Because You’re Mine (Capital Theaters #1) By Lisa Kleypas

2.5 out of 5 stars

Because You’re Mine is split into two parts.  In the first half, we have wonderfully believable protagonists (an innocent, overly optimistic girl of eighteen and a famous, jaded theatre actor) who meet, are drawn to one another, and fall in love.  The characters are well developed, the story is engaging, and there’s just the right amount of side plot and theatre details to fill out the landscape. Then comes the second half.  After a two-month time lapse, our engaging characters have somehow morphed into moody, lackluster characters being manipulated by exaggerated plot twists.  None of the wonderful tension or development we’ve seen in the first half pays off, giving us an unsatisfying conclusion for a very promising beginning.

Madeline Matthews is the third daughter of a wealthy, established family.  Unfortunately, her parents are determined to marry her off to the elderly, lecherous Lord Clifton.  She’s determined to avoid this fate and hatches a plot (a bit of a leap, and initially hard to swallow): she’ll ruin herself by offering her virginity to a well-known actor and rake, Logan Scott, thinking that there’s no way Lord Clifton will go through with their marriage knowing she’s no longer an innocent.

Logan Scott, the man she’s chosen almost on a whim, grew up the abused son of a tenant farmer.  With a fierce determination that has given him a reputation as being rather cold and heartless, Logan (original name Jimmy Jennings) has molded himself into a renowned actor, manager, and director of the Capital Theatre group.  There are a variety of references to a past love affair -- a faithless, flighty social climber who cheated on Logan (trying to trade up) that has also made him particularly distrustful of women and the idea of love.  Though Madeline propositions him right away, Logan initially refuses to give in; he feels that she is too innocent and naïve, and though he’s drawn to her, he feels as though keeping away is the honorable thing to do.

The first half of the story really is excellent – despite the improbable-seeming concept, the two main leads are tremendously engaging.  The problem is in the second half – because they’ve already fallen in love with each other, and because there are still so many pages to fill, Kleypas delays the eventual happy ending through a series of oh-my-goodness-really? plot twists and painfully drawn out misunderstandings, all of which are a bit wearing on the reader.

I loved the first half… and wanted to like the second half… but ultimately, it is a barely-recommended to me, and much of the joy I felt getting to know the protagonists had dissipated by the novel’s end.

Other Things to Know:

Logan Scott first appears in Somewhere I’ll Find You.  Of the two Capital Theatre novels, I prefer this one, but I am a bit ambivalent about both.  You don’t need to read the first one to enjoy Logan’s story here, and I’d almost recommend that you either read just this one (the stronger of the two) or just skip this entire series completely so that you can enjoy the Wallflowers or Hathaways collections.