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I have a confession to make. Do I want to make this confession? Not really. Let's be honest; I am a bad historical romance reader. Put me in the dungeon, with the crankiest of dowagers, or whatever historical romance horribleness you can think of. Okay, here it goes. I have never read Chasing Cassandra. Waits for historical romance meteor to strike me down. I know, how could I miss getting to this. Part of the reason is this is book 6 of Lisa Kleypas's Ravenels series. At the time, it was considered to be the last Ravenel book since all of the Ravenels were married off. Of course later we were surprised with the announcement of Devil in Disguise. But I didn't want the series to end. I still have a couple other series that I absolutely adore that I never read the last book in. I have a problem. Send help. Now I have to read Chasing Cassandra. Update: I applied this to the prompt of white on cover for the 3rd board of Summer of Swoon.
Cassandra is the last Ravenel to be married, the twin to Pandora. She's a sweet and pretty girl that always wanted to be married and start a family. She's feeling down though because she's the only one that hasn't found a husband. During the timeline before West and Phoebe (from Devil's Daughter) got together, she asks him if they can get married. West kindly shuts her down. Unbeknownst to them, Tom Severin, who we've seen in the previous books, overhears their conversation and offers to marry Cassandra. She declines, because she wants to marry for love (despite propositioning West).
First off, I knew most of the storyline and know that a lot of people really love Tom. My favorite podcast, Smart Women Read Romance, did an episode last year that made me want to finally read it. Oh boy did this book put me through the ringer. We kind of have a few fast forwards in time, which I'm not always a fan of, especially with how many there were in here. I absolutely loved this book. I connected so much to Cassandra and the struggle with feeling left behind and wanting something so much and it just not coming to you. I really loved that what Cassandra really wanted was to be a mom and have a loving relationship and be a good a wife. I feel like a lot of historicals released recently overly focus on the feminism aspects and women wanting to be more than expected during that time. Which is okay, except a lot of the way that they're executed is disparaging those that don't want those same things. I loved that none of the side characters, including her forward thinking twin Pandora, thought less of Cassandra for basically wanting to be a regency housewife. It just blows me away that it only came out last year and didn't fall into that trend.
I also love how into Cassandra Tom is. While he is drawn to her by her beauty same as everyone else, he quickly sees beyond the surface to who she is as a person. I loved how everything he did was for her and it definitely gave "I'll burn the world for you" vibes, which I absolutely love. This book had me tearing up and laughing. I just love the way that Lisa Kleypas books make me feel and really can't recommend her more. I loved this book and it's tied for my favorite of the series with Marrying Winterborne, just maybe a smidge ahead. I'm both super excited but also nervous on how Devil is Disguise is going to go. I've heard amazing things and have been trying not to listen to the hype too much, but I'm really hoping it lives up to my expectations. Cross your fingers for me!
Have you read Chasing Cassandra?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: Chasing Cassandra, Lisa Kleypas, 5-stars, 1 day, eBook, 374 pages, published in 2020
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