Where Dreams Begin

Title: Where Dreams Begin (2000)
Author: Lisa Kleypas (Avon)
Period: European Historical-Victorian (1830 England)
Grade: C

I'm not fair to Lisa Kleypas. I expect so much from her, what would be a good book by another author is only average by Kleypas standards. These are determents of being the Jane Austen of your generation. Sorry!

In Where Dreams Begin she returns to her wheelhouse with a respectable (often noble) heroine and wealthy lower-class upstart hero. The widowed Lady Holly is ending her three years of morning for her beloved husband when she encounters Zachary Bronson. After a clandestined kiss, Zachary is smitten. He concocts a plan to hire Lady Holly to teach himself, and his marriageable sister, the minutiae of the ton. If you’ve read better Kleypas their romance feels predictable from start to finish.

He is a likeable enough hero, but Holly is an enigma. Kleypas suggests that she accepts Zachary's offer because she has a hidden wild streak and secretly hopes to challenge convention, but the reader never sees that in action. If an author has to repeatedly tell you the character is brave or smart or unconventional, it is usually because she hasn't shown you the character to be so in the context of the plot. Rose, Holly's daughter, like all romance novel children is delightful and perfect in every way. Also, the subplot romance between the sister and Holly's cousin wasn't given enough room to grow. Where Dreams Begin wasn't a bad book, but certainly isn't one of Kleypas' better works.