Suddenly You, by Lisa Kleypas

I revisited an old favourite last week: Lisa Kleypas' Suddenly You. Most people seem to like her Dreaming of You best of all, but I'm afraid it didn't make much of an impression on me when I read it. Hmm, time for a reread, maybe?

She was unmarried, untouched and almost thirty, but novelist Amanda Briars wasn't about to greet her next birthday without making love to a man. When he appeared at her door, she believed he was her gift to herself, hired for one night of passion. Unforgettably handsome, irresistibly virile, he tempted her in ways she never thought possible...but something stopped him from completely fulfilling her dream.

Jack Devlin's determination to possess Amanda became greater when she discovered his true identity. But gently-bred Amanda craved respectability more than she admitted, while Jack, the cast-off son of a nobleman and London's most notorious businessman, refused to live by society's rules. Yet when fate conspired for them to marry, their worlds collided with a passionate force neither had expected...but both soon craved.

My grade for SY is A-. I've no idea why it resonates so much with me, clichéd plot devices and all, but it does. Maybe because I'm physically similar to Amanda, and of course it would be fantastic to have a guy such as Jack as fascinated with me as Jack was with her! I enjoyed that this wasn't a case of the heroine feeling ugly but actually being a raving beauty. No, Amanda is what could be called a handsome woman, but Jack thinks she's the most beautiful, desirable woman he's ever met.

The love scenes deserve a separate mention. I thought they were really amazing, hot and tender at the same time. I'd have liked to see more of Jack's POV here, but still! Too many of them? It didn't feel that way to me. Probably because they weren't gratuitous scenes, there only to fill up space and titillate the reader, but scenes where the portrayal of the characters and their relationship was furthered.

SY had the exact right amount of plot, and it's a testament to Kleypas' ability that I even enjoyed the pregnancy angle. I even loved the epilogue, usually the most problematic part of books for me (too many sappy scenes with huge broods of children, usually).