Lisa Kleypas's Hathaways Series of romance novels

Last week while my husband was out of town, I sat myself down and read a book a day for three days. It was crazy. And lovely. I chose to finish up the Hathaway series of romance novels by Lisa Kleypas.

There are five Hathaway novels, to be read in this order:

1. Mine Till Midnight (my thoughts here)
2. Seduce Me at Sunrise (my thoughts here)
3. Tempt Me at Twilight
4. Married by Morning
5. Love in the Afternoon

I recommend that you try to read them in order, if for no other reason than to see how the men come to interact with each other. 

Now that that's out of the way, what about these three?

Tempt Me at Twilight is the story of Poppy Hathaway and hotelier Harry Rutledge. Poppy, like all the Hathaways, is intelligent and unusual and at the end of her third season is still unmarried. She has secretly fallen in love and finds that all in uproar when a ferret steals her love letter. Harry discovered said letter, and Poppy, and decides he has to have her.  So. Harry is kinda a jerk at the beginning, albeit a smart and sexy one, and you really wonder if he's going to be able to overcome it. Poppy is just perfect, of course. It's ok, as romance novels go, but not one of my favorites. The entire book takes place over about a month, and it's just too fast for both the falling in love and for Harry to overcome his own person issues. Harry isn't a peer and has made his own money, and of course the Hathaways are a bit unusual, so it's not the typical romance.  Additionally, there is a bit of unnecessary drama at the end that could have been left out altogether.

Married by Morning is Leo's story. Leo is the only brother in the Hathaways series, and he really reforms over the course of the four books, from complete reprobate to respectable gentleman. In his defense, he had a good reason for falling off the deep end, so you always kinda like him. Leo finds himself inexplicably falling in love with his younger sister's companion, who he has always fought with and who, of course, has a secret. Married by Morning is a variation on my favorite plot (friends turned lovers) and as such, I loved it. Leo steps up and takes care of Catherine and the scene at the inn is one of my favorites in a long time. Catherine holds onto her fears a wee bit too long, but I'm looking at it from the prospective of 2012, not the time she lived in.

Love in the Afternoon is the most different from the others, as it takes place at the Hathaways estate in the country. Beatrix is the most free spirited of the Hathaway girls. She prefers to be outdoors in the woods and she adopts every special needs animal she finds. When a shallow friend of hers refuses to write letters to Captain Phelan, whom Beatrix can tell is wounded inside, she steps in and writes the letters, and signs them from Prudence.  Of course they fall in love! But Bea is a real weirdo (for her times) and she can't admit it was her because it would shame Phelan to know that he fell for her. Captain Phelan is, understandably, hurt and angry by the deception, but then, suddenly (too suddenly?) he is over it and they are in love.  There are still problems but of course they overcome. As with Tempt Me at Twilight, there is a bit of "extra" baggage near the end that was completely unneeded.

Taken as a whole, a very good series. My memory of the first two is a bit hazy, but I loved the family interactions, and in particular the way all the men relate to each other. I would enjoy nothing more than having dinner with the Hathaway family. Kleypas does write a bit more sex in her books than Julie Quinn, but otherwise I'd suggest them to the anyone who enjoys Quinn.