Book Review: Blue Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas

At First Sight: Haven Travis had a privileged upbringing as the youngest child and only daughter of a prominent Houston millionaire. Rebelling against her father's expectations of her, Haven rushes into marriage with her college boyfriend Nick, even though no one in her family likes him. 

When Nick proves to be the worse kind of husband - the abusive kind - and Haven finally finds the strength to walk out, she returns to Houston to make a new life for herself with the support of her older brothers. 

The last person she expects to ever see again is Hardy Cates, the self-made millionaire she met once at her oldest brother's wedding and with whom she shared a kiss she could never quite forget. Back then sparks flew between them, and two years later is just the same. 

Hardy comes from "the wrong side of the tracks" and sacrificed so much to get to where he is in the oil business. He is generally unapologetic about his past - the good and the bad - and set out to woo Haven with all he has.   

Second Glance: Blue-Eyed Devil is the second book int he Travis series by Lisa Kleypas, but it can be read as a stand alone. I read and reviewed it when it was first published a few years ago but this weekend I felt like reading an old fave so I dusted it up to see how I still felt about it. 

I really liked it but it reinforced my belief that this is not quite a contemporary romance because the majority of the story is about Haven and her struggle to find her boundaries and her own self. The page time she actually spends with Hardy is about a third of the total length of the book. 

Still, Hardy does steal the show when he's around, so I don't mind the book being named after him. Both Haven and Hardy had gone through different hardships and are a bit damaged by the time they get together, yet they make sense together and work out their problems quite well. 

Bottom Line: I enjoyed getting lost in Blue-Eyed Devil, I like the characters and the Texas setting and all. It's a good story and it does have really well done romance on it, but it's also the story about a woman trying to find herself. So if you're expecting romance from beginning to end this one probably isn't for you. If you don't mind the mix off romance and chick-lit, then go for it. 

1/2