Book 5 in The Ravenels Series
This is the latest novel from Kleypas and is another Wallflower/Ravenel cross over. This time it is the turn of West Ravenel, who meets Lady Phoebe, widow, and daughter of Sebastian and Evie.
Now out of mourning for her late husband, Phoebe begins her return to society by attending the wedding of her brother to Pandora Ravenel. It is a little step back in time from the last Ravenel book.
We met West in the first Ravenel book when he was still a rake and I enjoyed his sardonic wit. Since then he has settled down, but he cannot seem to get over his less than respectable past. He is immediately attracted to Phoebe, but he fears he is not good enough for her.
Phoebe is set against West before she even meets him, for he was her deceased husband’s childhood bully. Despite her reservations, Phoebe is drawn to West, and she initially feels a sense of betrayal towards her late husband for liking his childhood nemesis.
This book was enjoyable and it was nice for some of the secondary characters from earlier novels to have centre stage, but neither Phoebe nor West stood out as much as the likes of Winterborne or Garrett Gibson.
West was charismatic and charming, but he only produced one swoon worthy line:
“You’re all I think about. You’re all I see. You’re the center of a star, and the force of gravity keeps pulling me closer, and I don’t give a damn that I’m about to be incinerated.”
It was very gentle and meandering in terms of plot but that did not detract from the enjoyment of the story. After building up the tension for so long, the heat did pick up towards the end. However, I felt the ending was a little rushed. Everything seemed to be wrapped up within a few pages and a quick chat, which was a bit disappointing.
Plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Feels: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heat: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
