Married by Morning by Lisa Kleypas. Historical Romance.
Romance novels are a lot like supermarket pudding cups. They aren’t necessarily the highest quality products in the world but they go down smooth, are nicely satisfying and I can slam down way too many while drinking red wine in the bath on a Saturday night.
Married by Morning is the fourth in a series about the Hathaway family. After a series of family tragedies including the deaths of their parents, the siblings – four sisters and one brother – are surprised when a title devolves onto the son. As a viscount, he has the resources to become completely dissipated and proceeds to become a womanizer and opium addict.
Leo Hathway, Viscount Ramsay, is content to while his life away. Three of his sisters are married to wealthy, dependable men. He has enough money to live comfortably and doesn’t have to work particularly hard to manage his estate as his brothers in law are happy to do it for him. Unfortunately, Leo needs to marry and produce a legitimate heir within a year or his family’s home will be awarded the wife of the late Lord Ramsay.
Leo has been engaged in a flirtation with Catherine Mark, his younger sister’s chaperone and governess. Cat and Leo constantly bait and insult each other. When they aren’t doing that they are passionately embracing, their constant conflict masking intense mutual attraction. Leo needs a wife but Cat is hiding a damaging secret from her difficult past. Can Leo learn to love? Can Cat recover from her incredibly abusive childhood? While they are figuring this out readers get to visit with all their favorite Hathaways including Beatrix, the youngest sister who has a pet ferret and a penchant for stealing things when she’s stressed out.
Kleypas does not write the most original or inspiring romance novels. Her work is heavily formulaic. Their great strength lies is presenting engaging and believable family relationships. I read this book and will read all of the novels about the Hathaways. It is not that I am particularly concerned with any single one of them but that I am concerned with the fate and happiness of the family as a whole.
This is a light read that doesn’t tax the intellect. It’s a little bon-bon of a read for a summer afternoon.
-fh