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Married by Morning Hathaways Book 4 Lisa Kleypas 9780312605384 Books

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Married by Morning Hathaways Book 4 Lisa Kleypas 9780312605384 Books

I couldn't wait to read Leo's story! He was such a hot mess in the first book of the series; but he was a sympathetic character, so I wanted to know more. Since the first story, he has been slowly putting his life back together. His relationship with "Marks" until now was like oil and water. Here it was absolutely combustible! I loved the snarking between them. It was touching for them to get over their sad pasts and find love with unlikely partners. The secret relationship between Harry (from "Tempt Me at Twilight") really added to the book. I just adore Leo!


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Married by Morning Hathaways Book 4 Lisa Kleypas 9780312605384 Books Reviews

Those of us who devour romances with ridiculous frequency have probably run into many, many, MANY(!) charming, witty, adorably vulnerable, semi-reformed rakes. I don't automatically love that type of hero, but Leo Hathaway emerged as one of my favorite characters from the first entry of this series. He was (and remains!) not just among my favorite Kleypas characters, but among my favorite male characters of any novel...and I've read an insane number of romances. For whatever combination of reasons, it was love at first read for me. So my Leo-loving self deliberately saved this volume of the series for last, like the literary equivalent of dessert. )

What I Loved

1) Perhaps I've mentioned that I have a fondness for Leo?! He and Beatrix are by far my favorite Hathaways. Win, Poppy and Amelia are all likable but comparatively bland to me. It's just personal preference, of course I like my romance characters to be vibrant, quirky and colorful. Leo is very flawed, but that makes him far more compelling and interesting to me than some of his siblings.

Sometimes a series' beloved supporting character mysteriously becomes less interesting when he becomes the hero of his own novel, but despite a few minor "I wish he'd been written a little differently here..." glitches, overall I closed this novel feeling as enamored with Leo as I did when I started. Generally speaking, I'd guess that Leo fans will emerge with their affection for him intact or even increased, while those who never liked Leo are unlikely to change their minds.

2) Based on previous installments, I hadn't expected to love Cat as a heroine. I was happily surprised by how much I liked and related to her in this one.

3) The writing is...well, it's Kelypas-esque, which is high praise. Lush, poignant, and almost as funny as it is dramatic. Kleypas turns a phrase so beautifully that her novels always give my 's highlight button a workout. Tessa Dare writes sparkly fun romances, Courtney Milan writes sneakily thought-provoking romances, but of the modern romance authors I read it's Lisa Kleypas who writes the most emotionally rich and evocative romances. Vibrant characters, lovable pets, swoon-worthy prose, and a an undefinable magic that makes her books so eminently engaging and unforgettable to me. The emotion feels earned rather than cheesy. And she writes romances that I genuinely find...well, romantic! That's not a given )

4) I really love family-centric series, and the quirky but extremely close-knit Hathaways are a true joy to spend time with. I mean it as more of a compliment than an insult when I say that in many ways her family relationships resonate with me more than the romantic ones.

What I Didn't Like

1) As fellow reviewers have mentioned, the plotting and pacing range from solid to bumpy and uneven. Her novels, like most other modern romances (in my opinion, of course!) feel a bit too long. A tighter page limit would do wonders for the plotting and pacing issues here. Characterizations, dialogue and prose happen to be more important to me than plotting and pacing. But if a novel's plotting and pacing is crucial to determining whether you enjoy a book, you might want to keep your expectations lower when you pick up this one!

2) Cat/Leo were the classic "love/hate" couple, and sometimes it seemed the emphasis was on the latter. We all have different romance tropes that do or don't resonate with us, and couples who spend most of the novel fighting and bickering over and over tend to grow tiresome for me. I know that's supposed to pass for chemistry, but for me it just makes me wonder if the H and h are annoyingly incompatible rather than "soulmates." So while I know romance novels need to rely on conflict to drive the story and even found some of the arguments between Leo and Cat genuinely amusing, I personally would have wanted a little more connection and a little less clashing, especially because those moments of connection were so very sweet and sigh-worthy )

Beatrix's story, Love in the Afternoon, remains my personal favorite of the series. (And ranks among my top five romance novels ever, just to give you an idea of my taste!) But I loved this one in spite of its flaws. There's something special about most of Kleypas' historicals, and now that a few days have elapsed I'm pleasantly surprised to find that I truly "miss" this book---it stuck with me more than I'd expected to, and the romances I've tried to get into since have paled by comparison. Even if you're not as ardently pro-Leo as I am, I sincerely believe it's well worth reading. The Hathaways have emerged as one of my all-time favorite fictional families, and this series is on my surprisingly short list of books that I plan to reread again...and again!

4.5 Stars
I read this years ago when I first met the Hathaways and devoured their stories in a few days. I'm re-reading all the books in my favourites folder and I enjoyed this one all over again. It won't be making my favourites folder again though for the following reasons

+++Spoilers+++
The only thing that niggled me a lot this time around is the way the h kept refusing the H's offers of marriage. Even after they were intimate almost every night. It was unrealistic given the very real chance of the h falling pregnant and the social mores of the day. I blame Ms Burrowes for my recent dislike of this type of plot because she's overdone it in so many of her books. Also in this book is a sub-plot involving the h's past and after having one villain threaten her several times, the addition of another unlikely villain towards the end felt very heavy handed.

The reason to be reading this book is because it's the Hathaways and you can't miss out on all of the family.
TITLE Married by Morning
AUTHOR Lisa Kleypas
SERIES Hathaways, Book 4
SETTING Mid-Victorian, Hampshire and London
THEMES/TROPES hate-to-love (Pride and Prejudice), mysterious past, previous love

OVERVIEW
Leo Hathaway, Lord Ramsay, has been drawn to his sisters’ companion, Catherine Marks, since he first met her, regardless of her sanctimonious attitude, tart rejoinders, and prim mien. But perhaps it’s for the best that she prefers to fight him—after losing his first love to scarlet fever, Leo is keenly aware of the pain and madness that love can bring, and of the dissipation that agony can drive him to.

Catherine has found the greatest contentment of her life living with the Hathaway family, gorgeous and irritating brother notwithstanding, but she knows she can’t outrun her past forever. When she sees it catching up with her, the tenuous connection that’s started to develop between her and Leo only makes everything more painful. As much as Leo’s afraid to love again, Catherine’s even more afraid to put her fate in his hands, and it all comes down to a matter of trust learning to trust one another and trusting that being together is worth whatever else life throws at them.

PROS
Pretty much everything is a pro here. Primarily, I love this book because it’s hilarious. Leo is a consistently very funny character throughout the series, written as a man who resorts to humor when he’s uncomfortable, which he acknowledges in this book, and Catherine is pretty funny as well, especially when you throw in a playful ferret. The two together are just delightful, both with their humor and with their hate-to-love story. I love that style of romance where the characters start out with animosity and just can’t fight their attraction as they get better acquainted.

I really love how Leo’s past love and loss were treated in this book. The lows of his grieving process were explored as part of the first book in the series, so we’re not left in this book with a hero who’s still hung up on his lost love and not interested in anyone else. Instead, he’s acknowledged that he’s no longer the person he was when he was last in love and is affected most by the fear of experiencing such crippling grief again. Catherine’s backstory, on the other hand, is an interesting mystery that leads them on a pretty exciting ride and provides a very legitimate source of her distrustfulness.

There are a lot of sweet and fun details in this book, including Catherine’s poor eyesight, Dodger the ferret, Catherine’s burgeoning relationship with her half-brother, and all the other Hathaways.

CONS
Catherine’s background isn’t quite as believable as Leo’s. Without giving too much away, I’ll just say that for a young woman whose family on one side is very upper (or at least upper-middle) class, it’s hard to believe that she would have found herself in the circumstances she did as a young woman.

My other main objection in this book is Leo’s occasional forcefulness. There are a few moments, particularly early in the book when their relationship is still antagonistic, where Leo is a little too physically aggressive—moments where I was saying “hey guy, back up out of her personal space!”—that made him less appealing, and I don’t think it necessarily fit with his humorous, indolent, devil-may-care personality.

RATINGS
Writing 5/5 Consistently great from Kleypas.
Characters 4/5 Well-constructed and fairly consistent.
Plot 4/5 Just a touch predictable.
Setting 5/5 Well-detailed Victorian settings.
Romance 5/5 Love-to-hate story with sweet details.
Sexiness 5/5 Very good, dialogue well integrated (much better than silent sex scenes).
Humor 5/5 A frolicsome ferret and a chorus of irritated prostitutes enough said.
Average 4.71 Hilarious and Heartfelt Hate-to-Love Romance

OTHER INFO
This is the fourth of the five books in the Hathaway series. Of all the books in this series, I think this is the one that is best served by reading the other books because Leo goes through a lot of character development through the previous stories (the first book most significantly).
I couldn't wait to read Leo's story! He was such a hot mess in the first book of the series; but he was a sympathetic character, so I wanted to know more. Since the first story, he has been slowly putting his life back together. His relationship with "Marks" until now was like oil and water. Here it was absolutely combustible! I loved the snarking between them. It was touching for them to get over their sad pasts and find love with unlikely partners. The secret relationship between Harry (from "Tempt Me at Twilight") really added to the book. I just adore Leo!