Hathaway family...farewell
Spoilers ahead
https://lisakleypas.com/
Have you noticed that these reviews are getting shorter? Anyway, on to Love in the
Afternoon, the fifth in the Hathaway series and it’s Beatrix’s turn. I will say right up front, portions of the story are based on the play Cyrano de Bergerac. Cyrano has never been one of my favorite plays/movies. I’ve always had a problem with people pretending to be other people. The other issue I have with Cyrano is that it implies that you have to be physically beautiful to be worthy of another person’s love. For me, that sends out the wrong message. On to Beatrix and her hero Christopher.Beatrix can talk to animals. She runs around through the woods, climbs trees, doesn’t wear shoes, splashes in water, and says hello to fish – she’s a Snow White kind of gal. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho. All the animals in the world love her, because she’s just so…nice. I was puzzled because she’s so wonderful, and everyone loves her, and the animals love her, and she’s so wise, gentle, and knows alllllll – but, she can’t see what an obnoxious friend she has in a young woman by the name of Prudence. Prudence is a very selfish, nasty, piece of work. I never understood what Beatrix and Prudence had in common, but oh well, maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, Prudence is the belle of the ball; she has scads of men just tripping over her bosom. One of those men is Christopher. Christopher goes off to war, and he’s having all kinds of problems. Evidently, war isn’t the picnic he thought it would be. He has written a letter to Prudence, the woman who he luvs. Prudence doesn’t have time to respond, so she passes the job on to Beatrix. Beatrix writes to Christopher, pretending to be Prudence. Christopher and Beatrix begin a correspondence. Beatrix signs all of her letters using Prudence’s name. Christopher falls more in love with the Prudence in the letters, never knowing that it is Beatrix. As you might guess, this turns into all kinds of future problems. Besides the letter deception, there is also a back history of Beatrix and Christopher. They were part of the same social circle, and Christopher had some rather unkind things to say about Beatrix. The correspondence set-up has tons of tension because we all know that Christopher will eventually find out, we just don’t know when.
And, he does. I actually liked the way he found out that Beatrix was the letter writer. He was also smart enough to be puzzled about the difference he sees between the letter writing Prudence, and, the flesh and blood Prudence. When it dawns on him what has been going on, he is a tad bit upset. However, Ms. Kleypas doesn’t string out the I’m-mad-at-you-for-lying moment too long. Then the story shifts to working out the relationship, and Beatrix trying to bring some peace to a war-traumatized Christopher.
Nefarious where did that come from? This moment came out-of-the-blue and once again was not needed. Anyway, Christopher thought one of his buddies was killed in the war. He blamed himself for his friends death. We all know that heroes are never to blame. Surprise, surprise, surprise! Christopher’s friend wasn’t dead. However, his friend has become unhinged; he blames Christopher for leaving him behind. He tries to murder Christopher. He becomes a raving maniac, and like all of the other villains in the series, his reaction is overly dramatic. Beatrix to the rescue. We all know that Beatrix is able to quiet raging animals. It seems that she can also do the same trick with maniacal men. She saves the day. But there was even more. Not only do we have a senseless nefarious instance, we also have an OMG moment. Evidently, it’s okay to act as cupid between ones lovely sister-in-law and ones maniac friend. Yes, Beatrix can cure anything! Even turn an attempted murderer into a loving husband. I was flabbergasted. I repeat, this guy tried to kill Christopher! Now he’s alllll cured, and was deemed suitable as the love interest for a woman. I hope she knows how to sleep with her eyes open.
Overall, Love in the Afternoon had a great heroine, and a nice hero. I liked the first part of the story, but Ms. Kleypas couldn’t keep the gentle momentum going to the end, and then she threw in another Nefarious moment.
What can I say? Except for Married by Morning, and most of Love in the Afternoon, the Hathaway family series was a disappointment to me.
Time/Place: 1855 England
Sensuality: Warm/Hot
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