Worth Any Price

For me, books that I rate five stars tend to fall into two categories. The first are the books that I thoroughly enjoyed and with which I found little to nothing wrong, so I couldn’t justify rating it any less than 5 stars since it was basically perfect or nearly so. Then there are the books that completely blow me away with how romantic, passionate, beautiful, and just plain amazing they are. These are the books that I could read over and over and probably never get tired of them. Worth Any Price falls into the latter category. This was actually my second read of the book, but like the first two of the series that I re-read earlier this year, I wasn’t yet reviewing when I first read it. Now I’m finally rectifying that. When I show more added this book and its two companion novels to my GoodReads bookshelf, I did so nearly a year after the fact, and ended up rating all of them 4 stars (really 4.5 since GoodReads doesn’t allow half-stars), because my faulty memory didn’t recall just how much I loved them. Well, now I’ve changed my rating on all of them to reflect my passion for the Bow Street Runners. They all ended up being five-star keepers, but Worth Any Price is my favorite of the bunch. It totally hit that sweet spot for me where everything was absolute sheer perfection, and I loved every minute I spent re-reading it.

The thing about Nick is that when he was introduced in the previous book, Lady Sophia's Lover, he came off as a mixture of charming and arrogant, but he wasn’t particularly repentant for his criminal activities. Although I felt some sympathy for him, he didn’t truly capture my heart until I read his story, which has now catapulted him toward the top of my all-time favorite heroes list. Nick is a tortured soul who was born John Sydney, an aristocrat, but he was orphaned as a child, and with no relatives to step up and take care of him and his sister, he fell in with the wrong crowd, turning to petty thievery and other criminal pursuits to survive. This eventually landed him on a prison hulk, where he befriended the real Nick Gentry. When his friend, who was about to be released, died, he took on his identity, and in the years after prison, he built a fortune by having a foot in two worlds, one as an underworld crime boss and the other as a semi-respectable thief-taker. But by the end of the previous book, Nick had reached the end of the road. He was faced with prison and probable hanging for his crimes. But his new brother-in-law, Ross Cannon, who was also the head magistrate of Bow Street, couldn’t bear to send his wife’s brother to the gallows, so he arranged for Nick to come work as a Runner. This is where we find Nick at the beginning of the story.

In the three years, he’s been working at Bow Street, Nick has settled into his role and enjoys his work, but he tends to take a lot of unnecessary risks that are the result of not really caring whether he lives or dies. As the story opens, he’s on a break from Bow Street, working a private commission in search of a runaway bride, and he’s tracked her down at a country estate where he’s posing as a bored aristocrat. He’s about to tip his hand and reveal his real reason for being there, when he meets the woman in question and feels a connection to her like he’s never felt with anyone before. Intrigued, he keeps his secret a little longer while romancing her, but when the truth comes out, he impulsively offers to marry her to keep her out of the hands of the man she fears. He intends for it to be a marriage of convenience only, but things don’t exactly go as planned when his feelings for her only start growing deeper and deeper. Nick is a man with secrets that were bound to come out sooner or later. However, Ross is forcing it to happen sooner by making sure that Nick is reinstated to his aristocratic position, which is something that he doesn’t want. It makes him feel stifled, like he’s losing his independence, but since he has a wife to worry about now, he reluctantly does what’s expected while not really knowing how to live that life anymore.

Charlotte, known to everyone as Lottie, is someone who knows first-hand what it’s like to lose one’s independence. Her parents betrothed her to a wealthy older aristocrat when she was just a child, all for the price of keeping them financially solvent. The man paid for her education, but everything from what she wore, to what she was allowed to eat, to what subjects she studied were dictated by him, all for the purpose of making her into the “perfect” wife. He even molested her and her parents turned a blind eye, simply saying that it didn’t matter, because she was going to be his wife someday anyway. So it’s no wonder that after graduating, she changed her name and ran away, and has been hiding on a country estate where she works as a ladies’ companion. She’s been there for two years and is mostly content until Nick comes along. He stirs feelings in her that she’s never felt before, but when she finds out his real reason for being there, she’s understandably hurt. However, when faced with going back, she offers to be his mistress instead, knowing that Nick has a hardened past, which would make him well-suited to protect her against her abuser. She couldn’t be more surprised when he counter-offers marriage instead. I loved Lottie. She’s a sweet, down-to-earth heroine who’s been through as much as Nick has in her short life, so she understands him in a way that others don’t. She’s also very accepting of everything about him, including his checkered past, and isn’t bothered by the idea of being a commoner’s wife before she discovers that he’s really a viscount. Even then, she wants him to be happy far more than she wants a title.

Nick and Lottie are the perfect couple. They intuitively understand each other, and they are both very loving, giving, and selfless people, even though Nick would never think of himself in those terms. Their passion and sensuality are a perfect match for one another. Nick is a dream lover, and that’s something that he’s practiced over time, but not quite in the way that the cover blurb implies. His experiences on the prison hulk and the death of his friend left him emotionally scarred. He has nightmares, and when the story opens, he also has an aversion to being touched. Because of this, he didn’t seek out a woman for sexual fulfillment until he was twenty-four years old, and couldn’t bear it anymore. At that point, he went to Gemma, the madam of an elite brothel, who ended up tutoring him in the sexual arts. I loved the prologue, which shows just how frightened and vulnerable he was, but at the same time, he has a natural instinct for passion and sensuality, which is why Gemma took him on as her protégé. I also loved the fact that she is the only woman he’s with for the next three years, and after Gemma breaks off their arrangement, he’s celibate until meeting Lottie. By the time he does meet Lottie, he’s certainly an accomplished lover, but there’s nothing more appealing to me than a hero who reserves his passion either primarily or exclusively for the heroine. IMHO, it makes their connection that much stronger. Another thing that helped that connection is that while Nick was with Gemma, one of her rules was that their time together was strictly for sex play and there was no emotional intimacy involved, so that was something that only Lottie received from him. It doesn’t happen all at once, but when it does it’s perfect. I also love how he pledges fidelity to Lottie even before he realizes he’s in love with her. Not to mention, their love scenes are hot and sexy, while still being sweet and tender. I just loved every minute they shared the page together and could have kept reading about them forever.

Worth Any Price has some notable secondary characters. Ross and Sophia (Lady Sophia's Lover) support Nick and Lottie in their marriage and nudge Nick toward accepting his birthright. Grant (Someone to Watch Over Me) is now the chief magistrate of Bow Street and Nick’s boss. Lottie has been hiding out at the estate of Marcus, Lord Westcliff, who fans of Ms. Kleypas’ Wallflowers will know as the the hero of the second book of that series, It Happened One Autumn. He was one of my favorite heroes of that series, and in this book, he’s every bit as kind and gentlemanly. He’s very protective of Lottie, offering to marry her when he learns the truth of her situation. Gemma, the madam of the brothel Nick went to, is only seen in the prologue, but she kind of made an impression on me. A lot of times, I feel jealous of any woman who gets first dibs on the hero before the heroine, but Gemma didn’t really rub me the wrong way like most do. She treats Nick with kindness and respect and teaches him everything she knows, but at the end of the day, it’s still a business arrangement, which I think is what made it more palatable to me. Then there’s Lottie’s abuser and the villain of the story, Lord Radnor, who is evil incarnate. He’s totally obsessed with Lottie and as mad as a hatter. Her parents aren’t much better, selling off their daughter to a madman and allowing him to do as he pleases all for the sake of money, while Nick’s money isn’t good enough for them. They all made me sick and I’m so glad Lottie got away from them. A part of me wishes we’d learned what happened to Lottie’s siblings, but I trust that Lottie and Nick wouldn’t allow anything bad to happen to them.

Overall, Worth Any Price was sheer perfection. I loved Nick for his complexities, his tortured soul, and his loving heart. I like how he wears his heart on his sleeve even though he doesn’t realize it, and it was so cute when he starts falling for Lottie and doesn’t understand what’s happening to him. I loved Lottie for her spunkiness in the face of adversity and for daring to step outside her comfort zone to protect herself. It’s not without guilt on her part for abandoning her family, but it was the right thing to do and I loved her for it, as well as for her ready acceptance of Nick’s past and his passionate nature. These two together fill the pages of this story with tenderness, true love, and swoon-worthy romance that I won’t soon forget. I’ve loved getting reacquainted with all the Bow Street Runners. As a whole they are my favorite of Lisa Kleypas’ books I’ve read to date, and I will gladly re-read all these stories again in the future. show less

Having read so much about Nick Gentry in Lady Sophia's Lover I was so looking forward to this book. Nick is probably the reason that I have a soft spot for tortured heroes. He has survived so much and is so determined to be the ultimate bad boy that you just have to love him. Nick has survived by his wits and his intelligence but he wants something more he just doesn't know what until he meets Charlotte Howard. I found it amusing how Sir Ross Cannon manipulated Nick into taking up his responsibilities as viscount. While in the beginning Nick isn't happy about the way things have worked out he begins to understand at the end of the story that he can make a bigger difference as a viscount than he can as a runner. I loved watching him show more evolve into a caring and compassionate lover and husband. For all his bluster he really does care what people think of him. Finally any man that loves his sister as much as Nick does can't be that bad.

Charlotte ran away from a situation that she never wanted. Forced by Lord Randor to try to become his idea of the perfect woman she rebels. Charlotte is very clever and is able to stay hidden for two years before Nick finds her. Charlotte is also very smart and intuitive. She realizes from the very beginning that Nick can and will protect her. She also learns that she is a very passionate woman ant that Nick can bring that passion into full heat with little effort. She never excepts to love Nick, however the attraction between is so very strong that it provides the two with the means to fall in love. Charlotte ability to read Nick's emotions and bod language makes her able to build a trust with him that few others have. She is very good at knowing when to comfort and when to provoke his sexual desires. I like Charlotte a lot.

Ms. Kleypas can write some of the best books on the market today. Her romances are rich with detail, that doesn't overpower the story. Her characters are enduring and lovable. She can write some of the best love scenes in the historical romance genre at the time. She tries to keep her stories as close to the historical period as possible and tells you when she has taken liberties with the facts. She is worth reading over and over. She has been a auto buy author for me since that first time I read a book written by her. show less

4.5 stars

This was my favorite of the Bow Street Runners books, and I’m kind of surprised. The way Nick was in the previous book, I didn’t expect to like him as much as I did, but Kleypas did a great job developing his vulnerability, and his character really is irresistible in this book. I loved Lottie too, her straightforward, kind nature and courage. The two made a sweet couple, and I had a hard time putting down the book. Getting to see characters from the other books in the series, and even a beloved one from the Wallflowers series, made this a nice, snuggly comfort read.
There was one scene I wish had been left out (you’ll know it when you see it), and I could see Lord Radnor’s revenge plan from a mile off, but otherwise it show more was lovely to read Kleypas again.

P.S. I don’t know what’s up with the cover art. show less

As one of Kleypas's earlier novels, I should've expected this to be more rape-y than her more recent fare. I've read interviews by her where she talks about how much she cringes at her old stuff, boy, I don't blame her. I really want to enjoy these books, but when the heroine is saying "No" over and over again, I just can't get into it. Luckily, this didn't last very long, but it certainly marred my impression of this book.

Aside from his rape-y behavior, I liked Nick Gentry for his complicated past and difficulty dealing with it. He's complex and brooding with a purpose, which I appreciate. I also liked Lottie for her determination and resourcefulness, and I thought they made a good couple. They both had some deep-rooted insecurities to show more work through, and I enjoyed watching them try to overcome it together. I do wish I could've seen more of that. Kleypas would summarize what I consider key points of the novel when a scene about the action would've been more impactful. For example, she talks about how Gentry flies into a temper when his past is brought up, so Lottie learns to steer away from this. I don't want to be told this! I want to be shown it! Show me where she learns to bite her tongue and tread on eggshells, show me that tortured side of Gentry. Kleypas is capable of writing nuance, but she traded it for more sex, which is annoying.

In spite of these shortcomings, this book easily could've been a 4 for me if it wasn't for that ending. These books are fantasy, and in my historical romance fantasy, the hero is dashing and saves the heroine from mortal danger right after he realizes he couldn't live without her. This next bit is a spoiler, so proceed with caution.

First of all, he doesn't learn she's kidnapped until it happened FOREVER AGO. Then, by the time he finds out and decides to do something about it, she's ALREADY ESCAPED AND MET HIM AT THE OFFICE. As cool as a cucumber, she waltzes in and is like "oh, my abductor is dead. I'm fine." Because that's the NATURAL reaction a kidnapped person would have. She's not even THANKFUL to see Gentry. She's just like "oh my gosh, you're embarrassing me by kissing me in front of all these people. Why are you kissing me?" Lady, you were kidnapped, and the plot went from 0 to 100 back down to -5 so quick I got whiplash, and you're confused as to why your HUSBAND is RELIEVED YOU'RE ALIVE? I like strong, independent women, but Lottie is just crazy.

This book is crazy. This whole series is crazy, but if you like crazy, go for it. show less

Bow Street Runners
4 Stars

Hired by a jilted suitor to locate his runaway bride, Nick Gentry is surprised to discover that Charlotte Howard has good reason to escape her obsessive husband-to-be. He is just as surprised by his own attraction to the courageous Lottie and makes the impulsive decision to provide her with protection by marrying her himself.

Nick and Charlotte are an engaging couple. She is spirited and intelligent with an iron will as demonstrated by the fact that she not only decides to escape her arranged marriage at a time when such things were widely accepted, but also succeeds in eluding Lord Radnor for so long.

Nick is similar to other Kleypas heroes - sexy and powerful with a touch of the bad boy thrown in for good show more measure. His traumatic past and coping mechanisms only make him all the more endearing. He and Charlotte have intense chemistry and their romance is deeply sensual. Kleypas certainly knows how to write an steamy sex scene.

Unfortunately, the plot is where Worth Any Price encounters some difficulties. Aside from its predictability, the stalking suitor storyline is underdeveloped, the final confrontation is anti-climactic and the resolution is completely illogical since when does a psychotic and obsessive stalker kill himself rather than the object of his “affection”. Moreover, despite the build up of Lottie’s relationship with her parents, they are never forced to atone for their actions and the plot point is left dangling.

All in all, this is an entertaining conclusion to the Bow Street Runners series and the short appearance by my favorite Kleypas hero, Marcus Marsden, Earl of Westcliff, earns it an extra half star. show less

Bow Street Runners
4 Stars

Hired by a jilted suitor to locate his runaway bride, Nick Gentry is surprised to discover that Charlotte Howard has good reason to escape her obsessive husband-to-be. He is just as surprised by his own attraction to the courageous Lottie and makes the impulsive decision to provide her with protection by marrying her himself.

Nick and Charlotte are an engaging couple. She is spirited and intelligent with an iron will as demonstrated by the fact that she not only decides to escape her arranged marriage at a time when such things were widely accepted, but also succeeds in eluding Lord Radnor for so long.

Nick is similar to other Kleypas heroes - sexy and powerful with a touch of the bad boy thrown in for good show more measure. His traumatic past and coping mechanisms only make him all the more endearing. He and Charlotte have intense chemistry and their romance is deeply sensual. Kleypas certainly knows how to write an steamy sex scene.

Unfortunately, the plot is where Worth Any Price encounters some difficulties. Aside from its predictability, the stalking suitor storyline is underdeveloped, the final confrontation is anti-climactic and the resolution is completely illogical since when does a psychotic and obsessive stalker kill himself rather than the object of his “affection”. Moreover, despite the build up of Lottie’s relationship with her parents, they are never forced to atone for their actions and the plot point is left dangling.

All in all, this is an entertaining conclusion to the Bow Street Runners series and the short appearance by my favorite Kleypas hero, Marcus Marsden, Earl of Westcliff, earns it an extra half star. show less

This feels a tad more complex than the average HR, but I dug it. Basically, though, it's two people with rough backgrounds and cause to keep others at a distance finding and helping to heal each other. Which is nice. This book fills you in on everything you need to know, but it's probably best read after the book before it, which lays some of the groundwork.