So Lisa Kleypas is one of the reigning queens of romance novel writing. She’s got some of the best wit around, and her smolder is top notch. Therefore no matter what she writes, I will eventually read. This time it’s Brown-Eyed Girl her contemporary romance published in August as part of her Travis series.
This time it’s Avery Crosslin, wedding planner extraordinaire, and Joe Travis, last of the Travis kids to get a book. Avery is an up and coming wedding planner with her sister as her business partner, but has quite a load of relationship baggage. Joe is the last unmarried Travis, a family of bajillionaires from Texas oil, property etc. They meet at a fancy wedding that Avery planned, have a one night stand (more unusual for a romance novel), and then the story rolls out from there.
It was incredibly mediocre. My issue I’m finding I have with this Travis series has finally come to the forefront: the men are always perfect. Too perfect. And the women are the ones with all of the issues. I can see why she would do that in some ways, more “relatable” to some modern gals, while giving them a fairy tale prince, but overall I just find it incredibly frustrating. There’s no way these guys are this perfect. It’s also boring. The B plot romance of Avery’s sister and their employee was way more enjoyable has he at least had a personality beyond being perfect. The one part I did like was when the hero and heroine were getting to know each other they have a phone conversation about what she’s reading, and there’s a pretty great defense of romance novels in there. Way to get meta Ms. Kleypas.
Overall it was a read and forget kind of book, and not up to her usual standard. But for one night of just me and the cats it worked quite perfectly. If you’re a completist there are worse books in her library, but if you’re just starting out on a Kleypas journey there’s way better ones to read first.
