carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I loved this book! I have been a huge fan of Lisa Kleypas for a long time but for some reason I haven't read a lot of her work during the past few years. I can see now that this has been a big mistake on my part and that I should have made time for the Ravenels series because this was oh so good. I loved it on the first page, the last page, and all the pages in between.

The characters in this book were amazing. Dr. Garrett Gibson was such a refreshing character. She was willing to do what made her happy instead of what society expected of her. Can you even imagine the guts it would take to be the only female doctor in England? Garrett had the toughness needed to excel in her profession. Ethan Ransom was so easy to like. He started out as a bit of a mystery and worked to help keep Garrett safe. The more we learned about Ransom the more that I liked him.

Garrett and Ethan were wonderful together. I love that we get to see them with each other at the start of the book and the chemistry is there from the start. It only grows stronger as the book progresses. Ethan quickly showed that he is a romantic at heart and his words had me swooning quite a few times. While the chemistry between them was off the charts, they also really showed a lot of respect for each other and just seemed to enjoy being in each other's company. These two just belonged with each other.

There are some pretty exciting moments in the story. I did worry about how things would work out for a little while. There are some pretty serious nail biting moments in this book and a few characters that seemed to make the perfect villain since they were easy to hate. There are also some really lovable secondary characters in this book. I haven't read the other books in the series so I am not sure if West has played a large role in the other stories or not but I loved him. Just as Ethan had the ability to make me swoon, West often made me laugh. I really hope West gets his own book very soon.

I highly recommend this book to others. This book had all of the elements that I hope for when I pick up a romance with a fantastic plot, amazing characters, off the chart chemistry, a few laughs, and moments that melted my heart. The only thing about the book that I am not sure that I like is the cover. I think that the cover is very pretty but it looks way too modern for the story. I can deal with a cover that I am not sure about because watching Garrett and Ethan find their happily ever after was a wonderful reading experience. I am definitely going to be reading the other books in the series very soon.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from HarperCollins - Avon.

Initial Thoughts
It has been way too long since I read a Lisa Kleypas book. Seriously, why have I not made time for her books lately? This book had so much going for it. I had absolutely no trouble jumping into this series with this book. I loved the main characters and thought that they were amazing characters. And West! He seemed to be there when needed and kept everything fun. There were intense scenes, swoony scenes, funny scenes, and scenes that will make you wish you had a fan. This was a 4.5 star read for me so I am rounding up for now.