Customer Reviews

Love Come to Me (Onyx)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Lisa Kleypas began her successful writing career with the Onyx (New American Library) publishing group. She wrote four books for this company before moving over to Avon Books. LOVE, COME TO ME was the second of the four. Recently, I found a rare copy. It contains 411 pages, typed in a small font, and reveals Kleypas' budding bright future.

Unfortunately, this is not the time Kleypas achieved brilliance. Why? Anytime I can close a book in the middle of some defining moment to go do housework -- well! LOVE, COME TO ME is such a book. Yet, I don't think it was the writer's fault, no I think the editor should take the blame. The romance was never allowed to grow, to build, to hold the reader. Instead, the reader is subject to lengthy discussions surrounding the country's problems after the Civil War and the newspaper scene of 1870's Boston. In a romance book, historical facts are fine as a backdrop, but such details shouldn't take over the story. The editor should have edited this book better, cutting down on the educational lessons, editing to create a better romance.

Lucinda Caldwell is a New England lass. Her doting father raised her, a father who pampered and spoiled her. Fate has nicely tied up Lucinda's future. She will marry her childhood love and become part of Concord, Massachusetts' elite society. She will marry -- if only her beau will commit himself.

Heath Rayne is a displaced southern gentleman. He is very interested in Lucinda. He remains in Concord, watching the engaged couple, hoping for cracks in the relationship. Fate grants Heath his wish; Lucinda is now his. Now his mission is to humor his spoiled wife. Kleypas's strong suit is her ability to write a love scene, and here she shows her fine beginnings. The best parts of this book are our couple in solitary confinement.

Would I recommend LOVE, COME TO ME? Only if you find it at a very reasonable price. Don't go to the secondary market and pay big dollars. Too many current books deliver far better romance.

Grace Atkinson, Ontario - Canada.

This book was a great find! It is a keeper for many reasons. First enter the sassy northern girl who breaks rules and manages to get herself into awkward situations. Enter The Southern gentleman who has come to concord, mass for unknown reasons and happens to be there to pull lucinda out of a watery death. He nurses her to health but because of propriety (being alone with a man for 2 days and a southerner at that, mercy) they must remain public "strangers"> Heath is in love at first sight with this northern spitfire (having been badly burnt by a simpering southern belle) but Lucy is engaged to an arrogant anti southern cold fish yankee. Of course Heath always causes a stir when he tries to mix in this society. There are so many threads to this story. Heath is a hunk who ultimately is attempting to imprvoe the situation bet the north and south during the 10 yrears of reconstruction. He fought for the south but is anti slavery. He sees the good and bad on both sides but mostly just sees the horror of the war and the loss of life. "cin" and heath have to work out the problems of their different worlds, society and history itself. There is not a boring moment in this page turner. Especially when the simpering belle turns up, and when cin is ostracized into marrying heath, and treated badly by her jerk financee.......The love scenes were wonderful and the issues were real..I loved this book. It's hard to find but its worth the bother. good job lisa k. thanks.

This early Lisa Kleypas novel is nothing like her later regency masterpieces. Love Come To Me has an uninspiring hero and heroine with a long plot that at times was almost boring.

Lucinda Caldwell is saved from a cold watery grave by village newcomer Heath Rayne, a transplanted southerner with a boatload of charm. She stays in house two days to recuperate and finds the man to be quite appealing. She has a boring fiancé but she is bent on remaining faithful to her betrothed. Lucinda is smart, a bit sassy, and stubborn too.

Heath has always admired Lucinda from afar and is pleased to be sharing his home with her for a few days. He left his native Virginia after the War and wants to make a new life in Concord, Massachusetts.

Lucinda sees Heath about town and attempts to keep him at a distance with her haughtiness and argumentative spirit. She exhibits none of these traits to her fiancé and is almost a simpering miss with him. *SPOILER* She is caught in a compromising position with Heath and the two are forced to marry. Lucinda blame shifts almost all her difficulties on her husband and how Heath can stand her childish tantrums is a mystery.

Just when Lucinda becomes likeable, Heath becomes distant and secretive. His past comes back in a big way and now the two have added problems. I wanted to like this novel but Lucinda's stubbornness and Heath's secretive nature were off putting.

I knew this was a re-release ie early Kleypas but I thought it was worth a shot anyway. It probably works fine on its own, if you don't know how great the author is now. I can't tell you how many times I've reread the Wallflowers and Hathaways series and there are plenty of her standalones that are amazing too. This story lacks the emotional connection we've come to expect from Kleypas and there's too much filler that doesn't do anything to progress the characters or story. Here and there you can see glimmers of the writer Kleypas becomes but I'm not sure it's in her best interest to re-release books that are so inferior to her current offerings. Again, in the scope of romance novels, it's good (not great). But for a Kleypas romance, it's sub-par. Better to re-read Where Dream Begin again.

This is a reprint. If you did not read this, I would definitely recommend this book. Lisa Kleypas is one of my favorite authors.

I have always loved Lisa Kleypas' books but I had trouble getting though this one. I found the heroine difficult to like and the hero wasn't much better. Out of all her works, I liked this one the least. I wouldn't recommend it.

This was the first Kleypas book I read. I got it for half a dollar from a used books store and let's say it was well worth it =). It got me reading her other novels, although I still prefer this one to the later ones and return to it from time to time.

I liked both the hero who was dashing and dangerous, very sexy. I presume I could have fallen in love with him. He was a headstrong but relaxed sort of fellow in an uptight environment and the heroine had a little more backbone and a little less naiveté than historical romance heroines generally do. The development of their romance was on the whole believable and I could identify with most of their actions. Kleypas is a good storyteller who creates tension in this novel by adding disease, jealousy and traditional fear of acknowledging one's true feelings. Even though these are classic romance novel traits I did not have the much too common feeling that everything was predictable.

The love scenes were well written and engaging. I also liked the fact that it wasn't "mere romance": a crucial plot element is the American civil war and the relationships between southerners and northerners. You could say there's a bit of Romeo and Juliet in the novel since the southerner hero is a persona non grata in the heroine's northern hometown. But fortunately these two young people are stronger than Romeo and Juliet and therefore manage to make much better of their lives. I like survivor spirit in a novel character.

The less important characters and the newspaper subplot are well chosen to develop the story. One final romantic touch that moved me was the conduct of the hero's business associate at the last pages of the novel. But let's not say anything more about it, I don't want to spoil it for you if you find it somewhere. Too bad this is out of print.

Love, Come to Me was originally published in 1988 and was one of Lisa Kleypas's first books. Lisa's earlier books such as Forever My Love, Where Passion Leads and Give Me Tonight are not her best work. Lisa doesn't hit her stride until the mid-90's where she really began to shine.

Love, Come to Me has been re-released from Signet and has undertones of how great of an author Lisa will become. This story takes place a few years after the Civil Wars ends and is set in Concord, Massachusetts. Our heroine, Lucy Caldwell does a pretty TSTL move right in chapter one. Lucy has a bad fight with Daniel, the man she adores and wants to marry. Lucy and Daniel have been promised to one another for years, but Daniel keeps pushing off the wedding. Lucy is sick of waiting and because of her temper, she ends up walking through the bitter cold and falling into a frozen river (which she crosses as short cut to get home). She's saved by Heath Rayne, a Southerner and war veteran who has moved to Concord. Heath has wanted to meet Lucy for a long time, ever since he first spotted her working in her father's store. He wants to court Lucy, even though she's with Daniel.

Heath puts her to bed and takes care of her. Over the next few days, she gets to know Heath, although she is wary of him since he's from the South and he makes me feel something deep inside that she shouldn't. When she recovers, she goes back home thinking Heath will leave her be. Heath is a tenacious fellow and he wants Lucy. After observing the way she is with Daniel, he decides that Lucy is better off with him because Daniel prefers a more biddable woman. Lucy is definitely not that and after she and Heath are caught together in a romantic interlude, Lucy has no choice but to marry Heath because the town thinks she's a fallen woman. Heath couldn't be happier even though Lucy blames him for her downfall. Heath wants to make their marriage work. Lucy thinks it's doomed from the start because of their differences. But Heath knows Lucy can't get enough of his prowess in the bedroom, which he'll use to show her that they belong together.

Lisa Kleypas is well known for writing amazingly seductive heroes. Heath is close to one of her trademark heroes. He's protective, witty and has alpha like tendencies. Lucy is the main problem here. She's a spoiled daddy's girl who feels she entitled to anything she wants. She comes across very immature and at one point I felt Heath could do better than her. But Heath is so smitten with Lucy that he forgives her harpy like attitude and uses his sexual experience as a form of discipline to make Lucy succumb to him.

Love, Come to Me has nice sensual love scenes and Heath at times is too good to be true, especially when dealing with Lucy who makes his temperature rise. For what it's worth, this is one historical romance that has a nice balance of passion, pretty interesting dialogue and a different type of setting that doesn't take place in England or during the Regency era. I would recommend you read Love, Come to Me for the hero Heath alone and how he brings Lucy to heel in almost an almost old school bodice ripper romance way.

Katiebabs

I am skeptical about the book initially because I knew it was one of her earlier works.

But this book blew my mind away, cant seem to put it down after reading the first few chapters. The plot reached a climax as the story unfolded.

Well for one, it prompted me to read more about the American civil war. What left a deep imprint in me was how real the characters were.You know how sometimes, the characters are flawless or deliberately made wicked to the point that you doubt behaviours of such sort can happen in reality.

There is a sense of normalcy in it, perhaps it was the historical facts or perhaps it was one of Lisa's originals. Regardless, this has been my favourite among all Lisa's books. Cant wait for a re-release of all her remaining earlier works.

Kudos to Lisa Kleypas, she never fails to engage me.

Bee

I usually enjoy Lisa Kleypas' books very much but I've been reading this one is spurts and just can't get it done. Not sure I'll finish it. She hasn't managed to make me care about the characters enough to wade through all of the conflict and history. I would not recommend this book.