Those Crazy Hathaway’s or How to be Nefarious in Five Easy Lessons
https://lisakleypas.com/
Spoilers ahead
Mine Till Midnight is the first in the Hathaway family series by Lisa Kleypas. Lisa Kleypas
happens to be one of my all-time favorite authors. She’s one I can turn to in case of an emergency. Because of the recent spate of lackluster books, I’m declaring an emergency. Thank goodness I have a few old books to turn to during dry spells. But, beware fellow travelers, sometimes those old stories can backfire. My Wayback Machine took me back to 2007, and the introduction of the Hathaway family. The main characters in this story were Cam Rohan and Amelia Hathaway. You may remember Cam from the Wallflower series. He was the Gypsy/Romany majordomo who worked at St. Vincent’s gambling club. He was also the one who kissed Daisy, one of the heroines from the Wallflower series. Time out for a complaint. I know I am not alone in this, but there was a lot of chemistry between Daisy and Cam when that kiss happened. I, like many people were disappointed when Daisy ended up with someone else. I might even have booed. It seems that Ms. Kleypas had other plans for Cam. She was saving him for another series, and this series would connect the Hathaway family with the Wallflower series. Much to my sorrow, she saved him for Amelia Hathaway. It was a bitter pill to swallow. But, did I hold a grudge? Ummmm…..maybe.Even with my disappointment over the not-Daisy heroine, Amelia, and because this was a Lisa Kleypas, I tried to move on. I really did. Alas, as I turned the pages, I was unable to find any chemistry between Amelia and Cam. They just didn’t have any spark. They did not work as a couple. Why? Here’s my theory.
Theory. My biggest issue with this story was that there were just tooooo many characters, and tooooo much time spent setting up their future storylines. All those Hathaway siblings – five of them: Amelia, the bossy one; Leo, the boo-hoo drunk; Beatrix, the one who talks to animals; Winifred, the sick sister who is carried from room to room, and Poppy, the one who steals when she’s nervous. There was the governess, Catherine Marks; the Gypsy Hathaway family protector, grumpy Kev Merripen. There were assorted animals, including a ferret by the name of Dodger. And, there was a ghost (although the ghost didn’t have a speaking part). There were numerous characters from previous books walking through the pages. One of them happened to be Sebastian St. Vincent. You remember Sebastian, a scene-stealer if ever there was one. Authors, be careful when you bring back characters who eat up pages. They can distract from character building. It’s not Sebastian’s fault that he’s bigger than life. And, that was the main issue I had with this book. With such a huge supporting cast clamoring to make their voices heard, is it any wonder that Cam and Amelia were lost in the shuffle. It was a shame. Cam had been such a strong character in the previous books. He had just the right touch of mystery and angst in the previous book. Was it any wonder that we were attracted to him? But, in Mine Till Midnight, he had to compete with two other angst-filled males – Leo and Kev.
Scene-stealers. When there are strong secondary characters in a book, I often have a habit of picking out one who is outstanding, and following that one to the end. Amongst the plethora of characters in this story, Leo was the one I fixated on. He was just so loathsome; so angst-filled. He was just a big, boo-hoo-I-lost-my-love-and-now-I’m-a-drunk-with-a-smart-mouth kind of guy. He was the perfect hero. Out of all the people in this book, he was the one I would remember. He had such a long way to go to climb to the top of the hero-hill. I could hardly wait for Ms. Kleypas to take him in hand.
Nefarious time, or how to add extra filler to pages. Sometimes there are books which combine a great adventure story with a great romance. Sometimes there are books which are character-driven, and they don’t need any escapade to enhance them. This book was neither. Because there were so many characters, none of them had enough space to become fully developed. There was a “danger Will Robinson” gimmick added toward the end which I guess was supposed to make the story work. The nefarious threat came in the form of boo-hoo Leo’s friend. This best friend turns out to be a treasure hunter. He wants the lost jewels, and he wants them now! He becomes a maniac; holds a gun on Amelia and Cam, threatening them with death. In the meantime, Leo’s eyes turn silver because of his ghost-fiancée. The villain turns into a wild-eyed, cartoon-like, bad-guy, waving the gun around, screaming and shouting, his eyes rotating around in his head. Take heart my little Petunia’s, there is no need to worry. Amelia and Cam are saved by a bee-wrangling ghost.
Mine Till Midnight was not my favorite Lisa Kleypas.
Time/Place: England 1848
Sensuality: Warm
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