We Love Lisa Kleypas discussion

Please post any info on new books, interviews, articles, or anything of interest here.

Here is the link to Lisa's website:

http://www.lisakleypas.com/

Thanks for creating such a fun forum Danielle! LK rocks.

For those not aware, her next contemporary series is going to be out in 2011. It's based around Friday Harbor, Washington (part of the San Juan Islands). Best of all, she is going to write it in 3rd person POV so we will be able to get into the minds and hearts of both hero and heroine. I know I am looking forward to it!

Thanks for the news, KarLyn! I'm so behind on her contemporaries. I haven't started one yet.

That's wonderful news, KarLynP! One of the reasons I'm not particularly interested in her 1st - and so far only - contemporary trilogy is the fact they're written in 1st person POV.

Emmanuelle wrote: "Does anyone know if an excerpt is available for Married by Morning ?"

Yes, there is. Check it out:
http://goodbadandunread.com/2009/10/2...

Happy reading! :)

Dina wrote: "That's wonderful news, KarLynP! One of the reasons I'm not particularly interested in her 1st - and so far only - contemporary trilogy is the fact they're written in 1st person POV."

I felt the same way until I read the first book...they were just as good as her historicals, IMO. I did miss reading the hero's POV, but after a while I didn't even notice the 1st person.

I've been to Friday Harbor!

But I'm behind on her contemporaries too. They're on my 2010 list.

The San Juan Islands are absolutely gorgeous! I was excited to hear that LK lives here in in the State of Washington now. So does Julia Quinn.

I highly recommend LK's contemporary series. I'm not a fan of first POV, but I really enjoyed them. Smooth Talking Stranger was my favorite. :)

I really enjoyed the Travises Series:

I haven't read any of her contemps yet. Are her contemporary heroes just as ALPHA and yummy as her historical ones?

I can't compare them to the historical ones, but I can say they are definitely Alpha and totally de-lish!

Oh Char! Try them -- you'll love them!!

Sugar Daddy
Blue-Eyed Devil
Smooth-Talking Stranger (my personal fav)

Tammy wrote: "The San Juan Islands are absolutely gorgeous! ..."

Couldn't agree more Tammy! I've been there many times.

Her new series is suppose to be about regular normal people, not mega-rich gazillionaires. It's a four book deal, with the possibility of more.

As much as I enjoyed her Travis series, it took some getting used to it because of the first-person narative by the heroines. So often I wanted to hear from the hero, but regardless I still loved the series.

Ok guys--you convinced me to order them. I love her writing style & as long as she keeps those heroes Alpha I'll read any genre she writes. I'm so happy to know I have 3 more books by her to read!!!

KarLynP wrote: "Tammy wrote: "The San Juan Islands are absolutely gorgeous! ..."

Couldn't agree more Tammy! I've been there many times.

Her new series is suppose to be about regular normal people, not meg..."

KarlynP, did you see the little excerpt that LK wrote from Hardy's POV? Someone posted the link on my review of Blue-Eyed Devil. I loved it! I wish she would re-write the whole book from Hardy's POV!

Tammy wrote: "KarLynP wrote: "Tammy wrote: "The San Juan Islands are absolutely gorgeous! ..."

Couldn't agree more Tammy! I've been there many times.

Her new series is suppose to be about regular normal..."

YES!!!! I loved it. I read it before BED came even out, and I was so excited that his book was going to be written from his POV, so imagine my surprise when it wasn't. And after reading that snippet it only convinced me how much I really wanted in his head ... and his bed. :-) First person POV keeps the other characters at an arms length when they can't tell their part of the story. Still, a fantastic series that I will re-read again(well, re-listen to actually as I have the series on audio).

I didn't realize that excerpt was published before the book was released. That explains a lot!

The Travis men are yummy!!! I was really disappointed that LK decided to not write a book about the youngest brother. I would recommend these books to anyone that likes LK's writing style. I was hesitant about the contemporary genre, but she totally sucked me in!
Ally

Emmanuelle wrote: "That's really great news KarLynP, thankd for posting it !!
And thanks Danielle for creating this group... see all the posts already !

Does anyone know if an excerpt is available for Married by..."

--Thanks for joining, everyone. I'm jazzed that she has so many fans!

I better get started reading Sugar Daddy, and soon!

Danielle...I really think you will like Sugar Daddy. I know you heard me say many times that I wasn't interested in reading contemporary romances, but I have had to totally eat those words since reading about the Travis family. It has actually opened up a whole new genre for me.

Your sage words are what helped me to open my mind, Ally. I know we are on the same page about books very often. So I actually went to buy Sugar Daddy after you told me that. I appreciate you for helping me to open my mind. Hugs!

Thank-you Danielle for the kind words! I didn't know that you bought Sugar Daddy after you heard me gushing on and on about it! It will be fun to talk about it when you get a chance to read it. This group was such a neat idea!
Ally

I will try to read Sugar Daddy in February.

It is a good idea to think about books a person wants to read in the upcoming months. I really need to start doing that so I can get to all of the books I want to read. I wish I were starting the Travis family books for the first time! It will be great to find out your thoughts...No pressure if you don't get a chance to get to them in February, though!

I've had so much encouragement to start this series, I am trying to make it a goal for Feb. Plus, I really want to read Blue-Eyed Devil, and I'm too OCD to jump ahead. LOL.

Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "I've had so much encouragement to start this series, I am trying to make it a goal for Feb. Plus, I really want to read Blue-Eyed Devil, and I'm too OCD to jump ahead. LOL."

Keep your OCD and DON'T jump ahead! I read Blue-Eyed Devil first because I couldn't get into Sugar Daddy (*BIG* mistake on my part!) and it gives away too much, you want the surprises!

I'll always be partial to her contemporaries as it's the first LK books I'd read.

Thanks for the advice, Rochelle. I want to go into these books fresh!

Here is a GREAT link for where you can see all of LK's books and the order in which they were brought out!

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/k/l...

Heidi wrote: "Here is a GREAT link for where you can see all of LK's books and the order in which they were brought out!

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/k/l..."

I love this site. I always check there when I'm looking for new books and series order.

But, I have found some errors and also keep in mind it's a UK site and often times I see "coming soon" when something has already been released.

But it is an awesome site!

Fantasticfiction is a nice site, but for determining series ordering, I prefer http://www.fictiondb.com/

I've still found some errors, but overall I think they're generally more accurate than fantasticfiction and they include novellas from anthologies in their ordering where they are part of a series. Fantasticfiction hardly ever does that.

Julie (Mom2lnb) wrote: "Fantasticfiction is a nice site, but for determining series ordering, I prefer http://www.fictiondb.com/

I've still found some errors, but overall I think they're generally more accurate than fant..."

Awesome, thank you!!!

You're welcome!

This interview is a few years old now but it's a really good read and I also enjoyed reading LK's responses in the comments section. Lisa Kleypas seems like such a nice, fun and likeable person and I think she comes across well in interviews.

http://thebooksmugglers.com/2008/09/l...

Lady Jayne wrote: "This interview is a few years old now but it's a really good read and I especially enjoyed reading LK's responses in the comments section. Lisa Kleypas seems like such a nice, fun and likeable pers..."

Oh, thank you!!! I LOVE that interview and I see the bit about Aline and McKenna and a possible American historical series. That would be amazing!

I LOVE Sugar Daddy. It wasn't what I expected but so much more, and I did cry, which isn't easy for me to do. I fell in love with Gage! yummy yumm yumm. I loved Libby and Carrington as well.

I have Sugar Daddy, but will save that for when I'm in a contemporary mood.

Glad to get some different views on her Contemparary ones. I heard that a lot of people don't like them and don't recomend them either. I'm so far behind in my reading, because we have been moving. When I unpacked my books I found at least four of her historicals I haven't even read.

I do love the Alpah Males. I first started reading her books when I found Worth Any Price and loved it and then found out it was one of a series and I've been hooked ever sense. I would love for her to right more about the Bow Street Runners.

I'd been a Lisa Kleypas fan for a few years before I read Sugar Daddy (the first book in her contemporary Travis family series) and I must say, it was really not what I had come to expect from Lisa Kleypas and really threw me. I've seen some people describe it more like "chick lit" (I don't read chick lit so I can't say). It's written in the first person POV(all the Travis books are - which is very different from her historicals which are 3rd person) and it read more like the "Life Story of Liberty Jones". While I liked Liberty as a character, I was really missing the ROMANCE aspect. Seriously. For me, Sugar Daddy started out well, then dragged for quite a bit before picking up again over halfway through the book. I will say that I LOVED the character of Gage Travis and wish there had been more of him.

The next 2 Travis books were MUCH better for me. My fave being Smooth Talking Stranger but I love both Hardy Cates and Jack Travis (and Gage!). But I do know people who loved Sugar Daddy. It's all a matter of preference. My 3 Star rating was a result of it not meeting my expectations... of what I had come to expect from LK's books. I think LK was still finding her way with a contemporary voice (it was her first contemporary, after all) and LK deals with some heavy issues in her contemporary series. I felt that she balanced the first person POV, dealing with contemporary issues, and balancing that with her trademark sexy romance, SO MUCH BETTER in Blue-Eyed Devil and Smooth Talking Stranger. I look forward to reading her future Contemporaries. And as always, in the Travis series, she created characters that feel very real and you care about them long after you finish the book. That's my experience, anyway. ^_^

Jayne, your input is very much appreciated. I think we had similar issues with the contemporaries. I really dislike anything close to women's fiction or chick lit, so I was really worried about Sugar Daddy. But at least I know what I'm in for reading now. I will read this one next month, and post my thoughts.

I would agree that it did read like the life of liberty, etc, and that isnt my cup of tea usually either. But something about the way she wrote it really resonated with me. There were lines in the book that I just related to so well, and I would find myself rereading them and then reading them out loud to friends. One that comes to mind was a line where Liberty describes what its like to be poor, and it was so dead on accurate, I just loved it. So I did get engaged, and I was lucky that because of that it went fairly quickly for me. So when the romance did hit, I didn't find the book lacking because that romance was so powerful to me. I just loved that last scene between Liberty and Gage. I loved Liberty's 'aha' moment about what love really is. And Gage (((big sigh))) he was quite a man. :-) Obviously though, no matter what - historical or contemporary - LK knows how to write a damn good hero and a swoony romance. I really hope that she can see our thoughts and how much we appreciate her craft.

I would love to ask Lisa Kleypas how she writes these romantic books! She's so good at it.

Bekah, I completely agree with what you said. Like I said, I think my main disappointment was because Sugar Daddy was not what I was expecting in what I had come to know of LK's writing style and reading other contemporary romances. But, like you, I did have some favourite passages/quotes from it. I'm a bit of a quote collector. ^_^

This was my review of Sugar Daddy:

Read in June 2009 (3 Stars)

"Because I am a Lisa Kleypas fan, I gave this book 3 stars as it was just okay for me. I am a huge fan of Kleypas’ historical romances and was disappointed in this contemporary story. It read like the life story of Liberty Jones as opposed to a contemporary romance. I did like Liberty and felt for her through her hardships, but felt a lot of the things that happened in the first half of the book, could have been shorter. Based on the blurb at the back of the book I expected a love triangle type of story, and that didn’t come into play until…well…quite late in the book. I would have liked more interaction between Liberty and the men she loved. Perhaps if I had different expectations going in, I might have enjoyed it more? *shrugs* Also, it was very different reading a Kleypas book that is written in the first person.

I do have a few fave quotes from this book:

"Many times in life I've regretted the things I've said without thinking. But I've never regretted the things I said nearly as much as the words I left unspoken."

"Poor people have few choices in life, and most of the time you don't think too much about it. You get the best you can and do without when necesary, and hope to God you won't be wiped out by something you can't control. But there are moments it hurts, where there is something you want in the very marrow of your bones and you know there is no way you can have it."
(This scene made me teary.)

"As we talked, I had a sense of uncovering something precious and long-buried, fully formed. Our conversation was a process of removing layers, some of them easily dusted away. Other layers, requiring chisels or axes, were left alone for now.""

LOVE the way LK writes! These passages really resonated with me.

And I LOVED the scenes with Gage and just so wish there had been MORE. I love Gage. And Hardy. And Jack. LOL It's hard not to love an LK hero and heroine.

I have a feeling that Sugar Daddy was a book that LK needed to write. I bet she realized that some fans would be disappointed in the sharp deviation from her usual writing, but she needed to do it all the same. This is coming from a fan that was very disappointed that she was doing contemporaries (out of fear she would abandon them entirely). I even decided subconsciously to boycott her contemporaries. That was horrible of me. I'm glad I came to my senses. She's a powerful writer, and I have come to realize that contemporary romance needs a writer like her to bring back the romance and the passion.

Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "I have a feeling that Sugar Daddy was a book that LK needed to write."

I agree, Danielle. This is what LK said in that interview I posted from The Book Smugglers.

"The Book Smugglers: What made you decide to step out of the historicals and venture into new territory?

Lisa: After writing historicals for so many years, I felt the need to stretch a little and challenge myself. I could never abandon historicals—I love them too much—but I knew there were different kinds of characters and plots I could write in a contemporary setting. And it has been some of the most satisfying work I’ve ever done, as well as the most difficult. The hardest part for me was finding a true, authentic contemporary voice and learning to “strip down” my writing style. But that forced me to express emotions and thoughts in a different, more creative way. The surprise was in discovering how much that refreshed my historical writing when I went back to it!"

Definitely don't deny yourself the experience of LK's contemporaries, Danielle. Especially don't deny yourself Gage, Hardy and Jack! LOL Seriously, don't. ^_^ I'll be interested to read your reviews when you do read them.

Oh, I have no self-control when it comes to LK, although I'll probably jump ship if her book ever start having backdoor sex and menage (two no-nos for me as a reader).

Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "Oh, I have no self-control when it comes to LK, although I'll probably jump ship if her book ever start having backdoor sex and menage (two no-nos for me as a reader)."

Oh, those are my no-nos, too. I doubt she would ever do that.

Keeping my fingers crossed, Jayne.

I thought Sugar Daddy was okay, but not my favorite of the series. To me the series seemed to get better and better with each book. The third book could be read as a stand alone, but the second really needs to be read after reading the first. I think Kleypas tried to establish the ground work and tone for her series with Sugar Daddy and, as I've seen other authors occasionally do, perhaps took too much time in doing so. I too would have liked to have seen more relationship interaction between Liberty and the two men in the story and less background. If you haven't read Sugar Daddy I recommend it just so you can read Blue Eyed Devil, which I really enjoyed, and get a better understanding of Hardy. Just keep in mind Sugar Daddy is the weakest of the three.

Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "Oh, I have no self-control when it comes to LK, although I'll probably jump ship if her book ever start having backdoor sex and menage (two no-nos for me as a reader)."

Agreed 100% As a reader I hope that if she ever does go in that direction, it would be mentioned in reviews (which is why I always mention those things for future readers). I would stay away from those books if I knew those things were in there.