Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas

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Title: Secrets of a Summer Night
Author: Lisa Kleypas
Series: Wallflowers #1
Published by: HarperAudio
Release Date: March 16, 2021
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Rosalyn Landor
Length: 8 hours and 34 minutes
Genres: Historical Romance
Source: Libro.FM
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Summer, Lenoreo's 2021 Historical Romance Book Bingo
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iTunes ✩ Libro.FM
My rating:

Blurb:

The Wallflowers

Four young ladies at the side of the ballroom make a pact to help each other find husbands... no matter what it takes

Proud and beautiful Annabelle Peyton could have her pick of suitors—if only she had a dowry. Her family is on the brink of disaster, and the only way Annabelle can save them is to marry a wealthy man. Unfortunately her most persistent admirer is the brash Simon Hunt, a handsome and ambitious entrepreneur who wants her as his mistress.

Annabelle is determined to resist Simon's wicked propositions, but she can't deny her attraction to the boldly seductive rogue, any more than he can resist the challenge she presents. As they try to outmaneuver each other, they find themselves surrendering to a love more powerful than they could have ever imagined. But fate may have other plans—and it will take all of Annabelle's courage to face a peril that could destroy everything she holds dear.

My Review:

3.5 stars — This book was slower than I was expecting.  I had a hard time getting drawn in.  Sometimes it was so freaking easy, and I was enthralled and excited.  But it was a lot of up and down, and the slow parts dragged for me.

I’m glad I read it to see the beginnings of the Wallflowers, and I 100% did enjoy Annabelle and Simon’s unconventional courtship, but it’s definitely not a fave.

I think part of the problem is that this one had a different narrator, and while objectively there is nothing wrong with her narration (good pacing, different voices, emotions), I just didn’t enjoy it as much.  That’s that personal taste thing getting in the way, you know?  Where no matter how good a narrator is, if you don’t like it as much, you don’t like it as much.  *shrugs*  Now saying all that, at most I imagine it might have bumped it up to 4 stars.

Neither Annabelle nor Simon were what I was expecting.  I think I was expecting Annabelle to be more sweet and docile, and she was not.  More confrontational and opinionated, but in a good way.  I enjoyed her, but probably didn’t connect with her quite as much.  It was hard to truly understand how her upbringing in the peerage had influenced the way she saw the world.  She could be snobby on occasion, but I totally got where it came from…but still, it didn’t draw me in to the same degree.

Simon, of course, was completely different.  He’d grown up in a totally different world, and challenged all her thoughts.  He was abrupt and forthright (to the point of being rude on occasion).  I kind of loved that he was a bit of a softie underneath though — she brought that out in him.

I enjoyed them together, but probably some moments more than others.  I don’t know how to say this without spoilers, but there were two turning points in the story for me, one where she was forced to see him in a different light, and then the climax at the end.  I LOVED those moments.

I enjoyed the Wallflowers together for sure, but I’m since the next book has the same narrator, I’m not champing at the bit to get to it.  Maybe I’ll wait until I’m in a different mood to read the Bowman sister books.