3.10 Judgment - Hello Stranger (The Ravenels #4) by Lisa Kleypas

Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the tenth day of the month is "Judgment." I have personally decided that I will pass judgment on a book on the tenth day of each month.

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The Ravenels

Cold-Hearted Rake
Marrying Winterborne
Devil in Spring

Hello Stranger is the fourth book in Lisa Kleypas' Ravenels series, which is a series you should only read after you've read The Wallflowers series, so you'd have to read like eight books to get to this point, so I say only dive in if you're really committed to so-so historical romance novels. However, I was really eager to read this book because it was the one about the lady doctor! Woot!

This cover makes zero sense. That is all.

Garrett Gibson is the only female doctor in England. She's doing just fine on her own until she falls for ex-detective Ethan Ransom. With his blue eyes and broad shoulders and tendency to tell Garrett how beautiful and fabulous she is, not to mention giving her flowers and kissing her senseless, how is Garrett supposed to look beyond his secrecy and occasional bouts of random violence?

Interesting characters: This is just utter wish fulfillment for me. I want Ethan to be a real person and I want Garrett to be with him. LOL. I just swooned over this guy with his perfect words and perfect actions and I thought Garrett was absolutely amazing in her independence, defiance of cultural norms, and absolute competence.  Was any of this realistic? Absolutely not. People don't act these two in real life and they certainly don't talk like them, but they're so amazing and I wanted to keep hanging out with them. Wish fulfillment to the max.

Believable conflict: I guess. Ethan's into some weird espionage and Garrett's gotta figure out how she wants to deal with that while Ethan's trying to protect her so she doesn't get caught up in it. They're both crazy about one another, but Ethan's job is really getting in the way of their love story.

Emotional tension: Nah. They both like each other. 

Snappy dialogue: This is what I want! I spent the whole book just highlighting dialogue and wishing to be as witty as the characters in a Lisa Kleypas book.

"I don't mind being 'on the shelf,' as they say. It happens to be a very interesting shelf." (page 59)

Being a doctor in that time when germ theory was just starting to be accepted had to have been an absolutely fascinating time. 

"I can't live in the country." Garrett tried a spoonful of sorbet, letting the tart, sugary frost dissolve into a cold flood on her tongue. "Among other things, I'm afraid of cows."
"Because of their size?" Helen asked sympathetically.
"No, it's the way they stare. As if they're plotting something." (page 63)

LOLOLOL. 

"....Marriage is a sack race: you may find a way to hop together toward the finish line, but you would still reach it more easily without the sack."
"Then why do it at all?"
"Our existence, even our intellect, hangs upon love - without it, we would be no more than stock and stones." (page 71)

I don't think my life would be easier without my marriage, to be honest. Our partnership is what makes our lives work smoothly and well.  I don't think of it as a sack race at all.

"Haven't you read the copy of Hamlet I gave to you?"

"I didn't finish it," Ethan muttered. The older man was obviously displeased.

"Why not?"

"Hamlet spends all his time talking. He never does anything. It's a revenge play with no revenge." (page 142)

Anything that acknowledges that Shakespeare is boring and too talky wins in my book.

"....You'd do more good for the world that way than trying to become a man."

"I have no desire to become a man," Garrett said coolly. "That would be backsliding." (page 186)

An absolute burn towards all men. 

"A true friend will tell you when he thinks you're making a mistake."

"A true friend will be making the mistake with you," Winterborne said dryly. (page 259)

I don't know where I stand in this dichotomy. 

Happily ever after: Sure, sure. They're together and no one is shooting at them, Ethan has accepted his connection to the Ravenel family, and it's all happy, happy, happy.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. I'd give it five stars except you have to read so many mediocre books to get to this one. 4.5/5 stars

Line of note:

On the surface, everything was routine. But underneath she was miserable, giddy, and shamed, all at once. The effort to regular herself was exhausting. (page 128)

The effort to regulate herself was exhausting. This is me when I have to do basically anything outside of my house. I also really like how it describes young, uncertain love this way. 

Thing I looked up:

costermonger (page 79): a person who sells goods, especially fruits and vegetables, from a handcart in the street (British, dated)

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To see what Bestest Friend wrote about judgment, go visit her at Too Legit to Quit.