more reading: Kleypas

I got 2 more Kleypas books - the remainder of the Bow Street Runners series, Lady Sophia's Lover and Worth Any Price.

OK, these were marginally better than the other Kleypas books I read, with Someone to Watch Over Me (the 1st of the Bow St Runners) being the worst. Still, her writing just leaves me cold. I didn't get that interested in the characters, and even her well-crafted love scenes didn't save the story for me. (I think that might have been my first soixante-neuf scene I've read in a romance!) In Worth Any Price, in fact, I rolled my eyes more than a couple of times - for instance, let's see, the evil Lord Radnor and the heroine's misguided (ok, evil) parents. Hmmmmm, the mother says something about how Lord Radnor is going to take his payment from them, and am I the only one who immediately figured out he was going to take the younger sister??? I guess so, since later when - aha! he comes to get the younger sister! - the heroine thinks that she had no idea this would happen. Why not, since it was so obvious? What else could the mother have meant by her comment, especially after rubbing our noses in Younger Sister Existence for a few paragraphs.

I still give them 3 stars out of 5 - even though I liked them marginally better, I wouldn't call them 4 stars, and yet I wouldn't reduce the others to 2 stars (didn't like). Maybe on a scale of 1-10, where 5 is "I liked them ok" I would call the first one a 4, the next few 5, and maybe a 6 for these last 2. On that scale, I would have to really like a book to give it anything 7 or higher. And maybe 8-10 would be potential keepers/re-reads.

I did a re-read of The Lion's Daughter by Loretta Chase. I managed to re-read that series out of order, first Lord of Scoundrels, then Captives of the Night, and then Lion's Daughter. Now there's some books with some finely written characters whose motives fit the plot! I haven't yet gotten the last one in the series; guess I should! I guess re-reading them out of order is ok, since I already know all the characters and such from the first reading. I just had a hankering for Lord of Scoundrels, then when I went through my keeper box for something to read, Captives was on top.

I'm still muddling through the audio of DIA, and I'm on part 3 of 6. I am enjoying listening to it, but not compelled and consumed like I have been in the past, both by the series and by audio books in general. I've been tempted to switch to something else, but then I may not get back to it. I'm up to the part where Jamie comes to find Claire at Fountainebleau with Louise, after his release from the Bastille and return from Spain. They're just getting ready to go on their walk, or picnic, or whatever, where he reveals he knows about her tryst with the king.