Reviewer: Holly A Night Like This (Smythe-Smith Quartet #2) by Julia Quinn
Series: Smythe-Smith Quartet #2
Also in this series: The Sum of All Kisses, Just Like Heaven (Smythe-Smith Quartet #1)
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: June 7th 2012
Pages: 373
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Series Rating:
Anne Wynter’s job as governess to three highborn young ladies can be a challenge – in a single week she finds herself hiding in a closet full of tubas, playing an evil queen in a play and tending to the wounds of the oh-so-dashing Earl of Winstead. After years of dodging unwanted advances, he's the first man who has truly tempted her, and it's getting harder and harder to remind herself that a governess has no business flirting with a nobleman.
Daniel Smythe-Smith might be in mortal danger, but that's not going to stop the young earl from falling in love. And when he spies a mysterious woman at his family's annual musicale, he vows to pursue her. But Daniel has an enemy, one who has vowed to see him dead. And when Anne is thrown into peril, he will stop at nothing to ensure their happy ending ...
A Night Like This is book 2 in Julia Quinn’s Smythe-Smith Quartet. Another light read from Quinn. It was enjoyable, but not as much as Just Like Heaven, book one.
This novel overlaps the events at the end of Just Like Heaven. I really loved Daniel. He had a great sense of humor and he was very sweet. Despite the problems he’s facing, he’s always kind and compassionate. I really like the way he was with Anne. She was traumatized by something in her past and didn’t always react well to him, but he always took care with her. Anne was a strong woman who enjoyed her stability and worked hard in her position. She never looked for someone else to rescue her and realized she was in charge of her own future. Their romance was sweet.
As much as I liked the story, it was missing the quintessential Quinn spark. That undefinable thing that makes her novels so easy to fall into. I did laugh out loud several times. Anne’s young charges and their antics had me in stitches.
While A Night Like This was a solid, enjoyable read, it isn’t my favorite from Quinn.
3.75 out of 5
This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
Yes, this was enjoyable, but Just Like Heaven is the one Julia Quinn book I have on my bookshelf.
I love Julia Quinn for her light-heartedness. It stinks when they aren’t as good as you were anticipating. Hopefully the next one will find that spark for you!
I liked this book, too, but I agree it was missing something. Have you read JQ’s newest – The Girl with the Make-Believe Husband – because that is amazing and so wonderfully JQ.