Review- Tempt Me At Twilight

It's taken me a while to write this review, much in the same way it took me a while to actually read the latest entry in Lisa Kleypas' historical collection.

Confession time: As much as I adore Kleypas' new foray into contemporaries, I have found her historicals of late to be hit-or-miss. I haven't read all of the Hathaways, but I enjoyed Win's book (who wouldn't with an uber-hunk like Merripen?) and I am very, very much looking forward to Leo's book, especially with this cliffhanger. But more on that later.

In the way that Goddess of the Hunt took historical romance standards and kept them fresh, Tempt Me At Twilight comes dangerously close to retreading old territory. Poppy Hathaway is madly in love with a man who is keeping their relationship on the DL until he can find the right time to break the news to his father. You see, the Hathaways, even in "this day in age" are considered new money and not nearly haut-ton enough for some.

Enter ubersexydangerous hotelier Harry Rutledge who takes one look (well, maybe two) at Poppy and decides he has to have her. He ruins the relationship, compromises Poppy, and has her at the altar almost before she can blink.

Unfortunately the newlyweds don't have any time for happiness before she finds out what he's done-- in fact, her beau shows up before the ceremony to unmask Rutledge's dastardly deeds-- and a seemingly endless amount of time is spent before she decides to get over it and he decides to apologize and try to be an acceptable human being.

It's strange how Rutledge goes from ruthless collector (there's really no other word for it) to hopelessly in love with the heroine. Sure she's charming and lovely and why wouldn't he? But things turn around for both of them a bit abruptly. And I'm sorry, but the kidnapping incident at the end can be described as nothing but an obvious attempt to reinforce the reconciliation. The person who is kidnapped and the person who did it don't even make that much sense in terms of story relevance.

Now, a moment: In the past two books, there has been a sparky interaction tinged with inevitability between Leo Hathaway (de facto pater familias) and Poppy and Beatrix's chaperone, Miss Marks. Heaps of progress was made between the two in this book -- she's not so plain when you look closely! she's an actual human being, not a dragon lady!-- that can only mean that the next book is theirs. I would have been happy enough with their progress had the last paragraphs of the book not had Leo tracking Marks through Ramsay House to corner her:

"Struggling for self-discipline, Leo took a deep, steadying breath. 'Cat... we have to talk about what happened.'"

WHAT HAPPENED?? Because I officially can't wait to find out.

Rating:
Plot- .5 (done done done done done)
Characters- 1 (even with main character inconsistency, it was nice to see everyone again)
Sex- 1 (standard, hot Kleypas)
Style- .75
Consumption- .75 (sorry, but it took me a while to jump in)

TOTAL: 4