Some random bits of info - the book is written in first person...so if this is not your thing, be warned. We meet our narrator, Liberty Jones, as a 13 year-old and follow her life's ups and downs (mostly downs) until she is 25 or so. Time for another warning - this is a slow moving book. She is a teenager until well past the halfway mark. Liberty has a whole different vibe than Lisa's historical heroines. I can't put my finger on it, exactly..she is just so good and earnest from the beginning to the end of the book. There aren't big life changing realizations for her along the way...she's basically the same all the way through. One last warning, if you expect to see a lot of development in the relationship between Liberty and her hero (no spoilers here), you'll be disappointed. There is development just not a lot.
I think the biggest surprise with Sugar Daddy was how Women's Fiction-y it seemed, as opposed to Romance-ish. And I think that will be the hurdle fans of Lisa's historicals will have to get past to enjoy her contemporaries (if she continues to write them in a similar vein).
So, finally...was Sugar Daddy what I expected? No. Did I like it? Yes, after I got used to the different feel. Will I buy her next contemporary in hard cover? Maybe. Am I excited about Cam's book coming out this fall? OH YEAH! ;-)
Labels: 2 cents, book stuff
I'm with Cindy on this. I was holding off until getting feedback from other bloggers and wow this doesn't sound like my cup o' tea. I loved Devil in Winter but the rest in that series were so-so. It is so frustrating to see favorite romance writers go in a different direction (i.e. Proctor). Thanks for reviewing this.
Thanks so much for reviewing this book. I am holding off on this book because 1-I don't like first person 2-I don't like love triangles and 3-I don't like chick-lit....but I do love Kleypas. Thanks to your comments I've decided to order it at the library and wait. I may end up loving it, but I can wait to find out if I do.
Ah, my little cyber-peeps...you make me feel all warm and fuzzy! LOL I figured since I found the book early, I should put out the word for the folks who were on the fence about this one.
Cindy - books with too much sex??? Let me at 'em!! ;-) My faves of Lisa's books: Dreaming of You, Lady Sophia's Lover and Stranger in My Arms (most people didn't care for it as much as I did).
Renee - hopefully she is still finding her direction for the contemporary biz. I think this might be too big a departure for fans of her historicals but maybe she will adjust course for the next one.
Nikki - yup, I'm not a big fan of the first person thing. Sometimes it works (the Stephanie Plum books, the In Death series) but I prefer knowing what's going on in more than just one head. :o) After you read it, let me know what you thought.
At 8:31 PM, 
Kristie (J)
I think I'll be skipping this one and waiting for Cam's book. It's not that I'm opposed to first person, and the fact that she's moved onto contemps doesn't bother me. But I'm just not into a book where half the story is told from a teenagers perspective and it does sound way to "women's fiction", a genre I don't care for to me.
Kristie - I so agree on the whole Women's Fiction thing...I don't care for it. The sad thing was, I could see the potential in the characters...if she had written this book the way she writes her historicals, it would have been awesome. As it was, especially with the first person, the characters were flat - except for Liberty and she wasn't that interesting. But the potential was there for her, too.
I'm glad you wrote about this because the book does not sound like something I would enjoy reading. I did get an inkling from her blog a year or so ago that maybe some of the top authors were considering chick-lit as a new direction.
Kleypas has been hit or miss with me - I seem to really like the ones that others feel had too much sex but then I never really follow the norm. I wasn't keen on her 'Summer' book because I just wanted to kick the heroine, I skipped the 'Autumn' title, LOVED Devil in Winter and haven't read the 'Spring' book. So I have some of her backlist to read yet.
Do you think this will be her new path? I hate when we lose great romance writers to other stuff ;)
CindyS