Helpful Score: 13
What do you do when your heroine ends up married to the villain? Well, if your author can't build tension between a mismatched couple any better than Lisa Kleypas did in Tempt Me at Twilight, I'd say chuck it & start again with a new premise. It clearly didn't work here. I had high hopes for this third installment in the Hathaways series and I'm supremely annoyed that it ended up being about as exciting as watching grass grow. The premise of this story should have been a walk in the park for Kleypas. After all, look what she did with an established villain in Devil In Winter.
Harry Rutledge, the handsome and mysterious owner of the Rutledge Hotel - the Hathaway clan's home away from home during the London season - is certainly "handsome & mysterious" enough to make for an intriguing antihero (i.e. "sympathetic despite his rejection of virtue"). Sadly, Kleypas decided to pair him up with Poppy Hathaway, which in and of itself shouldn't necessarily present a problem, had she done a bit more character development with Poppy prior to the girl you see in this book. I went into Tempt Me at Twilight with no real sense of Poppy, except as a secondary character, younger sister to the heroines in the two previous stories. Kleypas never sets her up as heroine material prior to this book, and she never actually develops her into a full fledged heroine in this story either.
The opening scene with Harry and Poppy does show a good bit of promise. It's a great scene and they appear to have some great chemistry. He wants her. He has to have her, whatever it takes, and he's willing to be ruthless in his pursuit, even to the point of sabotaging a budding romance and *possible* impending marriage between Poppy and her young stylized "hero", Michael Bayning. Taking unfair advantage of a golden opportunity, Harry throws a pretty big obstacle in Michael's way, and when forced to make a choice between doing whatever it takes to have Poppy - as Harry is well prepared to do - Michael opts to tuck tail and run. Harry then proposes that Poppy marry him instead, after deliberately putting her in a compromising position, mostly because he knows she'll run back home to Hampshire if he doesn't do something quickly.
Poppy agrees to marry Harry, and then Michael shows up at the wedding, finally resolved to fight for her (but only so hard), and carrying tales on Harry & his role in breaking up their courtship. Poppy decides to send Michael on his way and go ahead with the wedding, but she's resolved to teach Harry a lesson for manipulating her and spoiling her HEA.
All things considered, it's not a great premise to work with, but I think it's one that can be done, and given Kleypas' past track record in working with less than perfect heroes, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect her to rise to the occasion here. This kind of story line, however (IMO) really called for a great deal more character development than she put into this heroine. I think this is where this story failed; Poppy just wasn't interesting, Kleypas doused the chemistry between Harry and Poppy with cold water, literally at the altar, and then just never quite re-established it until ten chapters later. There are no close calls, no kissing & clenches, and no real tension building in the interim. They make one stab at fully consummating the marriage and it's basically a disaster, and then Poppy packs her bags and runs back home to Hampshire. I was literally gritting my teeth for several chapters, just waiting for this to happen anyway, yet hoping against hope that Kleypas wasn't actually going to write it that way. I should have known better.
To be fair, once Harry and Poppy get away from London and the Rutledge, their romance gets back on track and becomes interesting reading once again. It's just a shame, IMO, that you have to suffer through ten chapters of so-so before you get to it. I started to enjoy it after Chapter 21, and this continued on until Kleypas decides to throw in a silly little external conflict in the final chapter that didn't serve any discernible purpose beyond padding out the word count. My overall impression of Tempt Me at Twilight is that on its own merit, there's some promise, but none of it really comes to much. It's certainly required reading if you're following this series, if for no other reason, than to keep up with the ongoing saga of Leo and Miss Marks, but it's not nearly as good as the two previous books.
Grade C+
Sensuality Rating: R
Harry Rutledge, the handsome and mysterious owner of the Rutledge Hotel - the Hathaway clan's home away from home during the London season - is certainly "handsome & mysterious" enough to make for an intriguing antihero (i.e. "sympathetic despite his rejection of virtue"). Sadly, Kleypas decided to pair him up with Poppy Hathaway, which in and of itself shouldn't necessarily present a problem, had she done a bit more character development with Poppy prior to the girl you see in this book. I went into Tempt Me at Twilight with no real sense of Poppy, except as a secondary character, younger sister to the heroines in the two previous stories. Kleypas never sets her up as heroine material prior to this book, and she never actually develops her into a full fledged heroine in this story either.
The opening scene with Harry and Poppy does show a good bit of promise. It's a great scene and they appear to have some great chemistry. He wants her. He has to have her, whatever it takes, and he's willing to be ruthless in his pursuit, even to the point of sabotaging a budding romance and *possible* impending marriage between Poppy and her young stylized "hero", Michael Bayning. Taking unfair advantage of a golden opportunity, Harry throws a pretty big obstacle in Michael's way, and when forced to make a choice between doing whatever it takes to have Poppy - as Harry is well prepared to do - Michael opts to tuck tail and run. Harry then proposes that Poppy marry him instead, after deliberately putting her in a compromising position, mostly because he knows she'll run back home to Hampshire if he doesn't do something quickly.
Poppy agrees to marry Harry, and then Michael shows up at the wedding, finally resolved to fight for her (but only so hard), and carrying tales on Harry & his role in breaking up their courtship. Poppy decides to send Michael on his way and go ahead with the wedding, but she's resolved to teach Harry a lesson for manipulating her and spoiling her HEA.
All things considered, it's not a great premise to work with, but I think it's one that can be done, and given Kleypas' past track record in working with less than perfect heroes, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect her to rise to the occasion here. This kind of story line, however (IMO) really called for a great deal more character development than she put into this heroine. I think this is where this story failed; Poppy just wasn't interesting, Kleypas doused the chemistry between Harry and Poppy with cold water, literally at the altar, and then just never quite re-established it until ten chapters later. There are no close calls, no kissing & clenches, and no real tension building in the interim. They make one stab at fully consummating the marriage and it's basically a disaster, and then Poppy packs her bags and runs back home to Hampshire. I was literally gritting my teeth for several chapters, just waiting for this to happen anyway, yet hoping against hope that Kleypas wasn't actually going to write it that way. I should have known better.
To be fair, once Harry and Poppy get away from London and the Rutledge, their romance gets back on track and becomes interesting reading once again. It's just a shame, IMO, that you have to suffer through ten chapters of so-so before you get to it. I started to enjoy it after Chapter 21, and this continued on until Kleypas decides to throw in a silly little external conflict in the final chapter that didn't serve any discernible purpose beyond padding out the word count. My overall impression of Tempt Me at Twilight is that on its own merit, there's some promise, but none of it really comes to much. It's certainly required reading if you're following this series, if for no other reason, than to keep up with the ongoing saga of Leo and Miss Marks, but it's not nearly as good as the two previous books.
Grade C+
Sensuality Rating: R
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