Review: A Night Like This by Julia Quinn.

Posted May 29, 2012 by Rowena in Reviews | 9 Comments

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins


Rowena’s review of A Night Like This (The Smythe-Smith Quartet #2) by Julia Quinn.

Hero: Daniel Smythe-Smith
Heroine: Anne Wynter

Nora Roberts calls Julia Quinn’s novels, “Delightful.” The #1 New York Times bestselling creator of the irresistible Bridgerton family, Quinn offers historical romance readers new delights with A Night Like This—the second book (following the phenomenal Just Like Heaven) to feature the affairs, romantic and melodic, of the endearing, if painfully untalented, Smythe-Smith musicians.

On A Night Like This in Regency England, anything can happen, especially when a beautiful pianist sitting in at the annual Smythe-Smith musicale catches the eye of a haunted, hunted man in desperate need of redemption. There is simply no author in the realm of historical romance fiction hotter than the remarkable Julia Quinn—and anyone who has ever been swept away by the love stories of Amanda Quick, Lisa Kleypas, or Jill Barnett will cherish A Night Like This.

This is the second book in the Smythe-Smith quartet and for me, it was another delightful treat from Julia Quinn. This book follows Daniel Smythe-Smith and Miss Anne Wynters on their road to true love. I loved every minute of this book, just as much as I loved Honoria and Marcus’ book before it.

In the first book, we see that Daniel was on the run from a pissed off father but he’s back. He’s home for good and even though he’s still wary of the pissed off Dad, he’s making the best of things. He comes home just in time for his family’s annual musicale and even though he knows that they’re horrible, he’s happy to hear them sing because hearing them means he’s home. No more running around Europe, trying to escape the wrath of a madman. He’s home and with his family.

It’s been three years since he’s been home and much has changed. His best friend and his sister have become engaged and there’s a non Smythe-Smith at the panio at the musicale. A very lovely non-Smythe-Smith girl that he must know.

Those Smythe-Smith’s are turning out to be a total hoot. Who knew that such personality hid behind their awful musical talents from the Bridgerton books? It’s been such a delightful treat getting to know each and every single one of the Smythe-Smith’s. I really enjoyed getting to know Honoria in her book but man was it a blast getting to know Sarah and Daniel. I’m anxious for more from these guys, especially Iris. I’m itching to read an entire book from her point of view.

The romance between Daniel and Anne was fabulous. It had the right amount of good and bad to make it just fabulously entertaining. Quinn excels in writing romantic historical comedies and this book was no exception. Daniel was the kind of fun loving hero that was totally swoonworthy for me and Anna was great in her own right. It wasn’t hard to see why Daniel fell so hard for her. She was gorgeous, she was caring and she was good to his cousins. How can you not fall for her?

I loved the girls. Harriett, Frances and Elizabeth. They had me laughing out loud more times than I could count. From the stories that Harriett would write, Frances and her obsession with unicorns to Elizabeth’s dry humor, it was enough to keep me in fits of giggles long into the night. The villain in this book was unlikeable but he didn’t really come off as mean spirited, more vain and annoying than scary but still, that didn’t stop me from loving the book anyway.

My reading experience with this book was nothing but good. I read, I laughed, I sighed and I was thoroughly entertained. Julia Quinn did a great job of keeping me interested in what was going on in this story but also for keeping me interested in the stories to come. I’m already salivating for the next book in this series so kudos to Julia Quinn on another outstanding read.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

The series:

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


Tagged: , , , , , ,

9 responses to “Review: A Night Like This by Julia Quinn.

  1. Im so glad you liked this book! I’m so excited for it!!!
    I can’t tell you how much I loved the first book – though a lot of people thought it was only OK, I loved Marcus (how he was a good, responsible guy, whose shyness usually made him come off as standoffish. How he didn’t know how to flirt, and how he and Honoria fall in love slowly).

    So I’m really excited to read A Night Like This, I’m so going to dig into it soon 😀

  2. Bookworm1858

    I adored this story too-I just love Quinn’s writing style as I always know that I will end up laughing. In this case I especially loved the unicorn obsession and the plays that may be tragedies or comedies, who knows? Daniel was also a completely swoonworthy hero and Anne’s calmness in the face of danger appealed to me.

  3. Rowena

    I totally know what you mean. This book was just full of fun and good that I absolutely adored it. I thought Daniel was fun (and totally swoonworthy) and Anne was a good heroine for him.

    I LOVED Daniel’s cousins. I can’t wait to see more of them in future books.

  4. Anonymous

    Bought my first two Julia Quinn books recently: books 1 and 4 in her Bridgerton series. Can’t wait to start them!

    Diana

  5. Rowena

    @Alex: You’re going to love this one then because I adored the first one too and I remember that there weren’t a lot of people who enjoyed it as much as I did so I’m glad you liked it too. =)

    @Diana: Yay! I’m so glad you got those, I love that series. The Duke & I is one of my favorites by JQ, I’m interested to see if you like it or not.

    Happy reading!

    @Kat: I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. So good!

  6. Kim

    I just started this book, so it’s too soon to form an opinion. I’m glad it’s getting good reviews though. JQ is a very good writer.

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.