Monday, September 28

Tempt Me at Twilight

Have you ever read a book that is a mess and yet totally entertaining?  JR Ward books don't count :D

For me the new Lisa Kleypas book Tempt Me at Twilight is a mess.  It's all over the place.  Poppy (don't you love that name--it sounds very happy) discovers Harry's secret room while chasing her sister Beatrix's annoying ferret, Dodger, around Harry's hotel.  Harry is not all that accomodating when his space has been invaded and to be honest you think he's going to be a very dangerous man.  Nope--there was no consistancy in Harry's character development. 

Poppy also is an odd mix of hot and cold.  She's attracted to Harry but is convinced she is in love with another man (Michael), who is obviously a wimp unable to stand up to his father.  Apparently Poppy is inappropriate bride material and Daddy plans to cut him off completely.

Forced to marry because of a compromising situation, and right before the wedding Poppy discovers an evil truth about Harry, leaving her heartbroken over Michael??  Maybe??  They rub along for a while and they start to get along until Poppy finds out Harry creates/improves war weapons.  Yikes, this is bad, ultimatum time sends Poppy to dear brother Leo and home to the family.  Of course, Harry follows and becomes a completely different character.  Miracle of miracles, he's changed by being part of a family.

And the situation between Harry and Catherine??  Bizarre.

Kleypas is heavy handed through this entire book.  How is it possible then that I actually enjoyed this mess of a book?  I don't know.  Maybe because the characters are likeable even in their inconsistancies.

If you suspend belief you might like this one too.  Perhaps.

5 comments:

Rosario said...

I still feel like reading it. I think like you, I might enjoy it anyway.

Tara Marie said...

Rosario--we have similar reading tastes, I'm sure you will enjoy it :)

Rosie said...

I had reviews I've promised people for this week and haven't had a chance to do my review on this one. You really summed this up beautifully when you said it was all over the place.

I just felt like there was some missed potential here and this could have been a really memorable book.

SPOILERISH AHEAD

While I can see a person with Harry's isolated and even cruel upbringing latching onto someone like Poppy it seem inconsistent that he wouldn't try to isolate her. Or that once she left he'd let her stay gone.

Yet, there was something about it. I more or less said this at our blogger lunch on Saturday. I'm expecting there will be lots of discussion about this one.

Anonymous said...

seems like a lot of books are having that problem lately, it happens more than once that i have seen readers or whatnot have been saying the characters are flipping back and forth , that the characters are coming across like they are 2 different characters in the books or just that the story is like 2 or even 3 books in one, now what is going on then?

Tara Marie said...

Rosie--it's one of those books that will either be hyper-analyzed or completely panned. It's an entertaining mess.

Anon--Harry is very inconsistant, more like 2 characters. We're not in his head enough to actually understand his thought process and why he changes as drastically as he does.