom Severin, it will be interesting to see how Kleypas handles him — whether she takes his flaws head on, or whether she softens him for his own book.
I remember that when Devil in Winter came out, a lot of readers felt that Sebastian read like a different person than the one he had been in It Happened One Autumn. The attempt to force Lillian into marriage and all that entails was just glossed over. Nowadays that seems to have faded from many readers’ memories and Devil in Winter is thought of as one of Kleypas’ best books.
For that reason I expect Tom to be softened rather than having to really grapple with his amorality. But I could be proven wrong!
I do agree with you that this was a stronger Kleypas than I have read in some time. Cold-Hearted Rake was around a C+ for me so this book did get a better grade than that one.
With regard to the first of the two sex scenes I mentioned, I just don’t understand the authorial choices made there. Helen could just as easily have sneaked into Rhys’s room with Devon and Kathleen none the wiser. Helen and Rhys might have had to be a little quieter but that could be made just as sexy, IMO.
@Jo Savage: Are you referring to this paragraph?
I read that very differently than you did. I don’t see any desire to rape Helen on Rhys’s part in this paragraph. On the contrary, I see the exact opposite. He understands the destructive effects of rape and would never want that for her. She’s safe. But another man, in his place, might have raped her. If he were a very different kind of man than he is, she would not be safe.
The main point is that no one would have helped her in such a situation, because society would consider her to have ruined her own reputation, ruined herself, by coming into the office without a chaperone. And the corollary of that main point is to show that Rhys is blown away that Helen would take such a risk to her reputation in coming to see him. Not because he has any desire to rape her, but because (in his belief) she can’t know that he doesn’t.
As you can see, my reading is almost the opposite of yours, so this didn’t trouble me at all. I was much more upset with Rhys’s threat to Kathleen in the last book. This book makes it clear that he never meant that threat as he even reveals to Helen that he made it. But I still thought it should have been dealt with more head on than it was, between Rhys and Kathleen. Rhys genuinely frightened Kathleen with that, and that’s not okay. I wish he (and Kleypas) had shown a clearer understanding of that in the text.
@Janine: I’m so glad you posted that. I saw the previous comment and was stunned because I didn’t remember Rhys being anything like they described. I was going to have to pour through my copy tonight to try to find what they were talking about. I’m happy you figured it out.
@Christine: I too don’t remember anything like that from Rhys but I didn’t reread the whole opening so there may be something more there that Jo was referring to that I missed.
@Janine: I’m very happy you deleted it! I couldn’t figure out how to do that myself.
Regarding Sebastian in Devil In Winter- he starts off as a real jerk to Evie when she shows up at his place at the beginning and still acts like somewhat of a jerk for a while. He’s more subdued at first than he was in the last book because he just got the stuffing beaten out of him by a friend and I think he’s learned full-on villain doesn’t work for him. He’s better as the sarcastic rake. They do address what he tried with Lillian and he even begs Lord whats his name to help Evie if he dies. But I agree, the heroes do get softened in her books, but I don’t mind it. Tom Severin seems like he has no principles, at least when it comes to making a buck (Sebastian was a rake but I never got the sense his friends thought he would try and cheat them) so he’s definitely different in that way and different than Rhys who seems very honorable when it comes to money. I also liked how he treated his employees and the female doctor. I’m really looking forward to the next book and hope it lives up to this one.
Oh, I loved this one. I haven’t read a Kleypas since her Wallflowers series.
I think it was the pleasure of reading a couple who were in love and just wanted to be married to each other early in the book that resonated with me. It gets old having the couple be at odds for so much of the book. In so many books the couple doesn’t actually get to just be in love til the end. I liked how devoted to Helen Rhys was as well.
Normally I can’t stand a conflict that hinges on lack of communication, but this one worked for me. I totally got why Helen felt so conflicted and couldn’t talk. I do think the 11th hour plot moppet was a bit much, but the book had banked a lot o goodwill with me by then. Also I enjoyed the supporting cast especially Dr. Gibson.
@Christine: Yes, I remember all that from Devil in Winter, and the book worked for me. But I also remember there were some readers who complained that Sebastian got a personality transplant between the two books.
Tom’s personality flaws are very different, but it will be interesting to see if he realizes that amorality in business doesn’t work for him through something that happens in an earlier book, or something that happens in his own book.
In Tom’s case, I think I would like to see his lack of principles when it comes to making money cause a problem between him and whoever he is paired with (I’m thinking it might be Dr. Gibson) as that could be very compelling.
@Tina: I was impressed that Kleypas was able to begin with the couple in love from the beginning yet still sustain a conflict that would keep readers reading throughout the book. I think the reason we see so many couples begin at odds is that what Kleypas did here isn’t easy to pull off.
I agree that this was one non-communication conflict that worked, mainly because Kleypas gave Helen a strong motivation to keep the truth a secret. SPOILER: That scene where Helen is thinking of telling Rhys and his valet advises her not to reinforced that decision really well, too.
@Janine: Yes those were the exact lines I had a problem with. I see your point that the ravishing thoughts were coming from the fact that she was risking her reputation. I did not read it like that and your explanation makes more sense given the context. Thanks for the clarification! I thought Rhys was another one of those heroes – like McKenna in Again The Magic, who kept being horrible to the heroine – and was reluctant to continue. Maybe I’ll give this book another try. I’m looking forward to Devil In Spring meanwhile.
@Jo Savage: Thanks for identifying those lines. I haven’t read Again the Magic so I can’t compare, but in this book, Rhys was sweet to Helen for almost the entire book, and just generally more likable than he had been in Cold-Hearted Rake. Whereas in the earlier book he wanted to marry Helen in part because of the way it would reflect on him to have an aristocratic wife, by this book he is genuinely in love with her.
So I’ve read both books in this series and it basically appears to be the Amelia/Cam series all over again. Helen is the frail flower of a sister; Pandora is Beatrix; Cassandra is Poppy, etc. So while I’m enjoying the series, it feels as if I’ve read these characters before. I’m sure there will be some variety and there appear to be different characters (e.g., Dr Gibson), but I’m already feeling a bit let down by the similarities to previous heroines.
@Alleira: I haven’t read the Amelia / Cam series, so I can’t compare them. I have it in the TBR pile, though, so I am sorry to hear that.