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Genre: Historical: European, Romance
So I recently needed some Regency comfort food, and people have long been recommending the Wallflower Quartet by Lisa Kleypas to me. Because I’m all like YOU ARE NOT THE BOSS OF ME, I put them on my TBR list, but wasn’t in a big hurry to read them.
OMG was I wrong. I should have read these books long, long ago. They are like sweet, delicious heroin.
I actually listened to Secrets of a Summer Night on Audible and Rosalyn Landor does a great job narrating. She’s got a voice that lulls you into a happy trance, and she jumps between British and American accents easily. All of the characters had distinctive voices so I knew who was talking immediately. Overall, the Audible version was perfect for commute-listening.
I wasn’t even halfway through the book before I bought all the others (on audio and paperback) and started mainlining. Secrets of a Summer Night isn’t a perfect book, but it worked so, so well for me. It left me with a lot of feels and as a result this review will be gif-tastic.
This book is, in a lot of ways, a pride and prejudice story. The heroine, Annabelle Peyton, comes from a well-established, but poor family. Her father is dead, and she lives with her mother and brother on the edge of penury. Annabelle knows the only way to save her family is to marry a wealthy man. As a member of the ton, she has her eye on a peer. The problem is, many members of the aristocracy need wealthy wives and so Annabelle is 25 and facing dwindling prospects.
Annabelle befriends three other wallflowers at a ball, American heiresses Lillian and Daisy, and the painfully shy Evangeline. None of them are doing great on the marriage market–Annabelle because of her financial situation, the Americans because…well they’re Americans with new money and no sponsor, and Evangeline because she can barely talk to a stranger. The women decide to unite to help find each other husbands.
Most of the story takes place at a house party in the country where Annabelle is trying to score a titled husband (along with a feral pack of other unmarried women). Annabelle keeps running into Simon Hunt, the son of a butcher who is a self-made man and wealthy investor. Simon is all kinds of hot–he’s basically sex in riding boots. Simon and Annabelle are drawn to each other–well, their naughty bits are–but it’s a lot of “I hate you, I can’t stand you, kiss me you fool!”
I know right?
Annabelle won’t pursue Simon because he’s a commoner. Simon wants Annabelle as his mistress but not his wife because he can’t marry for REASONS (which are really never fully explained). He thinks she’s a snob and a gold digger. She thinks Simon is a rake and vulgar and common. They can’t stand each other so much that they keep passionately kissing and then taking it back immediately.
So why did this book work so well for me?
1. Simon
Kleypas’s heroes are the shit. I sent so many messages to my friends who’d read this book that just said OMG SIMON followed by:
I think the thing I liked about Simon (and some of Kleypas’s other heroes) is that while he is rake, and sometimes kind of a dick, and totally an alpha male, he’s got a very pronounced compassionate side. There’s a scene where Annabelle gets bitten by a snake and is quite sick. Simon watches her puke her guts up without being grossed out, then carries her up three flights of stairs and tenderly cares for her. In fact he’s damned protective of her while she’s down, but not in an shitty and controlling way. There are moments in the book when he and Annabelle are still hissing and spitting at each other, but the minute she legitimately needs help he drops the macho bullshit and cares for her. It hit me right in the ovaries.
2. Female Friendships
I love it when romance novels feature female friendship. It’s something that’s missing in a lot of books, which is odd because I think most women have at least one close friend (whether female or male) that they confide in.
The Quartet — Annabelle, Lillian, Daisy and Evangeline — are great because they support each other in an environment where women are actively tearing each other down to score a husband. There’s a great scene where Lillian and Daisy convince the shy Evie and proper Annabelle to play a game of rounders in knickers (sorta-baseball in their underwear) in a meadow.
Of course Simon (and the hero of the second book) happen to ride by on their horses. The scene is funny and charming and reminded me of when I’d go skinny-dipping with my friends as a youngster.
3. The Sexual Tension
Holy hell is there sexual tension in this book.
Kleypas has this magic touch that you just desperately want her characters to get together RIGHT THIS GODDAMNED SECOND IN THE BUTLER’S PANTRY OR WHEREVER IS CONVENIENT. I mean, hot damn.
Sometimes she veers into purple prose and I didn’t even care. I was like “YES KISS HER VOLUPTUOUSLY WHATEVER THAT EVEN MEANS!” Maybe it’s because I listened on audio, but her kissing and sex scenes are drawn out in a way that’s detailed without being mechanical or lurid.
Secrets of a Summer Night wasn’t perfect. I thought the main conflict was resolved way too early, so much so that the last portion of the book really struggled to figure out what it was doing. A villain randomly shows up just to kind of disappear again in a very anticlimactic section that I don’t think was even necessary to the story. But I didn’t really mind because I cared so deeply about Annabelle and Simon’s story. Had I loved the characters a little less, I probably would have been more irked by the way things dragged out, but I adored them and I would gobble up as much of their story as I was given.
And this isn’t even the best book in the series, you guys.
In short, Secrets of a Summer Night hit the spot and sent me on a Kleypas buying binge that my credit card currently regrets. It made me happy.
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Thanks!
Love this review, your writing is witty and entertaining. Lisa Kleypas is one of my fav authors. Love her Travis series, those texan men can put there boots under my bed any day 🙂 lol She is a tad slow when it comes to writing her novels, Sugar Daddy was written in 2007. Considering we are still waiting for book #4….11 years later zzzz….as I said, slow.
Anyway – great review.
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This was a HYSTERICALLY good review, and sentence:
They are like sweet, delicious heroin.
covers exactly how I feel about Lisa Kleypas’ historicals. I love them to itty bitty bits!
(ps. Julie Ann above me – 2007 is 8 years ago this year, not 11 😉 I don’t think Lisa had any immediate plans on writing book 4 either. She’s said so previously. She does however have a BRAND NEW HISTORICAL COMING OUT which I am ridiculously excited about. YAY!)
I know the pacing in this book is kind of off but it’s one of those things where I love the book so much that I kind of don’t care. I read this book after being on romance hiatus for several years and it gave me all of the feelings. I think I really fell for Simon when he carried Annabelle her room and took care of her in the aftermath. I also really loved the way he ended up proposing. And yes to all of the sexual tension.
You know what? I’m going to go re read this book right now. It’s not a popular opinion, but I think it might be my favorite of the series.
I totally agree with the importance of female friendships. Luckily it seems like nowadays they are quite common, especially compared to older romance books. Devil in Winter, I think the second book in this series and Evangeline’s story, is one of my all time favourite.
Marie, Devil in Winter is my favourite too. I have it as an audiobook as well and have listened to it SOOOO much.
@LizzieBee: I have never listened to the audio book, but yeah, I probably read the book every two years or so. It is just sooo lovely!
I love this series because of the wallflower’s friendship (and the men and the heat level), and hard as it is to choose, Devil in Winter is my very favorite. The best thing is that we get to follow them all into the Hathaways series! I was so sad when I had finished all the books and it was over. I re-read them regularly.
I expect a review for Devil in Winter! It’s the best of the 4 (and I love them all). With more GIFs! LOL
“Because I’m all like YOU ARE NOT THE BOSS OF ME, I put them on my TBR list, but wasn’t in a big hurry to read them.”
HA! I do this all the time, often to my detriment,
I’ve actually read all the books in the series and this is my fave. Maybe because I love the h&H? Lilian and Marcus’ story is awesome too (It’s the autumn book)
I really love Lisa Kleypas’ heroes, too! Glad that she is writing historicals again!
“Because I’m all like YOU ARE NOT THE BOSS OF ME, I put them on my TBR list, but wasn’t in a big hurry to read them.”
I have done this with Lisa Kleypas’s contemporary books. I love her historicals so much, It Happened One Autumn and Devil in Winter are my favorite, but I have resisted reading her newer books.
Wallflowers is, I think, the best series Lisa Kleypas has ever written. Although my favourite one is the ‘Autumn’ book, I enjoyed this ‘Summer’ one.
I didn’t connect with her contemporaries as I did with her historicals novels. Travis #4, Joe’s story, that -surprisingly- has already been published in Spain, it’s just another disappointment for me.
I hope her next historical novel brings back her wonderful sexual tension because you’re right, that’s one of her best talents. I loved Lady Sophia’s lover once and again and I think one of the greatest things in that novel is precisely that sexual tension.
The fourth Travis book is scheduled to be released this fall. Brown-Eyed Girl is the title and I put it on hold at my library months ago. Very excited!!!!
Great kick-ass review, Elyse!
I’m actually reading this book for the first time now. I don’t know why I waited so long to read Kleypas’s historicals. I love it, though they are on their honeymoon now, and I was wondering, “How are there so many pages left?” Guess that pacing issue isn’t just me.
But yeah, great book.
AHHH THE WALLFLOWERS BOOKS I AM SO JEALOUS OF YOU GETTING TO READ THEM FOR THE FIRST TIME.
I do love the ever popular Devil in Winter (book 3), but It Happened One Autumn (book 2) is DEFINITELY my favorite. Perfect encapsulation of the “I hate you, I can’t stand to be around you but I can’t stop thinking about your HAIR DAMMIT” trope. Utter perfection.
oh this is a rocking awesome review!! I just love Kleypas and this book is so fantastic and I loved the chemistry and even though at first your not sure how its going to work out…it tends to balance itself out. And I love all of the books…I honestly can’t say which one is my favorite because they are all good but different too. Quite frankly if I was stuck on a island with just all of Kleypas novels I would be one happy lady.
Oh! Funny story! Around Thanksgiving last year, I put together a rec list of Fluffy Books to Get You Through the Holidays on my Tumblr, and “Secrets” was on it (it’s my favorite of the series), and Eloise James (!!!) reblogged it and was like, “Secrets’ is great and so is Lisa!”
She also agreed with my pick, “I Capture the Castle” and said she was gonna pick up “Soulless” by Gail Carriger based on my rec! It was pretty awesome.
And so is “Secrets” …and Lisa Kleypas… and Eloise James.
Eloisa* … darn it
Okay this topic has got me annoyed with myself. More specifically it has got me wanting to read Mine Til Midnight (first book in Hathaways series). That would be awesome except I am am not a great organizer. So this leads to a “where the hell did I leave that Kleypas” search, first one this year.
What a great review! I think I need to dig it out and reread it. Because I am the boss of me.
I both really enjoyed this book and had the same complaint, that it has a great beginning and then rapidly runs out of problem steam. I think Kleypas’ style is perhaps too light to want to grapple with the tension she sets up (in this, there’s that great initial tension of the cross-class romance and the “I don’t even want to marry you, I just want you as my mistress” that just evaporates)… I like a number of the Wallflowers and Hathaways books, but even in the ones I love, when I re-read them, I find myself having the same feelings in each one. “Oooh! THIS IS GOING TO BE AMAZING! Oh… well… hmmm. That turned out not to be as big of a problem as I thought it was going to be.”
I’d love to read a historical romance that actually had the characters deal with the consequences of cross-class romance. Like here, I’d have liked more about what it was like to be raised to think of yourself as a gentleman’s daughter, and then to be largely shut out of the “best” parts of society. I remember really liking the scene where Annabelle and Simon visit his (solidly lower-middle-class) family and she is quite shocked to realize what she’s married into, but then that kind of disappears, it doesn’t really seem to bother her that now she won’t be invited to certain types of events, it isn’t even discussed, it’s just about how rich Simon is and how beautiful the dresses he can buy for her are. I personally would have wanted more satisfying emotional arcs about Annabelle coming to peace about that. Similarly, in Devil In Winter, part of what makes the setup so great is that tension between Evie’s sensible ideas about not wanting to have a real marriage in order to avoid getting her heart broken, and Sebastian’s unexpected interest in his own wife, but then that tension also kind of vanishes. (I quite frequently re-read the first half of Devil in Winter, but just the first half.)
Love the Wallflowers but confess that the “Hathaways” are my favorites. HEY! Married by Morning (Hathaway #3 & one of the best) is on SALE for $3.99 on Amazon! Her writing is delicious. If you’re looking for the class difference story by her check out “Dreaming of You”. That one and Devil in Winter are always on top 100 romance lists for a very good reason.
@Judy W: I think I prefer the Hathaways spin-off as well. At least the last 3, the first was meh for me and I skipped the second. But Love In The Afternoon, holy balls do I love that book. Reverse-gender Cyrano DeBergerac plot, peculiar heroine, angsty PTSD hero? ALL THE FEELS. ALL OF THEM.
Also agree about the Hathaways. But then again, I read it out of order. I read the Wallflowers series AFTER I read the Hathaway series. But yes, Lisa Kleypas definitely writes book-crack.
“Secrets of A Summer Night” is one of my favorite Lisa Kleypas books. I’ve reread it so many times I’m going to need a new copy soon! I believe that Simon always cared for Annabelle, but didn’t decide that he actually wanted to marry her until after they got to know each other better when she was recovering from the snake bite. I didn’t hold Annabelle’s class consciousness against her, because that’s how she was raised. The whole Wallflower series was so enjoyable.
I absolutely LOVED this series on audio. I listened to one right after another! Rosalyn Landor has since become one of my favorite narrators. I actually loved the Hathaways series a little bit better and was so sad when I finished listening to the last one. however, not all is lost since the fourth Travis book and a NEW historical is soon to come out!
I just finished AGAIN THE MAGIC which is a sort of prequel to the WALLFLOWER SERIES and now I’ve started a reread of “Secrets”. I have been absolutely transported by Lisa Kleypas. I intend to reread the entire series and then reread the HATHAWAY SERIES. I cannot wait for her new historical due this Fall. She writes heroes to fall in love with. You said “OMG Simon!” That is how I felt about Jack Devlin in SUDDENLY YOU.
I only read the Wallflowers series this spring and loved it. Autumn was my favorite. Now I’m wondering which Kleypas to read next. I’ve read all the Hathaways books and a lot of the single title historicals, as well as Because you’re Mine from the Capitol Theatre (?) series. Any suggestions?
I just love your review! It makes me want to read “Secrets” RIGHT NOW. I ordered the Devil in Winter because of all the comments about how amazing it is … and I should have just gone for the ebook because waiting for it to get here is killing me!
Just an FYI for y’all: many of these books are on Scribd. Bargain!
“Because I’m all like YOU ARE NOT THE BOSS OF ME, I put them on my TBR list, but wasn’t in a big hurry to read them.”
I’ve done that. I did it with Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell series, with Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon series, and with Harry Potter. I’ve never trusted bestseller lists but once in a blue moon … .
Yesssss… YES! all of this. Yes. 🙂
I can’t wait until you get to Devil in Winter. Hands down my favorite out of all four and one of my all time favorites.
Lisa Kleypas is perfection. That is all.
And yes, Scribd is like a treasure trove of Kleypas. It’s worth every penny just for her books.
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“It hit me right in the ovaries” made me LOL. Good book but I loved your review !
oh yes thank you – with a ton of new books waiting – i go “huh its been years – gotta re-read those.” And cue me lying on the couch with my iPad and super happy. Awesome awesomeness….
If you haven’t yet, you really should read “Again, the Magic” which is *sort of* a prequel to the Wallflower series. It’s about Marcus’ sister, Aline (so it takes place before his story in “It Happened One Autumn”) but if you loved Simon and Annabelle, I think you’re in for a delicious surprise with McKenna and Aline’s story.
As for me, I’m always a sucker of “lady/servant” romances (aren’t enough in my opinion, with the dude being the “poorer” of the two) but yeah, McKenna is a servant, she’s the daughter of his employer, it’s forbidden but it’s HOT. Trust me, if you loved the Wallflowers, you will love this too!
[…] I consider her Wallflower series required reading for any romance fan, and credit the girls over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books with turning me on to […]