Blue-Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Blue-Eyed Devil
Book Review: Excellent Book!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I just started reading Lisa Kleypas books and I really have loved everyone that I have read. I hope she keeps on the same path that she is on.Book Review: Fantastic Book!!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Blue-Eyed Devil is the second book Lisa Kleypas has written that is contemporary instead of being a historical romance. The book is written from the first person point of view, and while I normally prefer to know what the hero is thinking in romance novels, this book did an excellent job of showing that while still using Haven's first person point of view.
***Mild Spoilers***
This book is simply fantastic, for many reasons. The main character is a great heroine, and like most of Kleypas' heroines she is a thinking individual instead of a twit. Her characterization is well done and I found no fault with her. The hero, Hardy Cates, has a silly name but in spite of that he remains a well crafted and complex character.
Now those who are looking for a straight romance novel may be disappointed as the book deals quite a bit with Haven's first marriage and her recovery from the abuse and rape she endured while married. Kleypas does an excellent job of making the reading understand why Haven stayed with her husband after the first time he hit her, showing the slow decline from loving fiancee to abusive spouse. You do not lose respect for Haven during the course of this abuse as you understand why she felt compelled to stay.
That said, I was relieved when she finally left her husband and returned to her hometown of Houston. Her recovery from her marriage is extremely interesting as she goes to counseling, gets a job, and makes strides in putting her life back together. Haven is a great character to root for even though her life is kind of a wreck.
Hardy is a typical Kleypas hero - he was raised poor, has self worth issues, but through hard work and a nimble mind he has managed to create a small empire of his own. His obvious attraction to Haven makes him even more endearing as he isn't a caveman as his characterization might lead one to think.
As Haven was raped in her previous marriage, she and Hardy face a few difficulties in the physical aspect of their relationship. Just when things are going hot and heavy between them, Haven with tense up from a flashback of her rape and be unable to continue. As this is a very real issue rape victims deal with, I thought it was fantastic that Kleypas added this to the story.
Too many authors gloss over rape, or use it as a threat to the heroine instead of reality, or even talk about it occurring in the heroine's past without discussing how something like that affects her sex life in the future. Kleypas wrote these scenes accurately and with great sensitivity. And how much can you love a big brawny man who instead of having sex with you offers to go with you to see your shrink instead? Taking a sensitive issue many women deal with and enhancing the hero's appeal with it is something few authors could pull off, but Kleypas does it with aplomb.
BED also is appealing in that Haven's family is fun to read about, even if her father is a jerk and her brothers overprotective. Some of the scenes with her and her brother Gage had me tearing up they were so sweet. I look forward to reading more books about this family in the future.
The only complaint I have is that the ending felt a bit rushed. I would have liked a little more happy ending than the tacked on Epilogue allowed for. Other than that, a great book that I highly recommend! I am so glad Kleypas is now writing contemporary romances!
Book Review: Great ending to the two part saga!!!!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I thought this book would be good, and it was great! It was so good that I immediately read both the first one...Sugar Daddy, then this one again! I love the way she tells the story from the characters point of view, and of course Hardy Cates just has that sexy feel to him!
Lisa Kleypas is such a great writer, you are immediately drawn into her characters, and these two are great. Loved the fact that the characters from Sugar Daddy played a pretty good size role in this book as well. I love getting to see what has happened to those characters as well!
Hardy Cates is a great hero type character. Lots going on...but finally finding someone that completes and settles him down.
I highly recommend this book to Lisa Kleypas readers, readers who read Sugar Daddy, and anyone looking for a great romance writer! A must read, and a must have for your book collection. This is a book that I will read many many more times!
Book Review: I fell in love with Hardy Cates....
Summary: 4 Stars
Sugar Daddy is a favorite of mine, it was going to be very hard for the sequel to measure up. Although this is not a favorite, I still loved the book. It is about the redemption of Hardy and Haven is his redemption. I loved them together, I loved the book. I do feel the ending didn't flow as good as it could have. Mrs. Kleypas, Jack needs a story now!Book Review: I love Lisa, but this isn't my favorite of her books
Summary: 4 Stars
I adore Lisa Kleypas's writing and she is hands down my favorite author. That said, I was expecting more.
I'm intrigued by her jump into contemporary novels. I'm curious as to why some choices were made. I, personally, am not a fan of anything written in the first person unless it's a memoir and I'm rather baffled by why both of her contemporary novels have been written in the first person. I don't read many contemporaries, so perhaps it's simply part of that landscape. I'm also really interested in the different mechanisms used to create the story's framework when moving from historicals to contemporaries. In historicals, you have rigid societal structures to present roadblocks to the characters at every turn and in the contemporaries, it's interesting to see how those roadblocks are constructed. In this story, it was with domestic violence.
I adored Hardy Cates in Sugar Daddy and I was eager to see his book. But this isn't his book, it's Haven's. And I'm not really complaining about that. I adore that Kleypas really fleshes out her heroines. I love that she makes them into these gloriously three dimensional characters. I just wish there had been more of Hardy in this book. The bits we do get of him are lovely. In particular, I adored the sections that dealt with his emotional baggage. I just wish we'd seen more.
The subject matter of this book was a bit difficult for me to stomach, but that's actually praise for Kleypas's writing. I think she tackled the subject of domestic violence very, very well. I think she made Haven's journey very realistic and while I was incredibly frustrated with the things that happened to her, I think Kleypas made a very strong argument for how it is that strong, smart women can find themselves in these situations and how difficult it can be for them to leave.
I enjoyed the inclusions of Haven's therapy sessions, but I did feel that a bit too much of the story time was spent explaining the emotional and mental dynamics of abuse and abuse victims. And really, I feel sort of horrible complaining about that. Because domestic abuse is certainly a serious topic that deserves to be handled respectfully. And I believe Kleypas did handle it exceptionally well. But it was a bit too realistic for me. I found myself skimming the abuse sections because they were so painful to read.
The sections with Hardy and Haven were hot and believable at the same time. And though this book didn't have as many one liners as Sugar Daddy, there were several times I found myself laughing aloud at the snappy dialog.
All in all, it's a good read. Especially if you're a fan of Kleypas. But I did feel that there was a bit of a tradeoff and that some of the enjoyability of the story was sacrificed to make it more realistic. It's still worth the money, even in hard back. Just FYI.