SBD: Blue Eyed Devil

[jmc_bks]

Belated semi-review for my SBD

Blue Eyed Devil
Author: Lisa Kleypas
Copyright: 2008
Second of a series? A series of two?
POV: 1st person

Observation: only Sugar Daddy is listed as Kleypas's other books on the flyleaf. Different publisher? Or just ignoring her prodigious backlist? Marketing toward a different reader since this is a contemporary hard back, rather than a mass market paperback historical?

MEET THE BLUE-EYED DEVIL

His name is Hardy Cates. He’s a self-made millionaire who comes from the wrong side of the tracks. He’s made enemies in the rough-and-tumble ride to the top of Houston’s oil industry. He’s got hot blood in his veins. And vengeance on his mind.

MEET THE HEIRESS

She’s Haven Travis. Despite her family’s money, she refuses to set out on the path they’ve chosen for her. But when Haven marries a man her family disapproves of, her life is set on a new and dangerous course. Two years later, Haven comes home, determined to guard her heart. And Hardy Cates, a family enemy, is the last person she needs darkening her door or setting her soul on fire.

WATCH THE SPARKS FLY. . . .

Filled with Lisa Kleypas’s trademark sensuality, filled with characters you love to hate and men you love to love, Blue-Eyed Devil will hold you captive in its storytelling power as the destiny of two people unfolds with every magical word.

I liked Sugar Daddy until the end, when I felt like LK took a short cut and removed the difficult choice for Liberty (the heroine) by villifying Hardy Cates. At the time, I SBD'd about over-villification and the villain redeemed as hero in a subsequent book. Here's the thing -- LK never really redeemed Hardy in Blue Eyed Devil. He apologized and is sort of forgiven, but there's no demonstration of any significant character change. The drive that pushed him to be "bad" at the end of the first book hadn't disappeared; indeed, it is still in evidence.

All of the other characters point out to Haven that Hardy (huh, Hardy and Haven, how alliterative) is sort of twisted and something of a chameleon and a man with an agenda. It didn't seem to me, as a reader, that the agenda was ever revealed or the twistyness resolved. Was it all in pursuit of Haven? Am I supposed to assume that's the case?

And the heroine...predictable. She didn't learn from her mistakes, didn't stand up for herself. Mommy and daddy issues, blah, how very overused.

Having said all of this, the book was not bad. It just wasn't for me. C+

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

YAY!!! Someone else who didn't just LOVE This book! I really liked Sugar Daddy but didn't care for BE-D too much. This is one of the first less than stellar reviews (besides mine) that I've seen! So glad I'm not alone!!!!!!

-Mollie
http://biblioharlot.wordpress.com

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

You aren't alone! It wasn't that this was a bad book...it was just ~meh~. I think that it takes very careful storytelling in 1st POV to make a hero heroic, and LK didn't succeed (for me) in BED.