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This read was March's book for the Rake Appreciation Society hosted by Crystal and Jen on YouTube. This is one of those rare and elusive Lisa Kleypas standalones. I'm a fan of Lisa Kleypas and was excited to try a new book from her, Stranger in My Arms.
I really struggled with my rating on this book. If I went of enjoyment it would be closer to a 3 or 3.5-star read for me. But if I look at it critically it's more of a 4.5-star rating. I went with 4-stars. While I did love the romance between Hunter and Larissa (a.k.a. Lara), there were some times were I wasn't quite sure why it was going the direction it was. So brief summary, Lara has been living as a widow for a few months (and years alone) after her husband Hunter goes to India. He passes away in a shipwreck. A few months later he's back, but there's something off and his treatment of her has changed. Is he really her husband?
Spoiler Alert! (Although most of my posts are spoilery.) Okay, so I'm going to call our hero Hunter 2 and Hunter will just refer to Lara's original husband. I guessed pretty early on that Hunter 2 was his brother. It was just kind of wayward thought, and we got hints that he wasn't Hunter pretty early on. They looked so similar though that even Lara was confused. Granted I wasn't expecting quite how his backstory was laid out, but I was correct! Yay me! One thing that really bothered me about this book was the child-like references. I didn't like that either of them would refer to Lara's skin as soft as a child's or similar metaphors. It was just really odd, especially when describing a 24-year-old woman. Another plot line I didn't like was the entire story with her sister Rachel. I felt like Rachel could've had a bad relationship with her husband, but did it really need to go into the beatings and miscarriages? I know that that was part of what the book was trying to point out and the ownership of women at that time, but it felt too much. It just made me uncomfortable on top of all of the other goings on with Hunter 2. I feel like Rachel deserves her own book and HEA.
The ending was weird for me too. I didn't like that Lara caused everything to hit the fan, but then at the last minute change her mind. She was so staid in her ways on what was "right" but wasn't actually looking at the larger picture of what was "good." Once again, I understand what Lisa Kleypas was trying to show, but it just felt like too much whiplash emotionally for the last couple chapters. Then we had Lara's and Rachel's lives threatened and Hunter 2 had to save them. Just too much. That's why if I would go with an emotional response, this book would be closer to 3-stars.
I love Lisa Kleypas's writing though and even at the parts where I was getting frustrated and just wanting the characters to move on, it was still engaging. Usually I have more fun with the late 1990s and early 2000s historicals. They just seem to hit the sweet spot for me of being feminist without going overboard and too unbelievable for the time period (like a lot of the modern day historicals). I'm definitely going to continue to read Lisa Kleypas and may or may not pick up this book to own since it has a gorgeous stepback.
Have you read Stranger in My Arms?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: Stranger in My Arms, Lisa Kleypas, 4-stars, 1 day, eBook, 368 pages, published in 1998
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