This was a very enjoyable historical romance. The main character Pandora was independent and clever, even though she had a hearing problem which affected her balance. Kleypas was able to use Pandora independence and need to win her own board game inventions to highlight the legal issues affecting women in the 1880's. The information about women's lack of rights to own property as well as medical information and a female doctor made this romance really interesting. Of course, Gabriel was gorgeous as well!

I love everything Lisa Kleypas writes, but I wasn’t expecting to enjoy Devil in Spring as much as I did. My type of historical heroine is much more an Annabelle or a Helen, and so Pandora took me by surprise.

As with the other books in this series, Kleypas has chosen a later nineteenth century setting: the 1870s. It’s a fascinating era where everything was changing – this is definitely not Jane Austen’s Regency!

We’ve met Pandora in the first two books, and knew she was eccentric, fairly extroverted, and interested in creating her own board games, not in marriage. She is also a twin who – like her twin and other sister – was raised in seclusion on the family estate. Because of this she can be naïve for her age.

However, there’s much more to her than that, and she has a secret she has been hiding from everyone. In her notes at the end of the book, Kleypas also suggests Pandora has ADHD.

Something that has been bothering me about historical romance for a while is the way very young heroines are always either far too mature for their ages (it’s rare to find HR heroines beyond their early twenties, but they so often act two decades older), or that they’re condemned by readers for NOT being too mature for their ages.

So I did a mental fist-pump when the hero’s father pointed out:

‘To play devil’s advocate – has it occurred to you that Lady Pandora will mature?’

What a novel thought!

She was becoming someone new, with him – they were becoming something together – and nothing was going to turn out the way she’d expected.

The hero, Gabriel, is the eldest son of the characters from a popular Kleypas book: Devil in Winter. He will one day be a duke, and the last thing he thinks he wants is being (accidentally) trapped into marriage to someone as unsuitable for the role of duchess as Pandora.

But trapped they are, and I believed the development of their relationship. They are both good people, but people with very different ideas about the world.

Even though there are some very dark moments in this story, a lot of it – thanks to the developing relationships between Pandora, Gabriel, and his family – was light-hearted and even funny. It’s nice to have two likeable main characters.

Kleypas does an incredible amount of research, and it is very obvious in this book, where she needed to find a plausible way to give a major character a near-death experience – and bring them back with realistic medicine of the day.

She also uses London and the Victorian setting as characters, which is why her books are more engrossing than many others writing in the same genre.

One thing: no self-respecting Englishperson would call aluminium “aluminum”!

I really am enjoying this series, and am annoyed there’s no information about book four!

‘Devil in Spring’ is the third book in historical romance author Lisa Kleypas’ new series, ‘The Ravenels’.

The first book in Kleypas’ new series was ‘Cold-Hearted Rake’ which came out in 2015 – and actually, I attempted to read it but DNF’ed after about four chapters. I don’t know why, but I could not get into it – there was none of the effervescent reading comfort I normally get from a Kleypas historical, which was disappointing. I was resigned to just sitting this series out, and patiently waiting for Kleypas to move onto her next series – whatever it may be. And then she made an announcement about who would be in the third book …

Ask pretty much any Lisa Kleypas fan, and they’ll tell you that one of their all time favourite couples she’s written in Evie and Sebastian from the third book the ‘Wallflowers’ series, ‘Devil in Winter’. Sebastian was a notorious rake who had done some pretty questionable things in the past … Evie was a red-headed innocent, with a stutter and new inheritance that made her an easy target for greedy relatives – their coming together involved Evie propositioning Sebastian to become her husband and help protect her wealth and independence – what neither of them bargained on was falling madly in love in the process. It is one of the hands-down best historical romance books and pairings in the genre. Hands. Down! So when Kleypas announced that the third book in her Ravenels series would focus on Evie and Sebastian’s son Gabriel Lord St. Vincent … well, I had to come onboard.

First off – I was able to read ‘Devil in Spring’ as a stand-alone, knowing nothing of what had previously happened in the first two books. Anyone who is not familiar with Evie and Sebastian’s story could likewise come into ‘Devil in Spring’ cold.

Gabriel is much like his father was – though rather than bedding numerous women, Gabriel’s notorious for having kept an inappropriate mistress for the last two years (a woman married to the American ambassador). He is a most tempting bachelor from a prosperous family, but with no intentions of ever getting caught in a marriage trap by a young miss … except that’s exactly what happens. Only, it’s Lady Pandora Ravenel who is quite literally caught in a settee and needs Gabriel’s help to get loose – and unfortunately when they’re caught in a compromising (but innocent) position, Gabriel is impressed upon to “do the right thing” and marry Pandora.

The only person who wants to be married less than Gabriel is Pandora – because she has plans for herself, and a business to run. And actually, I loved this aspect of the story – not only does Kleypas go into meticulously fascinating detail about women’s rights in this era (wherein even the Queen has spoken out against suffrage and suggested feminists should be whipped!) but Pandora’s business enterprise in the burgeoning board-game industry is modelled on real-life game designer Elizabeth Magie, whose patent for ‘The Landlord’s Game’ was considered direct inspiration for Monopoly (of course, a man called Charles Darrow basically stole her idea and for a long time her contributions were erased. *HUFF*!)

Gabriel is infinitely intrigued by the fact that Pandora wants to marry him about as much as she wants a salad fork in her eye – but the two agree to see if it’s worthwhile dodging ruinous rumours by having Pandora and her family stay with Gabriel’s tribe at his family’s estate.

“I’ll be nice as nice can be,” Pandora said. “But don’t you remember what happened at Eversby Priory, when a goose built her nest in the swans’ territory? She thought she was enough like them that they wouldn’t mind her. Only her neck was too short, and her legs were too long, and she didn’t have the right sort of feathers, so the swans kept attacking and chasing the poor thing until finally she was driven off.”
“You’re not a goose.”
Pandora’s mouth twisted. “I’m an awfully deficient swan, then.”

Pandora is most definitely a throwback to Kleypas’s archetype ‘Wallflowers’ heroines – the shy but brilliant young lady with quirks and secrets. Her background is both tragic and admirable, and it’s easy to see why Gabriel is fascinated enough to warrant getting to know her better, only to fall in love with her …

And Gabriel takes after his father as one of Kleypas’s better rakes. He’s thoughtful and kind, secretly feeling the pressure of his family and title and in need of someone like Pandora to keep him on his toes.

I will say that in the latter half of the book a political undercurrent comes into the plot which feels like it’s setting up for the second instalment (in which case, I’d come back for it!) but in Pandora and Gabriel’s story it felt a little disjointed. But that’s my only complaint in an otherwise stellar historical romance outing.

I may now go back and read books 1 and 2 in ‘The Ravenels’, but more likely I’ll just keep moving forward from this point on. It does feel really, really good to be back in the reading groove with Kleypas, who is one of those authors I come to rely on for a once-a-year release and guaranteed good read. And ‘Devil in Spring’ was a good way to get back in the groove.

5/5

Lisa Kleypas is finally back! I just loved this book, it was simply a perfection. Pandora and Gabriel were perfect for each other. I laughed so much reading it thanks to Pandora, she was such a breath of fresh air and one of my favorite characters. If you like your books to have a good story, love, heat and HEA look no further! You have done a fantastic job this time Lisa! Keep up the good work!

The very first historical romance that I read a few years ago was Devil in Winter, with the characters Sebastian and Evangeline. It was with great delight that I read of their son, Gabriel in ‘Devil in Spring’ and Lady Pandora, cousin to Devon Ravenel from ‘Cold Hearted Rake’. Kleypas has woven such a great story with so many passionate characters, I was fixated from the start. I just loved the characters of Devon and Sebastian so Gabriel had large shoes to fill and once again, Kleypas has developed a strong male character who has still such an innate sense of goodness. Pandora, in her unique way, is also endearing, and by the end of the novel, had grown on me. I so look forward to hearing about other characters especially Garret Gibson and Ethan Ransom and hope that Kleypas stays with her winning formula for historical romance novels.
I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love Lisa Kleypas historical romances, I have been very disappointing she hasn't written any for a while and then tada I came across this one on ARC. How ecstatic was I, the blurb sounds good with interesting characters, and its a Lisa Kleypas - need I say more.

Stupidly at 6am this morning I started reading it, 5 chapters in and I had to go to work..........lets just say not much is going to be done today, I'm sucked in!

Characters from some of Lisa's other historical books start popping up in the book from page 1 and I now want to go back and read their stories.

I cannot say much yet, having only just started. But its building and its not disappointing.........Dam the need for a pay check.

Lady Pandora Ravenel - is a quirky firecracker and I cannot wait to see the sparks fly with Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent who wants a 'meek proper' wife.