Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas
Review by Cyn F. (Cyn-Sama)
Cachu sanctaidd! Ei fod yn arwr Cymreig! Or, for those of us not lucky to be born speaking Welsh – Holy shoot! A Welsh hero! Normally, in historic romances, you have either a member of the British aristocracy, or if they want to go for something more exotic, an Irish or Scottish lord. Poor Wales gets ignored like a forgotten cousin.
Being of Welsh ancestry, (second generation American here!), I have longed to see a Welshman take center stage. I’m so happy that it was one of my favorite authors that did the research and created the character of Rhys Winterborne. (Pronounced Reece/Reese.) A self made man who earned his money through a successful department store in London.
In the book that started this series, Cold Hearted Rake, Winterborne became engaged to Lady Hellen Ravenel, until a series of misunderstandings broke them apart.
When we start the book, we have Lady Hellen breaking all the rules of polite society, by going to see Winterborne, alone, at his private office. For those of you not familiar with romance tropes, or the history of British social mores, a young woman, without an escort would have her reputation ripped to shreds. While it is a bit of an overused plot device, Kleypas handles it with her usual grace and charm.
Throwing subtle humor in with charming family relations has been successful in her past few series, namely the Wallflowers, and the Hathaways. I just eat them up. While there are certainly some erotic moments, reading her books is like taking a bubble bath. Warm and comforting. In fact I usually reread them at least once a year, it’s kind of like visiting an old friend. The book is peppered with a few Welsh phrases, and in case you couldn’t tell, that left me grinning ear to ear. She does provide the translations in the back of the book, but you can pretty much figure out what Winterborne is saying through the context.
If you are not familiar with Lisa Kleypas, and enjoy historic romances, I would really suggest starting with the Wallflowers series, which starts with Secrets of a Summer Night. The books take place in roughly in the same time period, and the characters pop up throughout the different series. Most of her other books take place in the same universe, and I love them all. I just think that the Wallflowers are a good introduction to her style of writing. I found the book to be delightful, and I’ll be going nuts waiting until next February for the sequel to come out.
‘Mask’ (Peter Bogdanovich, 1985)
‘The Goonies’ (Richard Donner, 1985)
‘Big Man on Campus’ (Jeremy Kagan, 1989)
‘The Toxic Avenger’ (Lloyd Kaufman & Michael Herz, 1984)
‘This is Water’ (David Foster Wallace, 2009)
‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ (Joan Didian, 2005)
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