Format: Paperback
Read with: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Series: Travises, Book 2
Hero: Hardy Cates
Heroine: Haven Travis
First Published on: March 25, 2008
Started On: August 16, 2009
Finished On: August 17, 2009

Yep, I have been bitten by the Lisa Kleypas bug that’s been going round! I guess it’s been going round only in the areas that I tend to move around.  But ladies, if you do start reading this fascinating novel, I assure you that you wouldn’t want to put it down and miss even one delicious bit of the novel. I think this is the second contemporary romance that this author has written. And unlike other authors who tend to mess things up by foraying into contemporary romance after writing historicals, I would say that Kleypas has clinched the deal well. Although I am not much of a fan for stories written in the first person, I would say that this novel didn’t present any such difficulties when reading.

Although I never read the first book in this series of sorts, Sugar Daddy, which I aim to rectify asap, Kleypas doesn’t make it too difficult to understand the Travis’s (heroines) family and the conflicts as well as the complex relationships within. Hardy the hero, too was first introduced in Sugar Daddy, when he won a business deal that could have benefited Travis’s family business. Hardy grew up in the slums, with an abusive father who was in and out of jail during his childhood. Growing up, wanting to be something more, he worked from the ground up to become a self-made millionaire whereas Haven grew up in the luxurious lap of family money. However, all was not roses in Haven’s life. Haven gets married to her first boyfriend Nick against her father’s wishes who cuts her off his will reasoning that Nick was only after her money. Haven moves to Dallas with her husband Nick who turns out to be a narcissist, who abuses her emotionally and at last physically throughout the marriage, until at last Haven leaves him.

Getting a divorce and moving on seems harder than Haven thought after the abusive relationship she had gone through. Then she meets Hardy once again, whom she had met at Greg (Haven’s brother) and Liberties wedding where Haven had accidentally made out with Hardy mistaking him for Nick in the wine cellar at her home. Fate brings these two people together again and both struggle with the demons of their past to conquer the feelings that they have for one another and at long last find love that could last forever.

This ain’t just a love story. This book details the horrifying circumstances a woman has to face in an abusive relationship and the strength and love it requires to overcome such scars in life. I believe that Kleypas has done a splendid job with this story. I will try and get my hands on the 1st and 3rd book in this ‘series’ and write down a review as soon as I can.

Sadly, there is only one more unread Kleypas novel in my collection at the moment. Better sink my teeth into it!

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