I KNOW no matter what else happens I’ll fall in love with her characters, and that’s exactly what happened with MARRYING WINTERBORNE by Lisa Kleypas.

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What a wonderful feeling to pick up a book and know you are guaranteed a good read.  That only happens to me with very few authors and Lisa Kleypas is one of them.  I KNOW no matter what else happens I’ll fall in love with her characters, and that’s exactly what happened with MARRYING WINTERBORNE.

We met this couple in the first book.  Rhys is an untitled Welshman who made something of himself and now owns a successful department store.  Helen comes from that same society that has put Rhys down and marrying her would certainly be a step in the right direction for him to gain acceptance.  But from the very beginning, his attraction to Helen was always about more than just that.  And that need to prove to others he was better than they thought of him quickly took a backseat to the deep love he has for his woman.  Helen on the other hand was always relegated to the side lines by her family.  She was much more comfortable with her orchids than with people or society.  She never fit in.  All that attention from an intense man like Rhys Winterborne sent her running in the first book.  But boy did she turn that around in this one.

Helen shows us from the very beginning of this book that she’s ready to take life by the balls and not be denied what she wants.  But she is also naive in many things.  And as much as I loved her character for many reasons, one of her decisions in particular is why I got a bit annoyed with where the story went.  It didn’t make me like her less, but I wish she would’ve acted differently, or acted sooner.  But that’s a problem for the last quarter of the book, really.

Rhys, though?  He’s just perfect.  Perfectly in love.  Perfectly romantic.  Perfectly rugged. Perfectly sweet.  He’s tender when he needs to be to handle Helen, but also knows when to unleash his true self.  He did everything right, and going back to the point that bothered me above (sorry, don’t want to give spoilers) his reaction was also almost too perfect.  I wanted him to not be so quick about being ok.  I needed some shake up.  But ultimately, a hero that desires his heroine so deeply that will do and accept anything to make her his, just owns my heart.  And Rhys has that in spades.

I was easily caught up in the beauty of Ms. Kleypas storytelling and the way she gets me involved in her story.  The way she can make me care about her characters, to be caught up in the dynamics of the family, in all the side characters and wanting to know more about them.  (Am I the only one dreaming of West and Dr. Gibson to end up together and they haven’t even met?)  MARRYING WINTERBORNE, much like the title suggests, is just the road that Helen and Rhys have to travel to get to their marriage after a broken engagement in the previous book.  I love characters with depth and I have to say I really enjoyed seeing the strength in Helen’s character come to the forefront in this one, while Rhys had to battle to reign himself in.  I think they both complemented each other really well, and they sure did steam up the pages.  Overall, their story was very sweet and left me as usual with a happy smile on my face.

And now about what’s to come next.  I swore I wouldn’t read the excerpt from the next book because I didn’t want to be dying for it when I have to wait until February.  February!!!!!  Too far!  And why did I do this to myself?  But I did.  And fans of the Wallflower series can start making googly eyes with me because you know what I’m feeling right?  Evie and Sebastian with kids and grandkids, I can’t even deal.  I’m so happy about this turn of events in this series and I am salivating to get my hands on it.  If you are not reading this series, then you best get caught up before that hits the market.  And you should anyway because Lisa Kleypas is still the best historical romance author.

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