A Night Like This: Smythe-Smith Quartet, Book 2 [Versión Kindle]

Julia Quinn's latest novel A Night Like This has a wining pair of protagonists both keeping secrets and both with sensitive spirits.

This tale starts out in a rather rousing manner, Daniel Smythe-Smith, a newly minted Earl is accused of cheating and since Daniel is well into his cups he accepts a challenge to a duel from his inebriated companion. Daniel accidentally shoots his opponent and finds himself exiled for years. His opponent's father is determined to kill him for maiming his son. He has been away for three years before he can return to England.

Anne Wynter is a governess and she is a gentle woman who likes her charges. She meets Daniel on his first day back to England, when she is playing in an awful quartet with Daniel's cousins. She admires Daniel from the beginning; he is dashing, protective of his sisters and a gentleman. Daniel finds her beautiful and witty. They are both correct in their assessment of each other.

Anne has kept her past a secret and for good reasons. She has cultivitated a new persona and she works hard at being a good governess to Daniel's cousins. She realizes the differences in their stations but Daniel is rather persistent and he finds ways of "calling" upon Anne albeit his cousins are inevitably their chaperones.

Miss Quinn has done an excellent job of showing the reader how this couple falls in love. The leads have interesting conversations usually about present day situations and rarely about their pasts yet their feelings are sincere. Daniel is patient and he is also thoughtful for the most part, he does not take advantage of his title to harass or coerce Anne into a situation that she does not want. Both leads are insightful. Anne has been hurt by others and she smartly does not lump all men or aristocrats together. She is intuitive enough to recognize Daniel is a special man, noble and honest.

There are many sweet moments in this book and surprisingly they are not just with the leads. Daniel's cousins are precocious and they also have sunny funny dispositions. They are a tidal wave of femininity, many times they exhaust Daniel but the reader sees his supreme affection for them.

I am giving this novel four and a half stars. There were a few times the action slowed a little too much and Anne sometimes is a little too rash. However this story is memorable mostly because the characters are genuinely kind to each other, not embittered about their past, and their love story has a real touch of sweetness.

Julia Quinn does it again with this book. She has a certain magic to her writing that just makes her stories so fun to read. I love this time period, and this story had me enraptured from the beginning. I didn't want to put it down. The romance in this story was endearing and affectionate. It never felt sordid or dirty, and I like that. It wrapped you up in the characters and made you feel like you war living it with them. That's a sign of a good book. I think I can safely say, Julia Quinn is perhaps my all time favorite historical romance author. Loved this book! It made me swoon! :)

When I was a kid I thought Spaghettios were the best tasting food ever created. I could devour an entire can on my own and would have them as an after school snack all the time. When I grew up, I went years without having any, until one day, when I was in my late 20s, my toddler niece was having Spaghettios and remembering how much I loved them, I had some too...and proceeded to spit them out of my mouth almost immediately as I discovered they are disgusting beyond words. I am starting to have a similar reaction to Quinn's books.

Even though I have not cared for the last several Quinn titles (pretty much everything after the Bridgerton series), I continue to read each new release in hopes of capturing the delight I experienced when I read her earlier works. I checked A Night Like This out from the library (at least I have learned to stop paying for the privilege of reading books I end up disliking) and hoped for the best.

No such luck. I was not especially drawn in by the prologue, but I soldiered on. I found Daniel Smythe-Smith to be somewhat bland and not the brightest tool in the shed to the point that he reminded me of Nigel Berbrooke from Quinn novels past (not exactly the image I would prefer for the hero of the book). Daniel was a little too emotional for my liking. By the middle of the book, I was skimming. There didn't seem to be much depth to the characters. This story just didn't captivate (for me) and felt rather colorless and bland as though we were all just going through the motions. There were too many coincidences for my liking ("You have a crazy person stalking you? Me too!"). Much of the language came across as though chosen from a Trite Phrase Dictionary, the villian may as well have been a cardboard cutout, and the heroine seemed to ricochet all over the place. And the worst of all...the Smythe-Smith musicales have been ruined for me. The musicales used to provide humorous moments in past books. Now they feel like a cheap tool being used to draw a Bridgerton ready-made audience to a lackluster book that I likely would never have picked up had it not had Julia Quinn's name on it and a reference to stories I used to enjoy. I guess it's time to let go of Quinn titles even as library check outs. Sorry Julia, I just don't like Spaghettios anymore.