Recent Read

Tempt Me At Twilight by Lisa Kleypas

Why This One: I adore Lisa Kleypas and her books and read every one.

Steam Level: Oh this one is nice and steamy.

Blurb: Poppy Hathaway loves her unconventional family, though she longs for normalcy. Then fate leads to a meeting with Harry Rutledge, an enigmatic hotel owner and inventor with wealth, power, and a dangerous hidden life. When their flirtation compromises her own reputation, Poppy shocks everyone by accepting his proposal -- only to find that her new husband offers his passion, but not his trust.
Harry was willing to do anything to win Poppy -- except to open his heart. All his life, he has held the world at arm's length...but the sharp, beguiling Poppy demands to be his wife in every way that matters. Still, as desire grows between them, an enemy lurks in the shadows. Now if Harry wants to keep Poppy by his side, he must forge a true union of

body and soul, once and for all...

My Thoughts: I've loved all the books in this series and I LOVED this book too!! I like it much better than the Wallflower Series - not that I didn't enjoy them. B

ut the Hathaways are such a darn fun family to get to know. They are unconventional and although they are nobility, it's a recent happenstance and they don't really care if they fit in or not.
Poppy, the third sister is a bit different though. Sh

e wants a settled life and thinks she has found just the right guy. But then she runs into Harry Rutledge and he decides he wants her for himself.

I love the kind of hero Harry is; somewhat repressed and unaware where his feelings are concerned and unable to express them. He wants Poppy at any cost and will do whatever it takes to get her. He doesn't really know why he wants her so bad and I find that adorable since we, the reader, know it's her intelligence, her uniqueness and he

r lack of game playing that makes her so attractive to him.

I've read other reviews where the reviewer questions what Harry sees in Poppy and vice versa but it was very obvious to me right from the beginning. From the first moment when Harry really notices Poppy, she is unlike anyone he's ever met before and he is captivated right away.

And on Poppy's side, although she seems to want a nice, easy life and thinks she will get that with Michael, the truth is he's really just a wuzz. Poppy has had examples of strong men in her life with both Cam and Merripen. Harry is the same type, going after what he wants. Although she is horrified at his perfidy, he really does need her and she recognizes this fairly early. Which brings me to Poppy. She also is the type of heroine that I love. She's intelligent, sure of herself and most important of all, she can laugh at herself and at her family foibles. I love a heroine (or hero) who doesn't take themselves too seriously and such is the case with Poppy.

And I really felt the chemistry between these two. It really was a case of opposites attracts. I can tell when I've really enjoyed a book and when finished have to go back and read it again. Such is the case with Tempt Me At Twilight. I tried to move on to another book, but then realized that I wasn't done with this one yet - I needed to go back and read it again, to savour it if you will. I loved Harry and Poppy and all the secondary characters.

Just for the heck of it, I went on Amazon and read some of the reviews there and sometimes readers amuse/amaze me. There were a few complaints that some readers were disappointed that this wasn't Leo's book. Me - I'm fine with whatever Ms. Kleypas writes. I've learned over the years to trust her as an author. I may enjoy some of her books more than others - but I have enjoyed just about every one, and this more than many.

Grade: 4.75 out of 5

This one gets the cat thumbs up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And by the fact that I'm here, you can see I'm back. In the five years I've been blogging, I haven't been away this long. So I feel a bit of explanation is in order. I'll try to make it brief yet vague yet make sense :-)

I had me a situation at work - something I've never gone through before. While I have a quality or two that could be considered good - being organized isn't one of them. This lack of organization came back to bite me in butt at my place of employment. Because of this I've been subject to some disciplinary action that I've had a good deal of trouble dealing with. I disagreed completely with what happened and as a result, I've been one bitter and angry and depressed person lately. In addition, it seems a fellow employee or two went to my supervisor with complaints against me - things were said that simply weren't true and I took that very hard. Believe me when I say that Kristie and Krisite had many a battle going on how to deal with the situation. I withdrew at work and I withdrew at home and worst of all - I withdrew from blogging!!!

But I realized the other day and it's still been circling around in my brain, that the person who was being hurt most of all was myself.

While I still think the situation was taken further than it should have, in a case of being totally honest with myself, I did need a kick - and a good one. That kick wasn't pleasant and it wasn't comfortable, but I have made some drastic changes and I have learned from it.

As far as my co-workers go, I was told that they like me so much they didn't feel comfortable coming to me. I'm not sure I buy that but I'll go along with it. And there might have been something lost in translation between what was said about me and what was said to me about what was said about me. I'm still hurt and less trusting, but I have to go back to being 'me' again. And that means letting go of the feelings of betrayal I've been living with.

So - I think the blog break time is over and I'm very, very happy about that.