Dude, the covers of this series just get worse and worse. I think I knew a couple of girls who went to prom in that dress. Also, the model is pretty, but she just…lacks the “chill lady doctor who casually threatens to castrate men” vibe, you know?
Anyway, so here we are on book 4/6 of the Ravenels series. If you can stretch your memory all the way back to 2015, you’ll recall that this was supposed to be a 4 book series, but whatever. If you’ve forgotten the last book (and I wish I could!): After 200 pages of Pandora and Gabriel acting weird and boring me to death, a bomb plot showed up in the last five chapters. Intrigue is afoot! You’d think they wouldn’t have given the “bombs and assassination” book a hot pink cover, but who am I to question the mysterious ways of Avon Books.
This book is pretty clearly not one of the original planned 4. I mean, besides the fact that the original 4 protagonists were clearly Devon, Helen, Pandora, and Cassandra and/or West (possibly together! I WANT TO BELIEVE). In book #3, literally everyone who runs into Ransom (our hero) immediately marvels over how his eyes are THE EXACT SHADE of Ravenel Blue, and they’re all like, “Dude, I bet you’re totally related to them.” And yet, when Ransom was first introduced in book #2, Helen — supposedly one of his relatives — doesn’t notice his eyes at all. So I’m thinking he wasn’t meant to be a Ravenel initially, but whatever, he is now.
London, 1876. Garrett Gibson is walking along the streets of the bad part of town, where she goes to give her medical services to the poor people of London. She’s the first and only lady doctor in all of England — she had to get her medical degree in France, because an English school wouldn’t accept her — and has spent the past couple of books running around with the Ravenels and fixing their problems for them.
The action shows up quickly: a bunch of dudes start harassing her, and soon it escalates into rape threats. Garrett breaks my heart by telling them that they should just go to a brothel — period-accurate, sure, but she is the forward-thinking, gender-role-breaking lady doctor of my heart, and it hurts me that she’s all, “Don’t rape me, pay to rape some other poor woman!” Actually, it seems like Lisa Kleypas is determined to make me regret complimenting her for the evolving feminist viewpoints in her recent books. There’s a casual, uncritical reference to prostitution like every ten pages in this book. SIGH.
(Here, here, here, here, here, and finally here, are some sources about prostitution as a manifestation of misogyny and violence against women. I don’t really want to interrupt my jokey review with Serious Business, but an alarming amount of people really think it’s a job like any other, and I want to drop my sources here to explain why I’m repulsed by how casually historical romance treats the issue.)
Anyway, Garrett thinks she’s managed to take them all down with her cane because she’s a badass, but then a guy steps from the shadows and he’s all, “Well, actually, you had some help.” M’lady. Garrett recognizes him, and notes that she’s had a feeling someone’s been following her for weeks: it was him, wasn’t it?
Ethan Ransom’s like, “Yup, I love stalking women!” You’ll recall he was first introduced following Helen around because Rhys asked him to. He tells Garrett that those guys would’ve taken her down if he hadn’t been there, and she’s all, “Excuse you, I have a black belt in fencing!” Is that how it works? Ethan gets all up in her space and shows her how easily he can disarm her, and naturally she’s less about the fighting lesson and more, “OMG, I am standing close to a boy!!!” In the interest of gender equality, Ethan is also all like, “OMG, I am standing close to a girl!!!”
Garrett wants to know what, exactly, Ethan does that makes him so good at beating up rapists, and Ethan’s like, “Well, I’m definitely not a spy.” Subtle! Then he blows a whistle to summon the constables; while he confers with one, Garrett asks another for deets on Ethan’s mysterious past. The constable tells her that Ethan is from Clerkenwell (shady neighborhood full of suspicious Irish people, you’ll recall from the previous book), and he got promoted to the top of the police force within like two minutes of joining. Some dude named Jasper Jenkyn, who’s a big deal in the Home Office, recruited Ethan away from the police, and the little people on the force don’t know much about what happened after that. Mysterious!
Ethan walks Garrett home, and she needles him that he wouldn’t do the same for a man — “I would rather you consider me as a physician, not a lady.” Ethan’s like, “Why not both?” Garrett notes that he has a trace of an Irish accent, though he tries to hide it, and he explains that he’s Irish, but hides his accent to avoid discrimination. He starts hitting on her, and she’s all swoony over a man with an accent, but quickly corrects herself that there is NO WAY he could be into her. She’s never been courted, because men are afraid of her and her medical degree. She’s all like, “He’s only following me around and holding me in dark alleys and being concerned for my safety PLATONICALLY.” You keep telling yourself that, girl. Ethan continues to be worried that Garrett can’t effectively defend herself, and offers to teach her some moves. (If you know what he means.) Garrett accepts, and they plan to meet the next day. Before he leaves her at her door, he gives her his police whistle as a combo rape whistle/emotional keepsake. Handy!
Ethan ruminates on the first time he saw Garrett. She was beating up a bunch of catcallers in book #2, and he was all, “I like a woman that can break my legs!” Sweetly, he thinks she’s pretty, and describes her mouth as A mouth with such pretty curves that it did something to Ethan’s knees every time he saw it. I like that Ethan is softer and more romantic than the other heroes in this series — he’s still very much in the Kleypas vein of tough, physically powerful men, but he’s less crude, and is just as swoony over Garrett as she is over him. They’re really adorable together.
Anyway, so he goes to see Winterborne, who’s arranged a meeting with West Ravenel. Weirdly, the first couple of books in this series established that Devon and West were first cousins with the Ravenel heir; it’s been retconned now to “distant cousins.” Lisa Kleypas, you’re gonna tell me that you changed West and Cassandra to distant cousins and still didn’t put them together? I’m taking this as an attack on me personally. West tells Ethan that he’s inherited a property in Norfolk from Edmund Ravenel, because he’s Edmund’s bastard — I mean, not that he says that out loud, but it’s pretty much acknowledged and accepted by everyone in the book. This is weird. When we last saw Ethan, everyone suspected but had not confirmed he was related to the Ravenels; Ethan himself seemed unaware of it. Now he says that he’s known since he was little? Whatever. Ethan doesn’t want the land, and says he’ll sell it to West. West gives him his card so they can work out the figures. This will come up again later, somewhere in the middle of all the bombing and government conspiracies.
The next day, Garrett goes to see her fencing instructor. Ethan is already there, beating the crap out of said instructor. He’s like, “And that’s how you fight in the real world.” Fair enough. They talk a little more about their pasts — Ethan’s father, as we know, worked in a prison in Clerkenwell, and Garrett’s dad was a constable. Her dad wasn’t too keen on his only daughter (and child) becoming a doctor, but he can’t abide anyone making fun of Garrett, so he supports her by default. Heh. Ethan talks about how his mom had an arrangement going with a married man (~Edmuuuund Raaaveneeel~), where she would go sleep with him every time the family needed money, and his dad would beat her every time she came back from seeing Ravenel. That’s pretty dark. The book is pretty even-handed about Ethan’s feelings toward his dad — the guy raised him even knowing Ethan wasn’t his kid, he loved Ethan’s mom but also abused her, etc. It’s not comfortable, but it is period-accurate, and Kleypas does a pretty good job showing that reconciling these parts of his father causes Ethan conflict. Anyway, despite all this, Ethan has vowed never to hurt a woman. That’s like the bare minimum, but good for him.
So they throw each other around a bit, blah blah SO VERY CLOSE TO EACH OTHER, blah blah HEAVING BREATHS blah. Then he gets an erection from standing too close to her, except it’s hilarious because unlike most heroines, Garrett’s read an anatomy book and knows what’s going on. Their lesson ends, and Ethan’s like, “You’ll never see me again! I mean, not because the erection thing was embarrassing, but because of my SECRET JOB FULL OF SECRETS.” Whatever, she totally will see him again, and there will probably be more erections involved.
(There’s a bit where Garrett sighs that she’s not particularly ladylike, and Ethan says, “I see no fault in you.” I point this out because it’s probably the single most romantic line in this book, and possibly this series so far? I’m not a huge fan of overblown love declarations, and the mostly muted, straightforward dialogue in this book is absolutely my cup of tea. It’s excellent.)
Garrett goes to hang out with Helen. Helen, girl! How have you been? I would catch you up to speed, but I don’t really want to relive Devil in Spring again. Garrett tells Helen that she’s been having boy problems, and Helen says that maybe Garrett should get over Ethan by going to parties, or…say, would she want to meet Helen’s cousin, West? Is Helen wingmanning for West? That’s hilarious. Garrett’s like, “Uh, the Garrett/West ship was sunk ages ago, where you been?” Helen’s like, “But, but, Ethan is dangerous!” and Garrett’s like, “Is that supposed to be a turn-off?” We’re in a romance novel, Helen, keep up. Helen tells Garrett that Ethan was somehow involved in the bombing at that party Pandora and Gabriel went to in the last book, and he might not be the safest person to get involved with.
Despite this, Garrett still wants to see Ethan, and she emos through her days. Her birthday arrives, and Garrett’s co-doctor, Dr. Havelock, is like, “Dude, you need to get laid.” He says that if she were a man, he would recommend she just go to a brothel, but as she’s a woman, she should take up a lover. Yeah! Men shouldn’t have to put in the effort of finding a consensual fuck buddy, they should just go buy another human being. SIIIIGH. Garrett snarks that she’s doing just fine, but nevertheless, she finds herself wandering around the city being emo…so very emo. She takes out Ethan’s rape whistle and blows it, and wouldn’t you know it, he shows up. So much for never seeing him again.
“That whistle is only for when you need help,” Ransom said in a low voice.[…]
Garrett couldn’t help smiling up at him. “I do need help,” she replied, striving for a normal tone. “I’m hungry.”
[…]
“Acushla,” he said in a rough whisper, “don’t do this.”
“It’s my birthday,” she told him.
His hot gaze turned her inside out. “Is it?”
She nodded, trying to look forlorn. “I’m alone and hungry, and it’s my birthday.”
HEE. And also aw! She keeps being self-deprecating about how he’s probably just following her around PLATONICALLY and how he got an erection the other day PLATONICALLY, and finally Ethan has to be like, “No dude, I like you, like like-like you, like I want to do indecent Victorian things that would ruin your honor like you.” Garrett’s like, “Oh.”
Still, he refuses to do anything about it, except then he takes her a street fair and they watch the fireworks and he buy her violets and starts kissing her neck, like, dude, that is the opposite of staying away from her. But okay, whatever. They run into an Irish woman, who uses Ethan’s real name — Éatán — in front of them. I only mention this because Garrett will start using his Irish name in moments of high drama. They get dinner, and there’s an interlude where Garrett refuses to eat a strange, disgusting foreign food known as spaghetti. Ha ha, Victorians! She says, “It looks like worms.” Garrett’s lucky instant ramen is a few hundred years off.
Garrett asks Ethan about his job again, and he refuses to give her details, again. She gets fed up and says they should talk somewhere private, and takes him to her house. Yeah! It’s 1876, and women can make the first move! Hilariously, Ethan’s like, “This is such a bad idea,” and the cab driver is like, “DUDE, a woman is inviting you into her house! GO, YOU DUMBASS.” Heh. Ethan freaks out at how old and shitty the lock on Garrett’s house is, and has a bizarre, slightly obsessive meltdown about how there’s nothing standing between Garrett and THE ENTIRE CRIMINAL POPULATION OF LONDON!!! I mean, I get the concern, but dial back the drama there, Ethan. Anyway, so Ethan knows a lot about locks. This will come up again later.
Garrett shows Ethan to her laboratory, and they bond over science and forensics and shit. Garrett tells Ethan that she wants to have an affair, and he gently turns her down:
The way she fumbled with the words, so unlike her usual precise way of speaking, devastated Ethan. He could only guess what it cost her to lay open her pride like this.
[…]
“Have you ever shared a bed with a man? Even once?”
“Why is that relevant?”
Her evasive response sent a pleasure-pang down to the pit of his stomach. “That means no,” he said again, his voice even softer than before.
And look! He finds out she’s a virgin, and doesn’t condescendingly think about how adorable her inexperience is! THANK YOU, ETHAN. Garrett won’t take no for an answer, though, and they end up making out. There’s a slightly bizarre aside about how he learned the ~erotic arts~ from some woman in India (presumably on the same trip where he learned martial arts), which, okay, whatever. Then he gets all up under her skirt, and Garrett…doesn’t know what the clitoris is. What? But…the anatomy textbooks! GIRL. So anyway, he has to ~teach~ her about orgasms. Ugh, fine.
Garrett wants to keep their affair going, but Ethan tells her he’s about to become a wanted man, and she’ll be in trouble too if she associates with him. Garrett presses, and Ethan admits that Jasper Jenkyn, as well as bunch of other people in the Home Office, are up to some shady shit with the Irish and Home Rule and look, is anyone actually reading this book for the politics? So whatever, government conspiracy, whatever, and Ethan is going to bust it wide open. He bids Garrett farewell and says they’ll never see each other again. Oh, whatever.
So Ethan goes to see Jenkyn the next day, and exposits a bit about how Jenkyn’s mortal enemy is some dude named Felbrigg, who’s head of the police. Ethan doesn’t like Jenkyn, and knows he’s involved in all kinds of shady shit, but Jenkyn was his mentor, and Ethan still lowkey craves his approval. Fair enough. There’s another dude working under Jenkyn, William Gamble, who considers Ethan a rival. File that away for later. Jenkyn says that he wants Ethan and Gamble to infiltrate a society event, in order to case the house it’s being held in. Oh, and it would be super helpful if Ethan were to bring a date. Say, that hot doctor lady he’s been hanging around with? Ethan flips out that Jenkyn knows about Garrett. He didn’t see that coming? Dude, you are a SPY. Anyway, Ethan confronts Gamble, and Gamble admits to following Ethan, and tattling to Jenkyn about Garrett. Apparently at one point Jenkyn implied that he wants one of his proteges to kill the other, and so Gamble wants to kill Ethan now. Ethan’s like, “Or…neither of us could kill each other,” and Gamble’s like, “Stop saying words.”
Meanwhile, Garrett is still emo. Dr. Havelock decides to cheer her up by inviting her to a party, because an esteemed doctor wants to meet her. Is this the same party that Ethan is going to? Yes, yes it is. Can’t wait for them to never see each other again!
Garrett gets a makeover montage — Helen’s maid tweezes her eyebrows, because “They’re caterpillars.” I bet Garrett would have hella followers on Instagram. Anyway, she’s having a good time at the party — the esteemed doctor turns out to be pretty un-sexist and they’re having a nice chat, but then the lady of the estate pulls Garrett away and introduces her to Jenkyn. Oh snap! Then Ethan joins their chat, and it’s just all kinds of fun. Jenkyn says he arranged for Garrett to be there, which Ethan does not like at all:
“It’s a warning for me,” Ethan said flatly, not looking at her.
“A warning about what?”
The question seemed to fracture Ethan’s self-assured façade. “He knows that where you’re concerned, I . . . have . . . a preference.”
[…]
“Preference,” Garrett repeated cautiously. “What does that mean? You prefer me to what?”
[…]
“I prefer you to everything,” he said gruffly.
AWWW. God, I love their dialogue.
So they make out in the stairwell a bit, and Garrett insists on accompanying Ethan on his spy subterfuge. There’s an aside where they run into Dr. Havelock, and he’s like, “Bro, you totally look like a Ravenel.” Garrett’s like, “Say what?” and Ethan’s all, “Stop saying words.” He takes her to a study to steal papers out of a safe, and of course Gamble walks in on them. Ethan thinks fast and kisses Garrett, and he and Gamble exchange some barbs about how they’re SUPPOSED to be WORKING. After Gamble leaves, Ethan says the papers in the safe are proof that Jenkyn and a bunch of other higher-ups have been conspiring to carry out bomb attacks and pin the blame on the Irish, whatever, they already brought this plot up in the last book. So now he has to turn Jenkyn in, and then he and Garrett will never see each other again, for real this time. She’s like, “Or you could come deflower me tonight,” and we all know which one Ethan’s going to pick, right?
But first: plot. He goes to deliver the papers to Felbrigg — Jenkyn’s rival and the head of police, you’ll recall — but notices that Felbrigg is SUSPICIOUSLY UNENTHUSIASTIC about being handed material to destroy his enemy. But then he’s like, “Whatever, it’s probably nothing,” and leaves. Dude, you are a SPY (x2).
Naturally Ethan goes to Garrett — there’s a bit about him bringing her a picture of a monkey, which is one of his only material possessions — and they have sex. She asks him not to leave, or at least take her with him on his adventures, but he refuses. And now, he has to go, and they’re never going to see each other again. Really, for real this time!
And it looks like they might really never see each other again, because the next night, Gamble comes out of nowhere and shoots Ethan. Gamble tells him that that Felbrigg is a cowardly custard and sold Ethan out to Jenkyn. Ethan’s like, “Well, that’s not at all how I planned it,” and he pitches himself into the Thames, where he definitely dies, and the book ends here.
Just kidding! Over at Garrett’s house, she’s puttering around in a much better mood now that she’s gotten laid. She thinks that once all this government conspiracy business is done with, Ethan will be able to date her like a normal person. Maybe they’ll even get married! Cutely, she thinks Ethan will have to be the one to propose, as he’s much more romantic than she is. HEE. They’re so precious together, you guys. I love them.
Then she gets a note from Kathleen, asking her to come see the Ravenels. Garrett’s like, “Weird,” but goes anyway. My girl Cassandra makes her only appearance of the book: she’s waiting for Garrett at the house, and she tells Garrett that there’s a stranger who needs medical attention. The man was shot and thrown into the Thames, and some passerbys pulled him out and brought him to Ravenel House, as the man had West’s card in his jacket.
Well, gosh. Who could it be?
Garrett wonders why the Ravenels took in a stranger, and West pops up behind her and says, “He’s not a stranger.” Then, to Cassandra: “Darling,” he murmured, “let me have a few moments with the doctor.”
WHY WON’T LISA KLEYPAS LET ME HAVE MY WEST/CASSANDRA SHIP ;_;
Anyway, West tells Garrett that the stranger asked for her, and seeing West’s eyes makes her put two and two together. She goes in to see Ethan, and he’s all, “I’m definitely dying, this is definitely our last moment together.” He makes a romantic speech, but Garrett’s like, “Hell no, we still have like ten chapters to go!” (Ethan: “You haven’t one romantic bone in your body.” HEE.) He asks her to say that she loves him, and she says she’ll tell him after his surgery. Oh, girl! That’s what Tahiri did to Anakin in the New Jedi Order books, and he died of a busted spleen and she went insane for the entire rest of the series, until Disney put her out of her misery by making new Star Wars movies and rendering the EU non-canon. Is that what you want for yourself, Garrett?! Anyway, she busts out her surgical kit and gets ready to save him. She summons Dr. Havelock to help her with the procedure, but he doesn’t think Ethan can be saved. He accuses Garrett of letting her emotions control her decisions, and says she’s prolonging Ethan’s suffering by trying to save him, instead of letting him die. Ouch. Dr. Havelock leaves, so Garrett has to save Ethan with West as her assistant. Heh. West keeps up a constant stream of commentary, until Garrett says, “If you don’t stop talking, I will chloroform you and do this by myself.” Ahh, she’s such a delight.
Garrett wants to give Ethan a blood transfusion, but lol Victorians, nobody knows if it will work. West volunteers to donate blood, and they’re all on tenterhooks if Ethan’s going to die or not. But he lives! Because he and West are related! West tells Garrett that Ethan is his half-brother. Then the book weirdly switches into West’s POV, where he’s all salty that someone tried to kill his “kinsman” (okay, I didn’t realize we were in a Highlander book). He and Devon decide that Ethan should be hidden from his assassins at Eversby Priory, the Ravenel estate in Hampshire. West is also like, “I love farming so much, I hate the city, take me back to my cows.”
Can I just put forth this Vine as an alternative to reading West’s book?
The Ravenels insist that Garrett also go to Eversby Priory with Ethan, partially because she’s on Jenkyn’s list too, and partially so she and Ethan can bang in relative privacy. Kathleen’s like, “Hell yeah me and Devon fucked all over that estate, A+ environment for premarital sex.”
Rhys Winterborne makes his only appearance of the entire book to pop up and see them off at the train station. He tells Garrett that he thinks she was right to try and save Ethan’s life, and gives her some PTO and money. And that’s it for him! Dammit, I miss him and Helen 🙁
On the way to Hampshire, Garrett and West talk about their lives and how he loves living on the estate and farming, blah blah character exposition because he’s the hero of the next book blah. Ethan eventually recovers, he and West bond, he and Garrett confess their love for each other and everyone is happy UNTIL THE FIRE NATION ATTACKS!
Jenkyn and Gamble are still after Ethan, and Gamble and some other dude show up at Eversby Priory one night. Naturally, Garrett is the one to run into them, and there’s like five seconds of suspense that they’re going to hurt her, but then Ethan busts in and saves her and then West beats up another guy and everyone ends up in the same room together and also Obama is there. I don’t know. They go back to London and whistleblow the whole Home Office corruption story to the London Times, and then Ethan goes to confront Jenkyn. Jenkyn tries to shoot Ethan, but Garrett shoots him first.
So Jenkyn’s arrested, Gamble’s arrested, Ethan gets promoted to assistant police commissioner, and he and Garrett skip off together to live in a world where people aren’t trying to kill Ethan every five days. Aw! I love them! I think they’re objectively cuter than Helen and Rhys, although I still like Marrying Winterborne more just for pushing my favorite character buttons. The spy plot in this book was actually simple enough to be followed, and it didn’t take up too much time with egregious exposition or scenes that took away from the main characters’ relationship. I skimmed through most of it because lol who was actually reading this book for that, but as a background plot that pushed the characters together, it was done very well.
And then we get a preview for Devil’s Daughter, because someone asked for that, I guess. West and Phoebe have been retconned into knowing each other since childhood, and West regrets messing up their relationship, because if she had been into him, he would never have spent the entirety of his twenties being a fuckboy. Whatever. I can’t say that his screen time in this book made me any more enthused for him as a main character, and I’m assuming another book about Sebastian’s kids will bring Gabriel back in the picture? But maybe Gabriel will be more palatable when I don’t have to read his obsessive, condescending thought processes. Maybe Garrett will save me by showing up halfway through the book and threatening to castrate all the men. I can dream!
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