I hate to say it, friends, but this was another Lisa Kleypas fail for me. I loved her Wallflowers series and I know there are some other fabulous books in store for me by this prolific author, but some of her earlier works don’t quite hit the nail on the head for me, and Suddenly You was one of those. It’s still steamy and might work for some readers, but read on to find out why it didn’t click for me.
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The summary, from Amazon:
She was unmarried, untouched and almost thirty, but novelist Amanda Briars wasn′t about to greet her next birthday without making love to a man. When he appeared at her door, she believed he was her gift to herself, hired for one night of passion. Unforgettably handsome, irresistibly virile, he tempted her in ways she never thought possible…but something stopped him from completely fulfilling her dream.
Jack Devlin′s determination to possess Amanda became greater when she discovered his true identity. But gently-bred Amanda craved respectability more than she admitted, while Jack, the cast-off son of a nobleman and London′s most notorious businessman, refused to live by society′s rules. Yet when fate conspired for them to marry, their worlds collided with a passionate force neither had expected…but both soon craved.
50 Romance Novel Reading Challenge
I chose this book for my 50 Romance Novel Reading Challenge, created by Love, Sawyer. The prompt was Week 21: Age Gap. There is a slight age gap between the two characters with Amanda being older than Jack.
Buy Suddenly You here.
Amanda is turning 30. She’s unmarried and happy that way but knows what she wants, and that includes having sex. She seems a madam to hire a prostitute to have her first time with, but when the prostitute (who is actually not a prostitute, but a publisher who is a friend of the madam – which works out great, since Amanda writes novels) shows up at her door, Amanda chickens out. Nonetheless, she shares a passionate moment with Jack, and when they encounter one another again, with Jack setting out to publish Amanda’s abandoned first novel, the passion continues to consume them until they start an affair.
I loved the heat level in this book but overall it just didn’t do it for me. We finally find out there is an age gap between these characters but it’s not that big of one, I think 25 and 30. If the gender roles were reversed, no one would consider that an age gap. And I’m 31 and wouldn’t consider dating a 26-year-old an age gap. Finally, the third act just annoyed me. Amanda and Jack marry when she finds out she’s pregnant, and whenever characters in a romance novel have “risky” sex, by which I mean sex with no attempt at avoiding pregnancy, then don’t worry that there could be a baby, I’m beyond annoyed! As a spoiler alert and trigger warning, there’s a miscarriage so late in the book. The characters don’t speak for weeks before reuniting and making it up to one another through sex, which given the trauma they went through just seems strange to me. Not to mention the sex involved food in a way that’s sure to cause a yeast infection…
Anyway, this was a disappointing 2 star read for me.
Find out more about how I rate books here.
Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I don’t know, early 2000s Kleypas just hasn’t been doing it for me. This was pretty good. I loved the hero and heroine and their sexual tension but the last chapter just annoyed me. A very late third act miscarriage, not talking for weeks and then reuniting over sex after such trauma, and then food-related oral sex which is sure to cause a yeast infection… I am out.
Book Club Questions
- Explain the relationship dynamic between Amanda and Jack.
- Would you describe this as an age gap romance?
Interested? Buy Suddenly You.
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