All of Lisa Kleypas books outside of her Wallflowers and Hathaways series usually leave me cold. Until now. Because I've just read Worth Any Price and I fell so so so in love with that book and its characters, it was kinda insane. Set in Victorian England, its hero Nick is a Bow Street Runner (which is already a point in its favor. A hero who actually works!) who takes on a private assignment to find Charlotte, a creepy old aristocrat's runaway fiancee. However, when he finds her, working as a lady's companion somewhere far from London, he cannot help but be drawn to her and offers her the protection of his name. Seeing him as a better option than running forever or marrying the creeptastic creep fiance, she accepts. OK, the set-up doesn't necessarily explain why I loved the book so much so let me try to get more into it - Nick is that incredibly rare romance hero - someone who is deeply intense and deeply damaged (the man is a total trainwreck, just how I love 'em) but also utterly functional in every day life, worthwhile and productive member of society, someone who treats Charlotte with consideration. And Charlotte is just so pragmatic and awesome and sane! And I shipped them so hard together, it was a little insane. The main thing that stayed with me from the book was how intense and emotionally passionate and romantically desperate it was. I LOVED IT!!! I might have even loved it as much as Love In the Afternoon and Seduce Me At Sunrise, my two favorite Kleypas novels.
The other book (I am currently reading it) that is totally rec-worthy is Liz Carlyle's The Devil to Pay. Carlyle is a hit-or-miss author for me, but when she is on, she is really on. And she is really on here. Our heroine, Sidonie, is a seemingly respectable widow who moonlights as Black Angel, a daring vigilante who humiliates and robs upperclass men who mistreat women (and the money she gets goes to the women's help). Our hero, Devellin (yes, that's his name. Oh well, it's romancenovelland), is an aristocrat who is busily trying to drink/gamble/etc himself to death because he cannot deal with a number of things in his life. Their paths cross when Sidonie assumes (wrongly) that he is someone who should be targeted by the Black Angel. OK, why did I love it? Sidonie and Devellin are both messed-up and deeply hurt people who are trying to cope as best as they can in very different ways. But they are also ridiculously charming and oddly lovely people. And they make each other better. It's a bizarre thing to say about a couple whose interaction starts with her tying him to his bed and robbing him, but they have such a ridiculously healthy, healing, sane relationship. It's such a lovely, lovely, lovely book.
The other book (I am currently reading it) that is totally rec-worthy is Liz Carlyle's The Devil to Pay. Carlyle is a hit-or-miss author for me, but when she is on, she is really on. And she is really on here. Our heroine, Sidonie, is a seemingly respectable widow who moonlights as Black Angel, a daring vigilante who humiliates and robs upperclass men who mistreat women (and the money she gets goes to the women's help). Our hero, Devellin (yes, that's his name. Oh well, it's romancenovelland), is an aristocrat who is busily trying to drink/gamble/etc himself to death because he cannot deal with a number of things in his life. Their paths cross when Sidonie assumes (wrongly) that he is someone who should be targeted by the Black Angel. OK, why did I love it? Sidonie and Devellin are both messed-up and deeply hurt people who are trying to cope as best as they can in very different ways. But they are also ridiculously charming and oddly lovely people. And they make each other better. It's a bizarre thing to say about a couple whose interaction starts with her tying him to his bed and robbing him, but they have such a ridiculously healthy, healing, sane relationship. It's such a lovely, lovely, lovely book.