Still today, a full ★★★★★!!!

A GoodReads friend, Amanda, just asked me if Kleypas’ Gamblers series was as good as the Wallflowers series. All I could do was answer with a rhetorical question: Is any series as good as the Wallflowers? However, this book is the best in this series, IMHO, though some people will surely disagree. And they are almost right, as the first in the series, Then Came You, is a close second. Dreaming of You’s Derek Craven has his own fan club in W♥LK group’s Hero Threads: Craving Craven , and I voted for this book on listopia’s “Favorite Dukeless Historical Romances”; while I placed it forth on the list, it ranks as number one overall by voters.

This was a re-read for me and I was perplexed as to why it took me over fifteen years to do so when GoodReads reviewer, Bekah, came to it in her “Bekah’s 2011 I Love Lisa Kleypas Journey”. After a frantic search, I realized I must have loaned out my copy. Never again!

It says a lot that, though it is available at my library or on various second-hand bookstore sites, I purchased a brand-spanking-new copy. (Ahhhh…the relief of smelling a new book in my hand.) For this story still holds up after all these years. However, I must point out that I do wish I had re-read Then Came You first as there is a lot of background on Craven there. Plus, the H/H in that one, Lord Alex Raiford and the now Lady Lily Lawson Raiford, have more than walk-on parts in this one.

Kleypas writes such great characters. The heroine, Sara Fielding is not just your average spectacle-wearing country mouse. Sara is a famous novelist; the fact that hardly anyone believes that her infamous heroine Mathilda doesn’t exist is pretty tongue-in-cheek for me as I have a difficult time believing Kleypas’ heroes, too, are imaginary! **cough, cough - Jack Travis**

Our hero, Derek Craven, is darkly delicious as written; a self-made-man, or “Flash Gentry” – as he is referred by both rich and poor – he is splendidly swoon-worthy. He owns an opulent gambling club and he slips into his cockney slang when he is brutally injured or stressed. And he is maliciously disfigured by page four, when Sara steps forward to save him. She is soon constantly around his club doing “research” for her next book and creeping into his heart. He resists the attraction; though it is not apparent to him, it is a dead-giveaway to me when he secretly palms her extra pair of spectacles to keep (view spoiler)[on his person! **sigh** And she finds them on him later in the story. (hide spoiler)].

The secondary characters, from Monsieur Labarge, the French chef, to Tabitha, a whore at Craven’s club, are well written; I especially liked Derek’s arch-nemesis, Ivo Jenner. Oh the arch-villain is obvious from the start…but I didn’t care as Kleypas added a twisted emotional depth that made them scarily believable.

Best scene/quote (IMHO), page 163:

She felt him tremble with the force of his need. He spoke just beneath her ear, his voice thick with tormented pleasure. "You have to leave, Sara ... because I want to hold you like this until your skin melts into mine. I want you in my bed, the smell of you on my sheets, your hair spread across my pillow. I want to take your innocence. God! I want to ruin you for anyone else."

All in all, a GoodRead!


**Photo taken from blog site: Regency Ramble