Mine Till Midnight by Lisa Kleypas had some plot issues to start off with, but also I would say that this 2007 Regency romance has not aged well except that would be unfair to 2007.
Heroine Amelia is barely holding together her family, which has recently come into an unexpected inheritance. Her brother, the newly-minted lord, has a substance abuse problem. He is self-medicating after the death of his fiancee who, by the way, is literally haunting him. One of her sisters has a chronic illness. Another one lets lizards loose in other people's houses. Another one (or the same one, I'm not sure) is a kleptomaniac.
Hero Cam was born a Romani. His grandmother sent him to London when he was a boy to avoid some mysterious danger. He was sort of but not really adopted by a British (or maybe American?) family. He has an adopted sister who he loves like a sister. He is now part owner of a very expensive club and makes money hand over fist and is a mathematical genius and a first class fighter and very kind and very brilliant and -- you get the idea.
It's not clear to me how much Kleypas knows about the Romani. Probably more than me, but maybe not more than a Wikipedia article? More disturbing than her lack of research, her description of Cam is entirely racial. Even though he has not lived with the Romani since he was a young boy, his knowledge of their ways is apparently bred in the bone. He remains fluent in their language. He understands their folk healing arts and can apply them in a very detailed manner. He wants to be free of all possessions and wander the world, as apparently all Romani do -- but this longing, according to Kleypas, is tempered by the fact that his father, who he never met, was Irish. Sigh.
There's another character in the book named Merripen. Here's what we know about him: He was born a Romani. When he was a boy a British family (Amelia's) found him on its property where he had been left for dead. He was sort of but not really adopted by the family. He loves most of them like siblings, except for the chronically ill sister who he luuurves. (Ugh, this is incest, or at least incest-adjacent.) He is smart and strong and takes care of the family, sort of like a magical Negro.
Cam and Merripen meet. You would think that given their almost identical backgrounds they might want to have a conversation. Instead they take no interest in each other whatsoever except for an uninspired dislike. Really? I have nothing more to say about this book.
Bonus review: Devil's Daughter, also by Lisa Kleypas
Devil's Daughter is mostly a by-the-books romance. Hero West is a former jerk who reformed two years ago when he spent a few hours helping a farmer with some labor and discovered that being useful is fun. Heroine Phoebe is a widow whose late husband West had bullied when there were boys.
West's character development is learning that it's okay for him to marry Phoebe and be a stepfather to her children even though his bad reputation may follow him. Phoebe's character development is . . . uh . . . she learns that hot sex is good, I guess?
This book could have been 25 percent shorter if it didn't meander into side stories about main characters from Kleypas' earlier books. I've read some of those books but I don't clearly recall them, and I would have been happy to do without the asides.
Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited and in paperback. Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.
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