Deceitful, cruel, merciless and given to turns of fanciful revision of her own terrible history as a parent, Candy is not the person with whom a newborn infant should be left. However, Ella’s history affects her differently than her sister’s and after giving birth, Tara runs away, leaving the baby with their mother, who is shitful. And they will not ever recognize themselves. They aren’t ever going to wake up and realize how terrible they’ve been.

Kleypas keeps it very very real even while her characters navigate a world of exceptional privilege and ease: there is no happy ending in every sense when dealing with selfish, manipulative, borderline personality individuals. It’s painful, eloquent and full of some emotional messiness that is truly heartbreaking. But working concurrently with those elements is Ella and Tara’s story. So there’s heaping piles of sudsy and fun, with wealth and boats and jets and nannies and Hawaiian sand.

Jack takes care of Ella and baby Luke, and even though Ella is up at 2 and 4 and 6 am (oh, how I remember that) and reaches that point of so-tired-it-hurts, the protection of luxury and apartments with doormen and millionaires who want to help put the crib together dull that tired pain. And my personal favorite part, the ultimate fantasy of full-time child care, wealth, and ease for a single parent surprised by sudden parenthood. The reappearance of previous characters who are now exceptionally happy in their ever after? Oh yes. And other tropes that are familiar – the women who are instantly friends bonding across big personal issues? Yup.

On the surface, among the bubbles, we have a secret baby. The prime candidate: millionaire playboy Jack Travis. Ella does so, and decides she has to find the baby’s father. Tara has had a baby, and left the days-old baby with their mother with no intentions of returning. They stay with you long after you thought they’d be gone.Įlla Varner is living in Austin with her boyfriend when she receives a call from her mother, Candy, a person who has abused and neglected her and her sister Tara. Those suds may look like bubbles, but they weigh fourteen tons. Kleypas takes the funny, frothy elements of contemporary romance, and imbues them with meaning, with importance, with real and visceral feelings that make the ultimate reading experience satisfying. And it looked without blinking at painful realities that women deal with, from new motherhood to surviving abusive parents to figuring out who you really are. It was a funny and enjoyably friendly and utterly sudsy fantasy. Reading Smooth Talking Stranger made me appreciate even more Lisa Kleypas’ skill and talent in writing romances that feature familiar themes with memorable, unique characters.

Smooth talking stranger by lisa kleypas