Midnight Angel

Escaping prison for a crime she may or may not have committed but unsure due to amnesia, the heroine flees her native Russia to her cousin living in London. There, she is thrust upon the family friend who has need of a governess for his teenage daughter. The hero is much displeased with the arrangement and vows to send the attractive but dangerous woman on her way as soon as she is deemed unfit. Unfortunately, the heroine takes to the young girl and all of those around her especially the hero himself. A widow still grieving the death of his wife and the lose of a hand in the fire that took her, he's torn between his wife's memory and the beautiful young girl who's captured his attention as no other woman has. At first he is mean and show more harsh and altogether unwelcoming. He does and says things to hurt her but immediately feels guilty for it. He does it to push her away; to distance himself from her but no to avail. I loved the fact that though he is an amputee, he never dwells on the loss. He's not the brooding tortured figure and at times I forgot he was evening miss a hand because it was never a big deal to the characters or the story. The heroine is waif of a girl, petite fair skinned and possessing some paranormal psychic abilities. She lives in constant fear that the brother of the man she's convicted of killing will find her so she hides who she is, living as a lowly governess when in fact she is royalty and is used to silk and pearls. But she is kindhearted to a fault, a saint to those around her but innocent is the ways of men and horribly prudish at first and skittish around the hero. He is defiantly aggressive. He pushes her away one moment but draws her in the next. He is possessive and defiantly has a darker side to those who cross him. But he's loyal and will absolutely anything for those he loves. I really liked this book. It had a lot of heart and my goodness the hero's daughter was a riot. She's bold and sassy and funny and there is a hint that she will get her own book with the villain has the hero. That's another thing I loved about this story, the whole book is spent with the cousin being this boogeyman who's relentlessly pursuing the heroine but in the end, he's a victim as well. He isn't cruel or anything like the heroine feared him to be and I can't wait to see if he's in the next book. I found this book to have quite a lot of sex scenes, I would venture to say maybe too much. And the characters were in love by half way through the book. I prefer to have the anticipation of will they won't they drawn out a bit further, it adds to the tension. But I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This author is a new favorite- defiantly. show less

Published in 1995 it's a horrible story in 2025. The much older male and the much younger female, not unheard of in Harlequin romance books in the 1980's but now it's creepy. The female lead is unlikable, she's either naive or just plain uneducated. She can't manage to keep herself out of trouble and under the radar. Luke says it's because she's so beautiful but I think she's not good at normal life. I DNF, couldn't do it. The end gives the prelude to the next book in the series and it's major creepy, verging on pedo.

I love finding a story with a premise that I haven’t read before. This story has a handicapped hero. I love when an author isn’t afraid to write about a less than perfect hero or heroine. Lucas, Marquis Stokehurst, lost his hand in a fire while rescuing his baby daughter and wife. Lucas is a strong willed, stubborn and arrogant man. I loved that he made up his mind that the loss of his hand wouldn’t keep him from doing whatever he wanted. Lucas is a caring, loving father. Doting on his daughter and spoiling her rotten. He has mourned the loss of his wife for a long time and promised that he would never marry again. I think that he is more than a little surprised when Anastasia Kaptereva sweeps into his life and turns everything show more upside down. Her ability to stand up to him and tell him he has done something wrong is what snares his attention in the beginning but her quite demeanor and quite beauty bring him to his knees. Lucas is a mixture of strong passions and the tender care. He is that man so many of us would like to have in our beds. I liked him a lot and hope to see him again in another story.

Anastasia is what most Russian girls of this era were raised to be. She is deeply religious, spoiled in some way, and she is innocent in very sense of the word. She has been raised away from court and any man other than her father and certain close relations. She is a moral and compassionate woman. She is ill prepared for prison or the rigors of a trial and all the condemnation that comes with it. However she isn’t and shrinking violet going so far as to fake her death and escaping from Russia to find another life. She is troubled that she may be guilty of crime in which she has been accused. Tasia is also proud and passionate. Luke makes her long for a happily ever after even though she knows that she may be dragged back to Russia. I was glad that she was able to find peace and happiness.

This is another quick read. I still finished in four days even though I had jury duty for a few of those days. Ms. Kleypas continues to write wonderful characters and dialogue. She makes you see the places that the characters inhabit. She makes you want to cheer at the triumphs and cry at their failures. Her love scenes are getting steamier and in the case of this story they are plentiful, of course Luke is a lusty man with a young wife willing to learn how to please him. There is no real villain in this story the crime at the start of the book is one of passion. This book does setup of the next book very nicely though. I am off to start it next. show less

There's a lot going on in this one - faking your death, escaping the gallows, being chased across continents, hiding out as a governess, the Lord falling for the seemingly inappropriate governess, political intrigue, amnesia - A Lot. The couple themselves are good, and I always enjoy Lisa Kleypas' writing, but it certainly wasn't one my favorites. Just ok, from me.

(Also, as a note to me - I have no idea if temporary amnesia should be classified as disability fiction or not, but I am not shelving this there, because, well, I don't want to. Instead I'm making a whole new shelf - soap opera afflictions, just for this kind of thing. )

Accused of a murder she has no recollection of, Russian princess Anastasia is waiting for death. In a desperate escape she travels to England where she becomes the enigmatic Governess for the spirited Emma Stokehurst. The only problem is Luke, Emma's widowed father who wants nothing to do with beautiful mysteries who bewitch him against his will.

As with all of Kleypas' romances I found this to be a very engrossing story. I think this may be one of her earlier ones but I didn't find that it suffered for that. The characters were all well done and I enjoyed all of them. I like that Luke was able to re-think his actions and admit he is wrong once he has cooled off. I was also quite intrigued by the descriptions of St. Petersburg. England show more is a familiar enough setting for historical romances, but the foray into Russia was something new for me. I liked the way she described the land, its people, sights and even sounds and smells without overburdening the reading with too much description. The romance between Luke and Tasia was well done. The only little quibble I had is that when Luke found out Tasia's real age he seemed quite taken aback, but the age didn't stop him at all in his seduction. I liked Tasia quite a bit. I usually would find such a refined and religious main character annoying, but for some reason it seemed to work in this story.

I was certainly left with a desire to read the sequel and look forward to Emma's story as well. show less

Lucas Stokehurst
Anastasia "Tasia" Kaptereva

I won't say this was my favorite story from my Kleypas so far but it was still quite good. The characters were interesting. The plot, pacing and even the narrator were good but for some reason I don't have any gushing enthusiasm for this book. Oh well, still a solid 4 Stars.

This is my least favorite Kleypas book. Russian 18 yr old girl escapes from a Russian prison to London and hides with a cousin. The cousin gets her a position as a governess to a wealthy Lord Stokhurst in the country. She bonds with his 12 yr old daughter but he's unlikeable and overbearing. Eventually, he falls in love with her and the inevitable happens, she found out and kidnapped back to Russia. I found myself skimming through large portions of this book.