Children Of The Dawn Book

Can The Hathaways series compete with Lisa Kleypas's fantastic Wallflowers series? Well I had my doubts, but if the first book, the wonderful Mine Till Midnight, is any indication of how this series will play out, my answer is a resounding Yes!

This book just flew by for me--I never once wanted to put it down! I loved the Hathaway family, with all their eccentricities, although (other than young Beatrix with her love for critters and her 'sticky fingers', and of course eldest sibling Leo with his boozing and carousing and I-don't-give-a-damn attitude) they seemed like a typical family to me. There's the broken hearted 28-year-old Leo, the early 20-ish frail young beauty Win, the 20-something young Gypsy named Merripen who has lived with the Hathaways as sort of a pseudo-brother for the past 15 years, the two teenage sisters, Poppy and Beatrix, and the one holding the whole family together, the ultra-responsible and protective 26 year-old beautiful spinster Amelia. The nearly poor Hathaways have recently lost their parents, and Amelia has sold the family home in London. Leo Hathaway has just inherited the family viscountcy, complete with crumbling estate in Hampshire, and he is now Lord Ramsay. But the new title doesn't bring much money--the estate is small and in disrepair, there's few tenants to bring in any income, and the title is thought to be 'cursed'. But Amelia (who herself is recovering from a broken heart brought on by a betraying fiancee) feels that the family needs a fresh start away from the sad memories of London, so off to Hampshire they go. But first Amelia and Merripen have to track down the wayward Leo, who they feel may be at the gambling house known as Jenner's. And that's where Amelia meets her future in the darkly mysterious, half-gypsy Cam Rohan.

We first met Cam, who works at Jenner's, in (I think) Evie's book ( Devil in Winter). Cam is part Irish, part Romany, but had lived the first 10 years of his life with his gypsy family. But then a relative dumped him in London as a 10-year old, and eventually (the late) Ivo Jenner employed him at his club and treated him as a son. Cam, with his keen mind, rose through the ranks at Jenner's, and now he's working as the right-hand-man to the club's new owner, Sebastian St. Vincent. Cam has a knack for making money, and has more than he can ever spend. And even though society looks down on him for his gypsy heritage, he's a huge financial success, has the respect of a few influential friends, and doesn't lack for the company of women. But Cam is restless and is thinking about returning to his gypsy roots. He's tired on living within society's restrictions, and longs for the open air and the freedom to do as he pleases. But then he meets Amelia Hathaway, and she throws a curveball into all his plans, and what he thinks he wants for his future.

Let me say I adored the character of Cam Rohan! What a sexy, sweet man! Loved his interesting, colorful back story (although I'm sure there's more to come), loved his struggle for his feelings for the sometimes too independent, responsible Amelia, loved his acceptance that he and Amelia were 'fated' to be together. I loved how he snuck that ring on Amelia's finger after their 'first time'! I loved how he got Amelia to loosen up and think about her own happiness for a change, and how he got her to accept him as a shoulder to lean on. This girl took on way too much responsibility within her own family. I also loved that he wasn't deterred by what society would think of his pairing with Amelia. As long as Amelia would accept him, that was all that mattered to him. He didn't spend much time thinking the typical "I'm-not-good-enough-for-her" thing, which I appreciated. Loved the dialogue he and Amelia had--and some of the things Cam said to her, were sweetly poetic and down right erotic! "I want to open you like a book and read every page. Footnotes included" and "I want you. I want to lie with you beneath constellations and clouds and shade trees."and "I can't promise you a perfect life. But I can promise that no matter what happens, I'll give you everything I have. We'll be together. You inside me...me inside you." Now who could resist that?

Well Amelia's resistance to Cam irritated me a time or two. My God this guy was everthing she could hope for! Who cares if she never wanted to get married! They matched up intellectually, physically (red-hot sexual chemistry), the man was kind, sincere, rich, drop-dead-gorgeous, and responsible. So what was holding her back? She though that Cam, with his gypsy heritage and what he had told her of his plans (this was before he realized he loved her), would not be content in a traditional marriage. She feared he would get restless and eventually leave her. Didn't she believe him when he said he'd found his "stopping place'? She was wary of getting her heart broken again, so she had trouble trusting Cam's words. I guess that was to be expected, but boy I wanted to shake her sometimes! There was a time where I thought she was just using him for sex, and I didn't like that about her. I was sad for Cam and I thought he deserved better. But thankfully Cam didn't give up and Amelia eventually listened to her heart, and put her fears behind her. Whew...

The rest of the book set up the future stories in this series quite well. I'm dying to know more about Merripen, and his possible connection to Cam (they have the same winged horse tattoo). I'm dying to know if Leo will get his act together before it's too late. I'm curious to see if Win will ever regain her health enough to see all her dreams for the future come true. Poppy seems like a level-headed girl (so far), and I'm interested to see how she fares in her first "season". Beatrix? I had a hard time believing she was 15--her antics (and the way her family treated her) made it seem like she was way younger. She seems like she's the strangest one in the whole Hathaway family, so I'm sure her story will be unique!

One more thing I almost forgot to mention--I was thrilled to see that Lillian and Westcliff (It Happened One Autumn) were the Hathaway's Hampshire neighbors--loved the scenes involving them and I loved when St. Vincent and Evie came to visit too. I love how LK incorporated her Wallflowers characters into this Hathaway series! It makes the transition that much smoother.

So, my expectations weren't too high for this book, but I turned out to be very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I liked it so much, that I'm going to scuttle my plans for my next read, and just move on to Win and Merripen's story (Seduce Me at Sunrise) next. Can't wait! 5 stars

Cam?