REVIEW: Cold Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas
B Reviews / B Reviews CategoryHistorical / rake / widow7 Comments
Dear Ms. Kleypas:
I was delighted to see you dip your toe back into the historical romance pool after publishing a number of contemporary and paranormal-type romances. I find I can always count on you to write an historical romance that satisfies me, which I can say about very few authors these days. Cold Hearted Rake is no exception.
Devon Ravenel has inherited an Earldom. A wholly undesired Earldom that comes with a house, Eversby Priory, that has more than 200 tenants all depending upon him for their welfare. Given that Devon has always enjoyed his dissolute lifestyle, the news of his inheritance is unwelcome in the extreme. Along with the dilapidated house and grounds, he must deal with Kathleen, Countess Trenear, his cousin Theo’s widow. Theo and Kathleen were married only three days before Theo broke his neck being thrown from a horse during a drunken ride after an argument with Kathleen.
Kathleen and Theo’s three sisters, Helen (21) and twins, Pandora and Cassandra (19) have no dowry settled upon them, so along with the expense of the household, he must find a way to settle them as well. All of this is a bit much for a confirmed bachelor who has no interest in giving up his lifestyle. And Devon does not react well to being hemmed in. When he meets Kathleen, they clash immediately. Mostly because Devon’s initial response is that he’ll be selling Eversby Priory and everything in it post haste. The Priory has been in the Ravenel family for hundreds of years and the selling of it is really unthinkable. Not to mention the many tenants and servants who will be without means of supporting themselves once he sells. Kathleen tells him in no uncertain terms that he is making a mistake and is a wholly reprehensible person for even thinking of deserting the many people who are depending upon him.
Devon is completely resentful of Kathleen goading him into agreeing to keep the Priory and to begin to try to locate funding to begin to renovate the house. But agree he does and as he leaves for London, he finds that he can’t stop thinking about the prim, uptight Countess Trenear. He’s wholly attracted to this woman who is so bound by propriety that he can’t help but want to compromise her.
Kathleen is only trying to do what is proper. She insists upon a proper mourning period for her husband, and she’s trying her best to take over the supervision of her sisters-in-law who need guidance and in the case of the twins, an introduction to proper behavior as they’re both hoydens. She’s horrified that Devon would consider selling the estate, and then, when he sends his equally reprehensible brother, Weston to the estate to oversee an issue with the tenants, she’s pushed to her limits. When Devon returns he and Kathleen begin the slow push-pull of the prim lady and debauched hero. It’s delightful.
The book hits on so many things about your writing that I love. The seemingly unredeemable hero, who while yes, a cad, also has a good heart and means well. The prim, uptight heroine who pushes all of the hero’s buttons. A cast of wonderful secondary characters and situations that made me chuckle or laugh outright. And a wonderful romance that left me heaving the happy sigh.
My quibbles would be that I felt that Kathleen clung to the “we can’t, I’m a widow” excuse for a bit too long, and I did feel that the conclusion of the story was a bit rushed. I also thought that you focused a good deal on setting up the next romance, which was OK for me, as I liked the characters and am eager to read their romance, but I think perhaps that set-up short changed Devon and Kathleen’s HEA a bit. But overall, I was truly delighted to read Cold Hearted Rake and am delighted to see you writing historical romance again. Final grade: B.
Sincerely,
Kati
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Thanks for posting this, Kati. I was waiting for Dear Author to review this book before I bought it, because as much as I’ve enjoyed Lisa Kleypas historicals in the past, the blurb for this one sounded a bit too ‘been-there-read-that’ for my liking. I think I’ll go for it when I’m in the mood for a well-written historical.
I didn’t like Kathleen, particularly the way she bullied Helen. I’m looking forward to West’s book; he was a much more loveable character than Devon and so I fell in love with him. :-)
I didn’t like how Kathleen overrode Helen, but I HATED Devon’s attitude. Even in the midst of his so-called redemption, he was still kind of an ass when it came to Kathleen. I felt that the last third of the book was rushed, but I didn’t mind the bits about Helen and her dude, because I found them more interesting than the A-plot couple. If this wasn’t a Kleypas, I probably wouldn’t have bought it, and I would only rate this as a C book. It’s competently written but there’s nothing revelatory here.
I read this recently and my grade is a bit lower than yours, Kati, probably a C+ or B-.
I really liked the beginning. The arch, ironic quips the hero and his brother traded in the first few pages had me laughing out loud and were one of the things that convinced me to purchase it when I reached the ending of the kindle sample. After that the book got more conventional, but I thought it was a nice read, and I appreciated that Kleypas does research. If there were historical errors, I didn’t catch them.
There was nice chemistry between Devon and Kathleen, but I wanted a bit more development of their romantic relationship outside the bedroom to make the romance feel more rounded. The last few sex scenes started to bore me.
There was a lot of setup for Winterbourne and Helen’s book. I enjoyed that though, and I really liked the excerpt from Marrying Mr. Winterbourne at the end, too. But I was bothered by the constant use of “swarthy” to describe Winterbourne and thought his character was a bit stereotypical of commoners. I also feel his actions toward the end cast a shadow over his relationship with Helen.
I loved West’s (Devon’s brother) character development — that was very satisfying. Cassandra and Pandora seemed a bit childish for seventeen year olds.
Here I have to disagree. Unlike Kleypas’ earlier historicals this one takes place in the Victorian era, and I felt that if anything, Kathleen and Devon were too obvious about their affair considering the situation (gossipy servants, unmarried young ladies under the same roof). I agree the ending was a bit rushed. After all that to do re. having to wait until the mourning period ( a year and a day) was over to remarry, I wasn’t clear on whether it had actually ended.
This book was very readable and I had fun, but I don’t think it will stick with me. There is something about Kleypas’ books — I can feel the author controlling the characters and planning out their interactions just so. The relationships don’t feel entirely organic to me– it’s like the books lack spontaneity.
@Janine: I agree with you about her books (historical romances) lacking spontaneity. The reader is rarely surprised; we can see what’s coming a mile away. There are also few OMG! moments, and other than with the beautiful secondary romance in Again The Magic, I haven’t yet been emotionally invested in her couples’ HEAs. On the other hand, I have loved quite a few of her characters – Leo was a riot, Sebastian deliciously rakish, and Sara the perfect combination of innocence and boldness. Thus, I usually turn to a Kleypas novel when I want to read a story with good dialogue and interesting characters, and don’t mind the predictable-ness of it all.
@Janine: I agree, West’s development was great. That transformation was actually really believable and felt more genuine than Devon’s to me. I always like Ms. Kleypas’ writing, but I find her historicals less compelling than her contemporary books.
I liked this one and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the series. It was just such a delight to read a new Kleypas historical