Blue-Eyed Devil, by Lisa Kleypas
Apr 3
2008
Lisa Kleypas has just released Blue-Eyed Devil, the highly anticipated sequel to her first contemporary romance release, 2007’s Sugar Daddy. As with Sugar Daddy, Blue Eyed-Devil features a few eyebrow-raising plot and characterization decisions, but the final product is romantic drama at its best.
The heroine of Blue-Eyed Devil is Haven Travis, the only daughter of a wealthy Texan family. When Haven marries against her family’s wishes, her life goes into a tailspin: her husband is abusive, and it takes Haven years to find the strength to leave him. Determined not to get burned again, Haven swears off romantic relationships… but ruthless, ambitious Hardy Cates (the “other man” in Sugar Daddy) is more than willing to help her overcome her troubled past.
Despite their very different financial circumstances and family backgrounds, the heroines of Sugar Daddy and Blue-Eyed Devil have a lot in common. Both are extremely young and vulnerable, while their romantic counterparts are über-macho, successful Texan businessmen. While one certainly sees the appeal of handsome, responsible, devoted millionaires, we would have preferred to spend more time with the women themselves. Despite Kleypas’s heroines’ obvious intelligence and capability, their jobs, friends, and hobbies fade into the background once they meet their beloveds. We’re not saying that Kleypas is in a rut after only two books, but we’d be pretty excited if her next contemporary featured a more mature heroine—one capable of approaching her love interest(s) from a more stable financial and emotional footing.
But while we might like to see her next book go off in a crazy new direction, we would never turn down a Kleypas release. We’ll keep on buying her romances* even if she decides to write twenty more featuring sad-eyed Texan women under thirty and brooding heroes who’ve made their fortunes from Big Oil. We may have had some reservations about Blue-Eyed Devil, but Kleypas simply doesn’t produce bad books. On the contrary, Blue-Eyed Devil is beautifully written and deliciously melodramatic, and Kleypas’s many fans are sure to relish every page.
*In hardcover, even.
The heroine of Blue-Eyed Devil is Haven Travis, the only daughter of a wealthy Texan family. When Haven marries against her family’s wishes, her life goes into a tailspin: her husband is abusive, and it takes Haven years to find the strength to leave him. Determined not to get burned again, Haven swears off romantic relationships… but ruthless, ambitious Hardy Cates (the “other man” in Sugar Daddy) is more than willing to help her overcome her troubled past.
Despite their very different financial circumstances and family backgrounds, the heroines of Sugar Daddy and Blue-Eyed Devil have a lot in common. Both are extremely young and vulnerable, while their romantic counterparts are über-macho, successful Texan businessmen. While one certainly sees the appeal of handsome, responsible, devoted millionaires, we would have preferred to spend more time with the women themselves. Despite Kleypas’s heroines’ obvious intelligence and capability, their jobs, friends, and hobbies fade into the background once they meet their beloveds. We’re not saying that Kleypas is in a rut after only two books, but we’d be pretty excited if her next contemporary featured a more mature heroine—one capable of approaching her love interest(s) from a more stable financial and emotional footing.
But while we might like to see her next book go off in a crazy new direction, we would never turn down a Kleypas release. We’ll keep on buying her romances* even if she decides to write twenty more featuring sad-eyed Texan women under thirty and brooding heroes who’ve made their fortunes from Big Oil. We may have had some reservations about Blue-Eyed Devil, but Kleypas simply doesn’t produce bad books. On the contrary, Blue-Eyed Devil is beautifully written and deliciously melodramatic, and Kleypas’s many fans are sure to relish every page.
*In hardcover, even.
Posted by: Julia, Last edit by: Julianka
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