A review by carbs666
Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas

emotional funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This book starts off SO strong but it does kind of sag in the middle and become a bit "meh" towards the end (hate to say it about my girl Lisa but it's true), hence the 3 star rating. I love how this book sets up the Wallflowers series and gives you a little bit of information about each of the wallflowers to take into their coming books. 

I appreciate Simon Hunt a lot he really is like a proto Tom Severin (one of my favourite Kelypas heroes) and I also appreciate how Lisa injects her usual threat of deadly violence/accident into this book to bring some additional spice.
The best part of this book for me is when Annabelle gets bitten by an adder (literally what????) and Simon takes care of her. He cuts off her corset!!!! So hot!!!!!
In general, I felt like the potential for external conflict created by that gross lord who was hounding Annabelle and her mom could have been better realized than it was, and while I appreciated how Lisa did inject some peril and conflict towards the end it also felt a bit random when there were other much better set up options. I've read the last 2 books in this series but I've never read this one or the second one, so I expect I will be working thru a full series read/reread in the next little while. 
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