Seduce Me at Sunrise, the second in the Hathaway family series
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Spoilers Ahead
It’s amazing to me how much ones tastes change over the years. What is even more
interesting to me is that sometimes those years are not all that long ago. Seduce Me at Sunrise was released in 2008. I was surprised because this story had the feel of an older romance books; it has all the earmarks of something written in the 70s or 80s. Those were the days, my friends, the days when obsessive, dominating, bonehead male “heroes” inhabited the pages of romance novels. The hero in this book, Kev Merripen, reminded me of one of those antiquated romance heroes. As I read this book, I became less and less thrilled with Kev. I know there have been angst-filled, manly-men who I have liked in the not so distant past, but I could not get past Kev’s overbearing behavior. I’m not a big fan of controlling males. There’s a big difference between a man who is responsible, protective, and strong, and the one who has to be in control. In addition, Kev also had the: I’m-not-worthy syndrome.Seduce Me at Sunrise returns us to the crazy Hathaway family, and this time Winifred is the focus. At least, she’s supposed to be. As happened in the first book in the series, our heroine is overpowered by characters that are more dynamic. Leo Hathaway, the drunkard brother is back again, and still eating up the scenes. As I’ve mentioned before, I wasn’t all that fond of Kev. He overwhelmed every scene he was in. At times Winifred seemed as if she was a secondary character.
Kev Merripen has been the Hathaway’s watchdog protector for years. The Hathaway family brought him into their house when he was starving and living on the street. He, like Cam, is of Romany descent. His parentage plays an enormous role in the plotline later in the story. Anyway, when the Hathaway’s were young, they were exposed to Scarlet Fever. Winifred contracted the disease, almost dying in the process. Ever since then, everyone has treated her like an invalid. She’s cosseted, and not allowed to do anything which will drain her of her strength. By the way, Leo’s fiancée succumbed to the disease. Her death is the reason he is a boo-hoo drunk.
Kev and Win have a strong emotional bond, but Kev will never, never, ever act upon that. He loves Win, but he cannot dishonor her. He is not worthy. Win loves Kev, and she has always loved him. She wants him. She has tried and tried to attach him, but he has resisted – strongly. Well, she has had enough. She has heard of a doctor who can work miracles, and she’s going to seek treatment at his clinic. She believes that if she is strong, Kev will not be able to resist her. So, she’s off to Europe for a couple of years. While she is gone, stoic Kev will work, work, work, sweat, sweat, sweat, and moon over Win. Then she returns.
Win returns almost healthy. She is of the opinion she is healthy enough to act upon her hankering for Kev. Kev is still the same old bonehead he was before she left. After numerous attempts, Win starts having doubts she can ever break through the wall Kev has constructed. Enter the little green jealousy bug. Win has also brought her handsome doctor back with her – our eventual villain, Julian Harrow. Julian Harrow seems to be interested in Win, which makes Kev jealous. Of course, he won’t do anything about his jealousy, except act like a moron, throw temper tantrums, and say hurtful things to Win. Kev can’t have her, but he won’t allow anyone else to have her either. He thinks there is something suspicious about the doctor. I never understood what it was about Kev that Win loved.
Nefarious time, or “The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle. The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true.” Spoilers ahead. We have another maniacal villain (Julian); this one is a doctor. His weapon is poison. He wants to poison Kev, but the wrong person ingests it by mistake. I am not sure why the good doctor was trying to poison people. He may not have liked Gypsy/Romany heroes, or maybe he didn’t like Win being in love with Kev, or maybe people had started to suspect he murdered his wife. Nothing made tooooo much sense to me. Anyway, Cam, our hero from the first book accidentally drinks the poison, and the rush to save him is on. There are a zillion characters flying around the countryside trying to save Cam. They are looking for weeds and antidotes. In the end, the ferret Dodger turns out to be the biggest hero. While Dodger is stealing the vial with the poison, drunk-Leo and staid Catherine Marks exchange verbal witticism, Win threatens to burn the villain up, and another Romany spouts wisdom. The villain is caught, and sent to jail. Kev finds out he’s Cam’s brother, a-n-d, he is actually an Earl. Now, he is good enough to marry Win.
Overall, I found Seduce Me at Sunrise to be an irritating book. The hero was tooooo possessive, jealous, stubborn, and obsessive for my taste. Our heroine, Win, was overpowered by all the male testosterone floating around in these pages. And, once again the dramatic threat at the end of the book turned out to be a poor substitute for story development.
The Pellet with the Poison - courtesy The Court Jester, 1956
Time/Place: 1848 England
Sensuality: Warm
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