#i will say i love how family oriented these books are and that kleypas understands that dysfunctional families can still be v loving
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Ranking the Lisa Kleypas novels I have read
I had been wanting to get into a good romance series for a long and couldn't find anything I really liked. I saw someone say that Chasing Cassandra stood out among the romance novels they had read so when I found it at my library in April 2023 I decided to give it a try. I really enjoyed it and decided to continue with selected Ravenel books and also some from the Wallflowers and Hathaway series too. Here's my ranking so far (major spoilers under cut).
The Devil's Daughter (Ravenels no. 5)
I loved this book! I've seen some say that it's not their favourite because the stakes are relatively low, but my possibly controversial opinion is that Lisa Kleypas's writing can carry low stakes situations really well and that these give her characters' internal struggles more spaced to be fleshed out, which I sometimes find is lacking in her novels that feature high-stakes situations. I liked the pastoral setting here and the descriptions of farming that went along with West's self improvement plotline. I also really enjoyed Phoebe's retreat from grief over her first husband as she begins to make more independent decisions about her life. I personally thought the scandal regarding Phoebe's original almost-fiancé who was stealing money from her sons and also hiding a mistress and illegitimate son was well done and I remember gasping when she asked him why he was so interested in her sons when he clearly didn't care about his own (tbf it doesn't take much to make me gasp but. still.) I also loved seeing West as a father figure to Justin and Steven. Imo that makes perfect sense as the next step in his maturation arc and felt very natural. And ofc it was great to see Phoebe as a widow and single mother get a second chance at love after everything she went through. 4.5/5 stars.
Devil in Winter (Wallflowers no. 2)
For all practical purposes this can be called the novel that started it all because Sebastian and Evie appear SO OFTEN in the Ravenel series, which is fine I liked seeing them there but was nice to get some context on who these people actually are (I didn't read this after reading the Ravenel books). I wasn't sure I was going to like this when I started bc I did not like the way Sebastian treated Evie and it lasted for what felt like a LONG time into the novel. But after finishing and seeing how far Evie had come in her ability to stand up for herself, particularly after experiencing such awful abuse during her childhood, I think Sebastian's bitchiness for lack of a better term provided a space for her to gradually develop the bravery to stand up against someone who was never really a threat to her. I can see now how crucial that was in developing her confidence to the point where she could demand that he sacrifice himself for her (in the funniest way possible by making him swear a vow of celibacy for three months). I also loved the scenes of Sebastian languishing with his fever after getting shot, particularly the role reversal with him begging Evie to protect him from the doctor who wanted to bleed him--would that all men like that would have a brush with death and see the error of their ways. His love confession at the end brought a tear to my eye because you know he wrestled A LOT to get to that point and I simply love it when suffering brings purgation and redemption its the Catholic that's still remaining in me. 4.5/5 stars.
Chasing Cassandra (Ravenels no. 6)
This was the first Kleypas I read and while I thought it was great at the time I retroactively liked it more after reading the other books in the series. I think it's in Devil in Spring that Gabriel sees the twins Pandora and Cassandra standing next to each other and thinks that while Cassandra is beautiful she's not remotely interesting to him. (I may be misremembering the specifics but ik that scene appears somewhere). I like how Kleypas allows Cassandra to have a more mild and conventional personality in contrast to the subversive women around her while still giving a lot of validity to her particular struggles (feeling bereft after Pandora marries, her weight, her comparative shyness, etc). I thought Tom was a great match for her despite becoming infatuated with her the second he saw her and I appreciate her power to crack through his lifelong emotional issues and start reconfigure his whole sense of self in the process lol. There's no major scandal or high-stakes plot in this novel, but what I liked the most was how funny I found it. The scene where the Ravenel clan is sitting in the parlour after Cassandra's reputation has been compromised and Tom barges in to announce he's got The Solution to their problems (himself!) made me laugh, and so did the scenes where they were negotiating their marriage contract. And ofc reluctant adoptive father Tom Severin was a delight. 4/5 stars.
Devil in Spring (Ravenels no. 3)
I adored Pandora. This was my first experience with a romance heroine who is physically disabled (hard of hearing and balance issues) and also likely on the spectrum (to my knowledge this has never been confirmed but definitely what I assumed when first reading and seems to be a widely accepted interpretation along with speculations of Pandora having ADHD as well). I thought Kleypas portrayed her social struggles and traumatic childhood with so much empathy and I loved seeing be accepted into a functional family through marriage to Gabriel. I liked that this novel confronted the enormous restriction of rights that marriage put on Victorian women and Pandora's and Gabriel's attempts to grapple with that and work out the most equitable set-up for Pandora before they marry (with a heavy side helping of Gabriel thinking 'why doesn't she trust me?' which felt v realistic). I didn't love the Fenian (or I guess just Fenian-esque? I honestly can't remember) plot in the second half because it came out of nowhere and ultimately seemed like a very convoluted way of setting up the scene where Gabriel tells Pandora he doesn't love his former mistress lmao. But I did love seeing Pandora's board game business that she worked so hard at in previous books succeed in the end and to see Gabriel character develop with some unconventionality interjected into his picture-perfect life. 4/5 stars.
Marrying Winterbourne (Ravenels no. 2)
I thought the plot of this book was super compelling, but I didn't connect with Helen as much as I did with Pandora which Is why I put her book a slot lower. I thought she was wonderful, though, and I do think her experience as the eldest daughter in a very dysfunctional family was interesting to read about and added a lot of depth to her character. I also think the fact that is able to maintain so much poise and dignity in spite of all that she's endured indicates how strong she is and sets her up really well for her interactions with Rhys in this book. I thought the parallel of Helen and Rhys each feeling like they were unworthy of the other because of their origins was very well done and the climactic scene in the railway station actually mad me tear up because it was SUCH a relief after absorbing so much of Helen's agony for so long in this book. The adoption that takes place at the end felt v. redemptive and meaningful after so much angst about parentage and how awful it is to feel unwanted by family. Kleypas ending the novel by having Helen acknowledge herself as a member of the new family that she and Rhys are going to create was a perfect imo. 4/5 stars
Married by Morning (Hathaways no. 5)
I think one of the reasons this one didn't rank higher for me is because it's the only Hathaway novel I've read and also the last book in the series. I was intrigued by the premise bc I'm a big fan of Jane Eyre and this is another Governess Romance where Catherine is the governess of Leo's youngest sister. It was clear in this novel that they have a long-standing, slightly antagonistic relationship and I think it would have hit harder for me if I had read the earlier books and got to see it develop, but alas this was the only Hathaway book at my library. That's not to say I didn't enjoy reading their interactions though! I liked Leo's snarking about Cat's intentionally bad Poetry for Young Ladies and also how everyone in the family accepted that Cat is very kind to Beatrix but chooses to be the most disagreeable and antagonistic she can be toward Leo and they're all okay with it lol. I think this is one of the only romances I've read so far where the heroine has a temper that's not so much feisty but more broody and irritable in the way male romance heroes are often portrayed, and it was good that Leo acknowledges this as something that is just a part of Cat rather than something that will be fixed by the power of true love. Ofc we later find out that some of Cat's issues are the result undergoing a TON of trauma in her formative years, and I like how this contrasted with Leo still finding his way out of his own trauma re grief and addiction and trying to reestablish himself in the family as the responsible eldest son. Unfortunately however I don't think ending the book by piling more significant trauma on Cat (and Leo by association) was the right choice, esp since there wasn't enough space to deal with the effects bc it happened so close to the end of the book. However, the epilogue does imply that they have helped each other heal over many months and that their relationship has moved toward engaging each other in conversation rather than argument, which felt very fitting for them. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Cat is bespectacled and there's a scene where Leo buys her a fashionable new pair of glasses. Massive W for glasses-wearing readers everywhere. 3.5/5 stars.
The Devil in Disguise (Ravenels no. 7)
I really didn't like this one, sorry to any fans out there. I wasn't able to connect with Merritt and did not have strong feelings at all about her relationship with Keir, though I did appreciate him telling her that her first husband was a POS for saying he needed to spend some time away from her after learning she was infertile and then proceeding to die in a shipwreck. I thought having the Scottish hero be a whiskey distiller was a bit too stereotypical even for a romance novel and the technical descriptions of farming in Devil's Daughter did not work for me here when applied to whiskey-making. I also did not love the phonetically-rendered Scottish accent, so that ruined most of Keir's dialogue for me. IMO very few people are able to pull off a phonetically-rendered accent in writing and Lisa is no exception unfortunately. I can't remember much of the plot of this book except that there is an explosion at some point and then a HUGE reveal that has major implications for other characters in this series and the Wallflower series. Unfortunately tho this book passed me by so much that I didn't remember what it was and had to reread a summary before writing this, which is crazy if you know what the scandal is. I also thought the ending of this novel was a cop-out considering all the emotional work Keir in particular had to do with his own concept of family...and for what? But at least this book addresses the results of men choosing to thot it up for large portions of their lives I guess. 2/5 stars.
My next plans are to read It Happened one Autumn and eventually Mine Til Midnight bc I love Cam Rohan's character and Amelia's from what we saw of her in MbM. Tell me what other Kleypas books are good or what romances by other authors I should try next.
#i will say i love how family oriented these books are and that kleypas understands that dysfunctional families can still be v loving#i also love the humour--that's what stood out to me when first reading chasing cassandra. it was funny and clearly on purpose.#some of the romances i'd read prior had me laughing bc they were ridiculous so that was a nice change#lisa kleypas#romance novels
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