Seduce Me at Sunrise - Lisa Kleypas

Kev Merripen has longed for the beautiful, well-bred Winnifred Hathaway ever since her family rescued him from the brink of death when he was just a boy. But this handsome Gypsy is a man of mysterious origins—and he fears that the darkness of his past could crush delicate, luminous Win. So Kev refuses to submit to temptation…and before long Win is torn from him by a devastating twist of fate.
Then, Win returns to England…only to find that Kev has hardened into a man who will deny love at all costs. Meantime, an attractive, seductive suitor has set his sights on Win. It’s now or never for Kev to make his move. But first, he must confront a dangerous secret about his destiny—or risk losing the only woman he has lived for…

After a couple of weeks without computer I am back with a few more reviews. When I first started reading romance Lisa Kleypas became one of my favourite authors, she wrote interesting characters in difficult circumstances that had to grow and change to survive and I liked that. However, a few years ago I started reading less and less romance and I stopped reading Kleypas after the first book in the Hathaway series. It was, I suppose, a case of burnout and it's just now that I am getting ready to get back to the genre regularly.

I had always been curious as to what had happened to Win and Merripen and so these was one of the first books I decided to pick up. I usually love angst ridden stories, I definitely love tortured heroes and Kleypas delivers both in this story. My problem is that I just couldn't warm up to Merripen nor understand some of his motivations.

For most of the story he doesn't seem tortured, he just seems rude, to Win and everyone else. The when he has the chance to claim her (and it's pretty obvious that she is willing and everyone will accept it) he doesn't and leaves her no choice than to accept a betrothal with another man. A man that no one seems to trust and given what Merripen knows about him, it should be enough to make him stop every connection between them as soon as he had the chance.

Basically this story is Win trying to convince Merripen that they should be together and him refusing to be convinced. This is a romance novel so, in the end he does let himself be convinced but I would prefer it to come about differently. I did enjoy knowing the past of both Merripen and Cam. I really like Cam and to my mind is his a much more worthy hero that Merripen. It doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the book but I did feel a lot more critical that I used to. Oh and love scenes that go on and on are just not that interesting anymore, I can skim through them so they don't bother me terribly but I find that I continue to enjoy the traditional regency format a lot more.

My favorite character in this story was Leo, I can't wait for his book and see what he will be up to. In fact, he got me so curious that I already got his book and I know I'll get to it soon!

Grade: 3.5/5