Dreaming of You (Gamblers Book 2)

This was just the most satisfying story. I loved the people in it, Derek & Sara, they were compelling and this story was so much more than just a story, she really captured the magic of storytelling with this book. Very special!

That was my absolute favorite line in the book! Derek! *swoon*

The book was intense and passionate and everything a romance novel should be and more. This is a keeper, and I recommend it to everyone.

Lisa Kleypas is a genius!

I just now discovered Lisa Kleypas and have enjoyed all of her books so far. This one kept my attention from beginning to end. The only part I did not appreciate was the villain and how this person was brought to justice. That part didn't make as much sense. The story was great though. I highly recommend this book!

This book has been firmly entrenched in my small "keeper" stash for the last 8 years. It has that special something that makes you want to pick it up every six months or so to re-read all those "good parts".

What a terrific read. The angst he went through when he gave her up was what every woman hopes. LOL. Lisa Kleypas never lets me down. Just finished the wallflower series and I saw this come on my kindle so I bought it. Don't pass this one up!

I loved that the main characters (Sara and Dereck) where working class people. He rose from poverty to become one the richest men in England....and Sara a very admired author working hard on her next book. The story is very touching, one of my favorite from this author.

Definitely a fun read. A bit unrealistic, even for this genre. Our hero, with his tragic background, attracts too many women too easily, has acquired too much social power. While this is the norm, I found him unconvincing.

Loved this book!!! THis is the first book by the author that I have read. All I can say is I am so glad I decided to try her out. LOVED Derek! I can see why the author says he is the most talked about of her heros. The scenes in the ball were great! I cant see anyone not liking this book.

Kleypus is always great. I read on her website that this is one of her fave H's. But I really don't see a big personality here. Other of her H's are far more dynamic to me. I do like the h, she is a dynamo. I'm really not fond of H's that have been this promiscuous, with bitchy ex lovers, especially bitchy exs that are crazy. Though I liked the story overall, it's not my favorite of hers.

In the shelter of her country cottage, Sara Feilding puts pen to paper to create dreams. But curiosity has enticed the prim, well-bred gentlewoman out of her safe haven--and into Derek Craven's dangerous world.

A handsome, tough and tenacious Cockney, he rose from, poverty to become lord of London's most exclusive gambling house--a struggle that has left Derek Craven fabulously wealthy, but hardened and suspicious. And now duty demands he allow Sara Fielding into his world--with her impeccable manners and her infuriating innocence. But here, in a perilous shadow-realm of ever-shifting fortunes, even a proper "mouse" can be transformed into a breathtaking enchantress--and a world-weary gambler can be shaken to his cynical core by the power of passion. . .and the promise of love.

I love this book! Derek Craven is my all time favorite hero bad boy. The pages with him and Sara Fielding sizzle. I recommend this book to everyone.

Another excellent book by Lisa Kleypas. I can't seem to put her books down. The book arrived in the condition the buyer described and arrived to my home in just a few days. I would diffently purchase from this buyer again.

Unloved, poor and uneducated the hero tries to become a better man by becoming rich. However, he always lack the affection he really needs, until he meets the heroine. This is a really nice wounded hero story.

Lisa Kleypas does it again. The storyline is delightful, entertaining, sexy and passionate. It shows how love can turn adversity and hurt around as well as hope for redemption. Couldn't stop reading until I finished it. Enjoy!

Thankyou Lisa Klepas for giving us Derek Craven. A complicated man who was born in a drainpipe and was left to be raised by other prostitutes. At a young age he was lying, cheating and stealing and sleeping in doorways to survivhis book a few years ago but I never forgot Derek Craven. e. He pulled himself out of the gutter and managed to build an empire by building a gambling hall and entertainment palace fit for kings and dukes.Enter Sarah Fielding. A 25 year old best selling author of a successful novel. She was lurking around Cravens hall doing research on gambling for a new novel. Heard fighting in the alley and ran to investigate, pistol in hand. A man was on the ground with 2 others beating him and slashing him in the face with a knife. She just wanted to scare them with a gunshot but her very bad aim ended up killing one of the attackers. The other ran off. Sarah helped the man back to Cravens where his help attended to him. Derek was very rude to Sarah and ordered her to leave. That is the beginning. You have to read it to find out what happens......I read this book some years ago but Never forgot Derek Craven

I was expecting an amazing story given the reviews but it was so bad that I could barely finish it. The plot was bizarre and the characters awful. Derek was in no way charming or compelling enough that a woman would be tempted to throw over her respectability - he sleeps with a prostitute that looks like the heroine (which is tender moment for her-what?!) almost chokes to death another woman, and was just completely mean to everyone. His only redeeming quality was that he saved the heroine from being assaulted twice--oh the romance. Sara was just a completely unrealistic character - shes a novelist who wrote on subjects that would have completely ruined her if she had actually lived in the time period. Yet despite the things she wrote about - the author kept stressing her innocence - which combined with her willingness to be nice to his staff - is supposed to be why Derek falls obsessively in love with her after a week's acquaintance. It was almost creepy. I just couldn't see what about this woman would even entice a person to be in a room with her for 5 minutes let alone be the only one of many that a wordly hero would love. They were both just awful and the whole story was just bizarre. Don't waste your time.

this book started out really really good but then it just fizzled.i can't even remember the last third part of the book even though i skimmed through it yesterday.if you are reading the first chapter on you kindle,you will be tempted to buy it but don't.

This book... This freaking book. Of all the romance novels I have ever read (I've read over 50), this is the BEST one by far. Maybe I'm biased because Derek Craven is my dream man, but those are just minor details.
I'm not one to cry about fictional characters, but holy hell did this book have me drowning in tears. There are so many things you don't see coming, and they just add to the story. If you're not a fan of the whole historic London time setting then I wouldn't recommend it. But otherwise, this is my favorite, and all the people I have recommended it to loved it just as much.

Historical romances are not my most read genre so that may have contributed to this book being a complete surprise to me. Up to this point, I had “Historical British” as one standard category in my mind and I never looked at the nuances of the many decades and styles of the genre. I opened this book expecting castles, royal titles and rigid gender roles. Surprise! This book has none of those things.

Set in Regency (not Victorian) England, Dreaming of You looks at the reluctant romance of a brave and independent young author and a Cockney gambler with a heart of gold.

Sara was unlike any historical heroine I’ve read before. She is innocent, brave, independent and contains an abundance of empathy. In a time consumed with class struggle our heroine does not appear to have a judgmental bone in her body. I loved seeing her interact with all the different types of characters in this book. Poor, wealthy, titled, prostitute she treated them all with respect. Derek likes to call her “mouse” and she has a innocent bashfulness to her at times, but then she comes out swinging with her fierce independence. One of her best quotes:

“A long time ago I learned not to explain things to people. It misleads them into thinking they’re entitled to know everything I do.”

Derek is adorably gruff. He is gritty, determined and jaded with an uncaring facade he uses to cover everything he’s had to overcome and protect his few remaining soft spots. He is not very happy having his world disturbed, but Sara’s genuine heart and inquisitive mind won’t let him escape.

She felt him tremble with the force of his need. He spoke just beneath her ear, his voice thick with tormented pleasure. He spoke just beneath her ear, his voice thick with tormented pleasure.

“You have to leave, Sara … because I want to hold you like this until your skin melts into mine. I want you in my bed, the smell of you on my sheets, your hair spread across my pillow. I want to take your innocence. God! I want to ruin you for anyone else.”

Blindly Sara flattened her hand on his cheek, against the scratch of newly grown beard.

“What if I want the same?” she whispered.

In the end, independent women, cockney accents and the dirty back streets of London were all a surprise, but a very pleasant surprise.

Lisa Kleypas writes alpha male heroes so well. This book is a companion novel to Then Came You and features Derek Craven and Sara Fielding.

Derek Craven is a rather tortured hero. He is a self-made man and owns a gambling club, Cravens, and has some enemies, including his now ex-lover. Sara Fielding is an author who gained quite a bit of critical acclaim after her novel about a prostitute became incredibly popular. She's in London researching for her latest novel and winds up at Cravens.

This book is angsty and incredible. It's one that I think you may need to be in a particular mood for, but I personally, really enjoyed it.

Sara is a sweet, intelligent young woman from the country. While in London she rescues Derek Craven, the owner of a gambling club. With pencil, notebook and not much sense, Sara is researching London’s seamier side for her latest book. Derek is the ultimate bad boy: handsome, a womanizer, extremely rich, and doesn’t believe in love. Everything is an exaggeration and it got tiring after awhile.

Warning: there are two attempted rapes.

I do really enjoy Lisa Kleypas's historical novels. I am not sure if she is historically accurate, but I do like the injection of modern ideas of class fairness into her main characters. She often portrays a few characters who are not aristocracy and although I think what she writes is pure fantasy, I enjoy it. Dreaming of You had everything I normally love about Kleypas's historicals: scoundrel raised up from the streets, shy but determined heroine who supports herself for a living, passion and wonderfully choreographed love scenes.

So why three stars? It may be unfair for Kleypas because I judge her books by the measuring stick of Kleypas - is it as good as the Wallflowers? The Hathaways? They Travises? Then it would be 4-5 stars. Well this book was good, but not one of her greats. It was too long. The story ended and was completed by 85% yet it continued on. I just didn't care about how the heroine decorated her new townhome or what gowns she bought - after she already had her HEA. I know this is one of Kleypas's earlier books and I think she has worked out timing and climax better in her later novels. This book seems to have two climaxes - two complete resolutions and it just was too much. Toward the end of the book I kept wanting it to be over.
Still, I would recommend this book to those who enjoy regency historical romance and Kleypas's books. But if you are new to Kleypas, I would suggest starting somewhere else and working your way to this book.

And I have an admission. I get sick of the hero and heroine ending up to be extreme millionaires and living out their live with lots of servants. I know that that fantasy is exactly what these books are about, but I'd love for a historical romance where the hero and heroine are just average people.

I listened to this book and the narration was done really well. Kleypas must have a wonderful screening process to pick out narrators because I have as of yet to discover a poorly narrated novel of hers.

I read Dreaming of You before reading the prequel Then Came You. Is mentioned that our hero Derek Craven is a strong supporting character in the previous book. The hero and heroine from Then Came You, Alex and Lily played a large role here and they both appear so lovey dovey. Maybe I will check out their book some day. Anyway back to Dreaming of You, I had no problem reading this as a standalone and thoroughly enjoyed Derek and Sara's story.

Sara is a novelist who loves to write about society issue such as poverty, prostitution and now she wants to write about gambling club. Her previous novel titled Mathilda, a story about a prostitute brings her much fame. She met the notorious Derek Craven, the Craven's gambling club owner one night at the alley when he was being attacked by some thugs. After saving him and finding out about his identity, she tries to persuade him to allow her to do her research at his club and interview his staffs, much to Derek's annoyance.

Derek Craven, our tortured hero with some self-loathing going on and kinda broody. But I find it not overdone and he did had some sense of humor and sarcasm. Although I did not read the previous book, we had enough information of his past when he tried to scare Sara away with the evil things that he had done. As if she will be easily dissuaded. Although he is now the wealthiest man in London, he is far from respected because of he doesn't possess a drop of noble blood in him. I despise the society that look highly to people who inherited the wealth, instead of making their own. My heart break for him for every time he was made to feel inferior. He had this badass facade upfront, but we know deep down he is an honorable, insecure and lonely man.

Sara is a very strong and bold character. I can see that she needs to be bold here, what with Derek's reclusive personality. I love seeing Sara being so frank and voice out what she wants and Derek appeared all bewildered and unsure of himself. He keeps telling himself that he needs to protect her away from the likes of him. Keep telling yourself that, Derek. Sometimes I want to shake him so hard, so that he stop over thinking.

I like the part when things got heated between Sara and Derek, they both decided to part ways with Sara heading back to her hometown and back to her fiance, Perry. Sara desperately in need to sort through her emotion and resolve the issue with Perry. Both Sara's parents are not what I expected. I expected them to be snobbish and know what's best for Sara, which is to marry to some respectable bachelor and stop writing. But they are non of that. They support Sara in her dreams and let her decides who she wants to marry herself. Sara tried to make things work with Perry, but of course she can never feels the same desire that was triggered by Derek from Perry.

"Some people are separated by distances they can never cross. All they can do is dream about each other for a lifetime, never having what they want most."

Before long, Sara is reunited with Derek at Lily's party. With the reappearance of Derek's crazy ex-lover, things get a little intense and suspenseful. Poor Sara for things that she had to face, just because she is in love with Derek. But I love her whenever she always tell Derek not to blame himself and reassured him of her affection. Sara is just so awesome. I never actually use the word awesome to refer to a heroine, usually the hero. As usual in historical romance, we had a prerequisite swoony epilogue. I know they are as usual cliche, but I totally soaking it up. I love cliche HEA.