Caravan of love
“Seduce Me at Sunrise” by Lisa Kleypas
It’s Dress-Up Night at the RMB offices, and in honour of “Seduce Me at Sunrise,” the theme for the night is “Gypsy Nights.” Lola, swathed in diaphanous silk and with thousands of bells tinkling away, swiped at the gauzy curtains, Sheridan following hot on her heels.
“Come in my dears,” crooned Mimi. “Tell Madame Mimi your worries, and ask away!”
“Wow, Mimi takes this whole Dress-Up thing really seriously!” whispered Sheridan to Lola worriedly.
“Why do you think we always veto “Serial Killer Night”??” hissed Lola.
Polishing away at the jewelled stones encrusting her modest bosom, Sheridan solemnly responds “this is true” while eyeing the skull candle holder in the corner. “Hey Mi, Is that…is that my magic 8 ball you’re using?” Sheridan asked in amusement, while pointing a jewelled index finger.
“Who is this Mi you speak of? There is only you, Lola, Madame Mimi and the spirit world of which we will be meeting. Sit down my children, and tell Madame Mimi all about Merripen the asharibe! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!” “She’s laughing. Why is she laughing?!?” shrieked Sheridan grabbing Lola’s hand.
“OMG!!” shrieked Lola. “How did you even know I was gonna ask about Merripen? And you even know he’s an asharibe, a fighter!” she squealed, clutching tightly onto the hand-printed sign around her neck which blared “Marry Me Merripen the Asharibe (aka fighter)!”
“It’s because I have… this,” said Madame Mimi dramatically, tapping the centre of her forehead.
“A zit?” asked Sheridan quizzically.
“A unibrow?” perked Lola helpfully.
“The third eye you little…..” Madame Mimi inhaled serenely. “I shall not be drawn into your petty squabbles, as I am not from your world.”
“Oh my God are you an illegal immigrant Mi??” exclaimed Lola. “Coz you know we can get into a LOT of trouble for…”
“Do you want to ask your damn questions or not?” huffed Madame Mimi.
“Ok fine. Sheesh. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the mystical mattress today! First question! ‘In order for me to marry a chocolate covered gypsy warrior broody sex god like Merripen, will I have to be struck by scarlet fever and then subsequently incapacitated for a good portion of my life? Because let me tell you Mi! If that is what it takes, you bet I’ll be visiting the contagious diseases ward at the general hospital! Oh to have a man who will, despite his fear of heights, wash my bedroom window for me daily so that I may always see blue skies, oh to have a man who would be willing to follow me to death because the thought of living one day without me is an unacceptable proposition. Madame Mimi! Tell me! What does the magic ball say?!?”
Closing her eyes, Madame Mimi draws a breath and then on the exhale, picks up her magic ball. Two shakes on each side later, she opens her eyes and murmurs her response “The spirits have spoken to me. The answer is “Reply hazy, try again.”
“What?” groaned Sheridan, who slumped dejectedly back into her chair.
“OKOK my turn, my turn!” yelped Lola. “Will I ever be caught by Merripen on the floor of my bedroom, wearing “exercise clothes” and engaging in what is obviously a pre-cursor to yoga with my doctor, only to be mistaken by Marvellous Merripen as engaging in a bout of yoga, who hence goes berserk as a result and goes all “Merripen the Barbarian” and harshly growls at my doctor that he is “a dead man.” Squeal!”
Madame Mimi peered into her magic ball. “Don’t count on it.”
“What?!?” roared Lola in outrage.
*Sheridan pats Lola’s back sympathetically* “What are the odds that one night, I will be kidnapped from my bed one night in an old gypsy ritual and then taken to a nearby cottage to be thoroughly ravished by my once brooding mankeeper now turned broody lover?”
Calmly raising the magic ball and whispering softly to it, Madame Mimi responds “The spirits say your question confuses them, ask only one question at a time.” “Okay” Sheridan ventures cautiously. “What are the odds that I will be kidnapped from my bed in an old gypsy ritual that includes a little bit of bondage action?” Murmuring to herself and shaking the magic ball, Madame Mimi smiled mysteriously and said “Most likely.”
Yelping in excitement and high fiving Lola, Sheridan continues “okay okay! Then pray tell me, what are the odds that I will then be ravished thoroughly by a broody Alpha gypsy who has spent his entire lifetime thinking about loving me with such passion, that no force on earth could stop him from branding me his in the most primal and delicious of ways?!??” Picking up the ball in an excruciatingly slow fashion and circling it around her, Madame Mimi opens her eyes. “My sources say no.”
“WHAAAT???? What kind of gypsy sham are you, you - ” Sheridan yells while trying to lunge across the small table at Mimi.
“Uh uh uh,” tsked Lola, pushing Sheridan back into her seat. “We still need the answers to our questions Sher! You can kill her AFTER. OK, next question! “What are the chances that Merripen would have turned out to be the long-lost gypsy son of an earl, and suddenly inherit fabulous wealth and a title? Because I gotta tell you, that was LAME. I mean, I would have been quite happy if Lisa Kleypas had left Merripen and Win happy in their own little world, prosperous enough with more than enough money to buy bread and stuff, but not drowning in wealth. I really thought it was kind of a cop-out you know! I mean seriously, how often does something like that happen anyway?”
Madame Mimi pondered her magic 8 ball, swirling around and peering into its mysterious depths. “It is decidedly so.”
“Crap, maybe Lisa Kleypas also looked into her very own Magic 8 ball,” mused Lola unhappily.
“I am not speaking to her anymore” Sheridan whispered to Lola.
“Lola will you tell Sheridan to stop flicking bits of her bodice at me? It..ouch! Sheri stop it!! It smarts! LOLA!!”
“Ok last question! What are the chances that WAY too much time is spent on Cam and Amelia from the first book?”
Madame Mimi closed her eyes, swished her hands over the Magic 8 ball one last time and murmured, “Chances are good.”
“Dammit!” growled Lola. “Because seriously, no one needs to see the Cam and Amelia Show: Part II! We’re so over it already! Back to that hunka gypsy love Merripen the Broody and his beloved, Winnifred the Invalid, who manages to show that she has returned to the pink of health and can henceforth, engage in vigorous and flexible activities.”
“Phew, I’m famished! I think Sven’s made some really tasty stew to keep with the theme! So Madame Mimi, are you headed outside?” asked Sheridan.
“Why?”
“Coz aren’t you sleeping outside in a tent or something, as a gypsy fortune-teller?” Lola wondered.
“Pfft, fortune teller? Moi?” asked Mimi, hastily removing her purple turban. “Dinner you said?”
Sayuri said,
October 15, 2008 @ 12:37 am
I thought this sounded suspisciously like Wuthering Heights and I wasn’t sure I could read it…..I probably will cause I read the first one and I have OCD when it comes to reading series but stil…..
Alice said,
October 15, 2008 @ 1:24 am
Oh, Sayuri, read it. It has certain parts where it’s not worth worshipping, but it has Merripan. It’s all worth it for him. Worth it. Merripan. *sigh*
The OCD calls to ya.
Meredith said,
October 15, 2008 @ 1:31 am
I’ve been waiting to see what you’d say about this one. I read it the day it came out. Twice. But even though I did show that much enthusiasm for it, I feel like it was more for the character of Merripen than the actual story. She set up these great characters, such awesome longings, and then it’s like, “Oh, he decided he could marry her after all. And look, he did it the same way Cam did in the previous novel.” Trite!
I was expecting a Dreaming of You type of worship/obsession/longing. Merripen certainly had a Derek-Craven-ness about him, just not the story! Dah! I am so upset. Even though I read it again last night. Still upset. And I’ll still be upset when I read it later in the week.
Lady L said,
October 15, 2008 @ 5:38 am
I liked it and I’m happy about it cause I had such high hopes for this one and it didn’t dissappoint me, I liked that he became a rich lord in the end, cause if he hadn’t come from wealth then there would have been no reason for them (cam and kev) being separated, ya know because nobody would’ve been out to kill them, so it had to be like that to support that part of the story. I really liked this one, and he did remind me of Derek a lot, I also liked the abduction even if Cam did it the same way simply because it had been his childhood fantasy so it became personalized he didn’t do it just because, he did it cause he had alway thought of himself as Hades and Win as Persephone, besides it is a Rom tradition and they both are Rom, it’s a culture issue that’s how they roll.
Lauren said,
October 15, 2008 @ 6:06 am
I agree with pretty much everyone else, it was good but something about the story was off, and yeah why did it feel like I got more Amelia and Cam in this one then I did their story.
Dulce said,
October 15, 2008 @ 6:25 am
I liked it alot and Merripen aka Eric Bana what an alpha hero! The only thing that bugged me was that it took the man so long to finally be with Win. I fell in love with Leo, who is Daniel Craig to me and can’t wait for his book. Yes, I picture male celebs as the lead male characters. Christian Bale is Cam in my mind. OK enough rattling! I am not a ferret fan but that little guy made me laugh, especially at having the hots for the governess. It seems like she will end up being the owner of Leo’s heart. Finally, it will be interesting to see how Lisa Kleypas writes the story of the kleptomaniac sister.
Lauren said,
October 15, 2008 @ 8:15 am
I thought that Leo was just ganna be a sluggish little loser after the first book, I am now waiting for his book!
La Lola said,
October 15, 2008 @ 9:13 am
I think personally, the book on its own was good. And if I hadn’t had such high expectations of it, I would have found it a lot better. Which is more an issue of my expectations rather than Lisa Kleypas’s writing ability I must admit. But I expected this undying passion between Merripen and Win, which I guess we got, but I didn’t feel that the whole book was steeped in emotion like with “Dreaming of You” or even “Again the Magic.” I guess it’s because we’ve been told over and over that Merripen has this obsessive love and doomed love for Win. But I didn’t really see that. Because the only obstacle as far as I could see it was that Winnie was sick, and when she obviously got better, what’s to keep 2 of them apart? And as Sheridan put it, in the second half of the book, post-abduction, Merripen just completely morphed into a whole new character!
So yeah I liked the book. But did I love it? No. And that makes me sad!
Alexandra said,
October 15, 2008 @ 9:29 am
I liked this book! I really enjoyed watching Kev finally stop fighting his attraction to Win. I didn’t mind the time that Amelia and Cam got in the book, because I’m always looking for more info on characters from previous books (I am never ready to let them go!). So who do you think is going to get the next book? One of the girls or Leo(possibly with Miss Marks?)?
Sheridan Sakura Carlotta said,
October 15, 2008 @ 10:43 am
Hi Alexandra, I think Lisa Kleypas is back to her contemporary series next, and then my money is on Leo and Miss Marks for sure! I don’t know about Kev and Win. I loved The Longing and the yearning parts in the beginning of the book but then, I kept getting more and more annoyed with Kev and his excuse of how he might destroy her with his monstrous penis and fill her belly with a child. And then, like magic, it all went away. Amazing! *rubs neck* I think I’m still suffering from whiplash.
Also, did anyone else think that Kev at the cottage was a completely different person?
Meredith said,
October 15, 2008 @ 12:13 pm
Yes, he totally did change. And I, as well, am suffering from the ‘lash. I’m so upset!
Sayuri said,
October 15, 2008 @ 6:09 pm
*destroy her with his monstrous penis*
Ahh but what a wat to go huh?
Alexandra said,
October 16, 2008 @ 2:03 am
I think that is who he really is deep down. How he would have turned out if he hadn’t been abused as a child. Only being alone with Win with no outside distractions was able to bring it out.
I will admit that his fear of hurting her became annoying, but would the book have been as long without it? Maybe she should have cut some of that out and spent more time on Kev learning the ropes of becoming an earl and maybe the grandfather and him bonding (how cheesy does that sound?). I would love to see his grandfathers reaction when he realizes that Kev is already acquainted with Lord Westcliff!
Lauren said,
October 16, 2008 @ 8:54 am
I think I heard somewhere that Poppy was next, can’t remember where.
Lauren said,
October 16, 2008 @ 8:55 am
Posted before I finsihed, I meant to add, of everyone she seems to be the least out there of the family.
Alice said,
October 17, 2008 @ 1:02 am
Lauren, I think Lisa Kleypas mentioned that in an interview. Poppy, the one who wants to be normal the most, is supposed to be next. Leo needs to heal a bit more, according to Ms. Lisa.
Alexandra said,
October 17, 2008 @ 8:26 am
I have trouble remembering Poppy after each book. I think because she isn’t as quirky as the rest of her family, she is just overshadowed. It will be interesting to see what quirks (she must have some to be in that family!) come out in her book! It will also be interesting to see what type of man she is paired with!!
Drusilla von Drake said,
October 31, 2008 @ 1:50 am
I think one of the main issues with the Win/Merripen romance (other than the fact that the only obstacle after Win got better was Merripen’s stubborn attitude…or as ya’ll put it *monstrous penis*) was that Kleypas couldn’t just stick to their story. She kept adding all this stuff with the tattoos, and Cam/Ameilia and this or that.
In Dreaming of You, Kleypas really played up the issue of class difference, so there was conflict coming from both the heroine and the hero. In this novel, Win didn’t give a damn that she would marry a gypsy AND her sister was married to one already. So it was this one-sided conflict that just made you want to hit Merripen over the head.
La Lola said,
October 31, 2008 @ 10:54 am
Hey Drusilla. I agree with your point about the one-sided conflict thing. Because I didn’t get a sense that the conflict in this book was an insurmountable, against-all-odds kind of thing. I much prefer books which are driven by internal-conflict as opposed to external-conflict and maybe the focus on so much of Cam/Amelia/ tattoos of a horse was because there really wasn’t that much internal conflict between Merripen and Win.