If you have read the Hathaway series, you will be excited to read Beatrix, the lovable little clepto’s story. If not, you can still jump right in to Love in the Afternoon without too much confusion.
Beatrix has grown up and is still living at home; more comfortable with animals than people, she has resigned herself not unhappily to spinsterhood. Perhaps it is this gentleness of character that makes her make a foolish mistake. For Beatrix has been playing Cyrano to her friend’s Roxanne. Roxanne in this story is the neighborhood catch, Captain Phelan, who is off at war. Handsome, sweet and smitten with Beatrix’s friend, Phelan thinks B.’s letters are from his lady love back home.
This book is well written, funny, touching and at times heart wrenching. Kleypas really digs in to PTSD with our returning hero in a way that offers readers real insight. She also weaves the love story so that it is not only exciting but believable.
Kleypas is a strong hist-ro writer, and Love in the Afternoon is the pudding of proof. We get treated to a little bit of everything: love, sex, drama, and human behavior. Yet unlike romances that fall flat, the small tastes compliment each other–blending together in a wonderful meal of historical romance (geez, I must be hungry!)
Highly recommended read for Kleypas followers and Kleypas newbies alike.
