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The May book for the Historical Hellions book club is Lisa Kleypas's Then Came You. This is the first book in her Gamblers of Craven's series. Now, I have a confession to make. Despite me having read most of Lisa Kleypas's books, this series is one of the few I haven't read yet. Now, if you are at all in the online historical romance community this is a huge faux paus due to book 2, Dreaming of You being one of her most famous books and the hero, Derek Craven, having his own fan club. Now is the time to start to change that. We also get to meet Derek in this book. Update: I have applied this book to the Romancing Summer Challenge for the favorite trope prompt.
First off, I absolutely adore Lisa Klepyas and she is one of the best historical romance writers, ever. A lot of romance readers call her the Queen and I couldn't agree more. This book was written in the early 1990s and didn't really have any problematic content outside of one kind-of forced kiss and Derek's nickname for our main heroine, Gypsy. Even then, the forced kiss didn't bother me at all. This is a little more angstier than I usually prefer, but I still loved it. This also features my favorite trope, wrong sibling!
We meet our heroine Lily (which is also one of my favorite names for a girl). She was left at the alter several years prior and has since received an inheritance from her Aunt and been ostracized from her family. In her freedom she enjoys the more masculine pursuits of gambling, hunting, shooting, etc. She hears from a childhood friend that the man her sister is set to marry is not good for her, but she's following their parents wishes. Lily decides to meet this fiancé for herself and decide if she needs to step in. She meets Alex, Lord Wolverton, on a hunt and their rocky relationship starts.
This book was so good. I loved how complex Lily and Alex where and the layers they both had. Lily has been through some trauma and is currently being black-mailed by her former lover that kidnapped their daughter. Alex is still coming to terms with his grief of his former fiancé Caroline. Caroline and Lily are similar in ways, so he decides he needs a wife that is the complete opposite, like Lily's sister. However he finds himself constantly thinking and worrying about Lily. Of course she's very defensive and perpetrates everyone thinking the worst of her so they don't see past the surface. Despite enemies to lovers being one of my least favorite tropes, I really liked how even though they were antagonistic to each other it really wasn't hate deep down. It felt almost more "I hate you because I want you but can't have you." And once Alex found out that Lily's wandering around the house at night was her sleep-walking and not having trysts with his servants, everything changed.
I did wish that Lily trusted Alex a little more and that we dealt with the plot-line with her daughter a little sooner in the book. I just wanted more family time with the three of them. I liked how realistic it was though, that when she was upset about her daughter, she would cling to other things to bury her grief. For example, being absolutely adamant to save an old circus bear from the dog fighting pits (which I hate was a thing). Alex, having experienced his own grief, recognizes this and knows just how to help her deal with her emotions. He was so patient and understanding with her and I absolutely loved him. Like I mentioned above, Derek Craven has a fan club and there are a lot of people that are obsessed with him and Sebastian (from Devil in Winter). I have to say though, Alex is one of my favorite Lisa Kleypas heroes so far and I'm so happy to find another gem in her backlist.
I'll definitely be adding Dreaming of You to my summer tbr along with my Ravenels series reread. It'll be a summer of Lisa Kleypas! If you haven't read Lisa Kleypas, I couldn't recommend her more, she's one of my favorites. If you've read my previous reviews, you'd know I just did a reread of my favorite series, the Hathaways. Her writing is just so captivating and I really enjoy the depth of her characters. I always seem to read her books in one setting (if possible) and struggle putting them down for any reason. I'm super excited for the live show later tonight and can't wait to see what everyone else thought! If you haven't followed Jess or Samantha (who host the Historical Hellions) definitely give them a follow and join in the club! They both have fantastic videos!
Have you read Then Came You?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: Then Came You, Lisa Kleypas, 5-stars, 0 days, eBook, 371 pages, published in 1993
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