Julia Reviews The Hathaway Series by Lisa Kleypas

As everyone at this blog most likely knows by now, I read historical romance as if it sustains my life, but there are a few series' that I have heard about but just have not got around to reading. If the whole series hasn't received laudatory reviews, there is usually one book that people are gushing over, and since I am the type of person who must read in order and these omg!amazing books are usually like book 4, I go back and start the series over.

That is what happened with The Hathaway's. I had read one other Lisa Kleypas series, The Wallflowers, about the time I started cataloging on Goodreads. I thought there were some ups and downs to that one, but nothing that made me rush out and read this next series. Over time I heard some rumblings and I felt I should start reading it. 

This series which is about a family of five siblings, is like watching a chick flick and eating popcorn. I know I am not going to get some of the oh so great twists and turns as some of the other romances I have read, but in general the books are entertaining and engaging. The characters themselves are actually some of the most well rounded and consistent across the series as I have seen in a romance novel series. 

The thing with romance novel series' is that you have one main couple who are finding their happily ever after and after they find it.. well they can get rather dull. Why is this? Well part of the happily ever after is losing your personalities apparently, or so I've been taught by many (not all) romance series. The other thing I see a lot are characters who were outstanding secondary characters become people completely different from the characterization we have been shown to a lackluster effect when they are the star of their own novel. I HATE that! It happens so often! But neither of these things happened in this series, even across all five books.

The series really flows really well from one book to the other with each book focusing on one of the siblings and their love. The problems that didn't make it stand out for me is that everything is kind of predictable. And each book has a really long anticlimactic part at the end. The formula was really noticeable after awhile. But the beginnings of each book were unique(ish) and good. But once the love was wrapped up with a nice bow, there was always something that just wasn't wrapped up that I didn't care about.

Overall though it was a really fun series that I enjoyed and if you like some unique humor with historical flavor, I would check them out. I think the latter ones (especially the forth book) are really better when you have the background and the full story arc for Leo.

It's worth a looking into if you like historicals and are sick of the ton. Overall every book was a 3/5 from me (which is good :) ).