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patricia_nascimento 's review for:
Secrets of a Summer Night
by Lisa Kleypas
Anabelle Peyton, Lillian and Daisy Bowman and Evangelline Jenner all have something in common: due to their particular situations, they are considered bad choices as far as wives go. As such, they are never courted by eligible men and all they do at balls and gatherings is to seat and be ignored by everyone.
Tired of their situation, the four spirited women decide to form a sort of an alliance; calling themselves "The Wallflowers" they devise plans to help one another find husbands.
Anabelle Peyton's situation is the most desperate of them all. Although she is a gentle-woman, her family has fallen on hard times; and everyone knows that a peer doesn't marry a lady without a dowry. That is why, despite her great beauty and suitable standard she can't get a husband. With her last season ending and the prospect of being "on-the-shelf" forever looming, the Wallflowers decide it's time for strong measures. They choose Lord Kendall as their target... but when Simon Hunt, a butcher's son turned rich industrialist decides he wants Anabelle for himself - as a mistress, of course - things get complicated.
This book was... okay. I started with book number 3 of the series and I loved it; as for this one I thought Simon Hunt was too forceful and I didn't like Anabelle that much either.
One positive point: Kleypas describes the period with vivid detail, showing how difficult the trasition to modernity was in Victorian England because of how closed the mentalities were. The main male character is a rich man, but he isn't respected because of his birth; he was a butcher's son and not a peer and he made his fortune by working. On the other hand you see impoverished aristocracy throughout the book, a clear sign that land owning wasn't that profitable anymore.
Tired of their situation, the four spirited women decide to form a sort of an alliance; calling themselves "The Wallflowers" they devise plans to help one another find husbands.
Anabelle Peyton's situation is the most desperate of them all. Although she is a gentle-woman, her family has fallen on hard times; and everyone knows that a peer doesn't marry a lady without a dowry. That is why, despite her great beauty and suitable standard she can't get a husband. With her last season ending and the prospect of being "on-the-shelf" forever looming, the Wallflowers decide it's time for strong measures. They choose Lord Kendall as their target... but when Simon Hunt, a butcher's son turned rich industrialist decides he wants Anabelle for himself - as a mistress, of course - things get complicated.
This book was... okay. I started with book number 3 of the series and I loved it; as for this one I thought Simon Hunt was too forceful and I didn't like Anabelle that much either.
One positive point: Kleypas describes the period with vivid detail, showing how difficult the trasition to modernity was in Victorian England because of how closed the mentalities were. The main male character is a rich man, but he isn't respected because of his birth; he was a butcher's son and not a peer and he made his fortune by working. On the other hand you see impoverished aristocracy throughout the book, a clear sign that land owning wasn't that profitable anymore.