Lady Sophia's Lover by Lisa Kleypas, #review

Pages -  384 pages
Original -  Avon, 2002
Publisher -  HarperCollins e-books
Published -  October 13, 2009
Kindle -  link
Genre -  Regency Romance
Series -  Book 2, Bow Street Runners
Language -  mild
Sexual Content -  4:5

SYNOPSIS

Lady Sophia Sydney would do anything to ensnare the unattainable Sir Ross Cannon. Her goal: to ruin his reputation and cause a scandal that would be the talk of all London. So she insinuates herself into his life by gaining his trust and living in his house.

Every morning, her lush presence tempts him beyond all reason...the way she bends over the table to serve him the meals she has prepared...the way her hands oh, so gently—yet sensuously—brush against him. Every night, she promises with her eyes—and her body— that the hours before dawn could be spent in unbridled passion instead of restless sleep—if only he'd let her share his bed.

She knows he is falling more in love with her each day. But she never counted on falling in love with him. And she never dreamed he might very respectably ask for her hand in marriage.

REVIEW

The second novel in the Bow Street Runners series, this is Ross Cannon's love story and it is a good one.

149 Amazon reviews, and 49 were 3 or less stars, but that is misleading because some of the 3-star reviews were positive.

Silly, stupid reviewers, eh?

Anyway, I became intrigued by Ross in the first book and couldn't wait to read his love story in this 2nd installment.

This is the third time I've read the entire series, though, and am still captivated by the whole Bow Street Runner backdrop and the interesting, hardened men who worked the streets capturing criminals back in the day.

Sir Ross is nobility but learned as well, having studied law prior to embarking on the idea of creating a team of runners to help curb a lot of the misdeeds occurring on London streets.

He's an older chap (nearing 40) and a widower as well, which makes for an interesting and unexpected H in any regency novel.

He's married to his work and there are unflattering nick-names attached to him due to his lack of a social life and the simple fact that no one has seen him in the company of a woman since his wife's death in childbirth.

Then Lady Sophia enters the office and easily charms the dumbstruck work-a-holic into hiring her as his assistant.

She also ends up occupying a room inside his house next to the office, where she takes over the kitchen and helps the other servants with day-to-day chores.

Her goal is to seduce Sir Ross so that she can then destroy him publicly.

Her vendetta stems from the loss of a younger brother, whom Sir Ross had sent to The Hulk when he was just a young teen.

Although a Lady, Sophia and John lost their parents early in life and soon ended up on the streets before an aunt took Sophia in and John ran away.

Sophia learned lady-like things but also worked to support herself later in life.

Also with the single-minded purpose of making her way to London and Bow Street in order to execute her well thought out plan for revenge.

Ross, on the other hand, is a changed man once Sophia arrives, but he also manages to maintain and access a lot of the police and detective know-how when studying the beautiful, young woman who seems determined to seduce him.

The Earl turns out to be the most romantic and love-sick of the three men in this series, which is cute and somewhat believable after everything he's been through.

The last thing I wanted was for him to have to suffer anymore, so it relieved me when Sophia soon discovered the same thing: that Ross Cannon was worth getting to know better and not quite as horrible or heartless as she had suspected.

But, she's still grieving the loss of her poor, four-year younger brother and needs to champion her late brother's cause: a seemingly inexcusable punishment that resulted in his untimely death.

Eventually, Ross figures her out at about the same time Sophia is ready to wave the white flag, and together they set out to make the wrong into a right.

John Sidney isn't dead, and Nick Gentry is very much alive.

Again, my only issue with these novels is the mechanical sex scenes that appear in every Kleypas novel with little to no variation or imagination.

The wording is too graphic and vulgar for my taste.

Bow Street Runner series