Author: Julia Quinn
Publisher: Avon (May 2012)
Pages: 389
Rating: 3 stars
Anne Wynter is not who she says she is. Working as a governess for a wealthy family provides a great cover for her unfortunate, indecent past, as well as protection. But her quiet world is disrupted when her pretty face catches the attention of the Earl of Winstead, or Daniel Smythe-Smith.
Returned from three years of exile after a terrible shooting incident, Daniel is back but possibly in mortal danger from a grudge that is still very alive. Yet, impending doom doesn’t stop him from pursuing his cousins’ mysterious governess with passion.
Might SPOIL some things now…
Daniel is in love after their first kiss, of course, he doesn’t admit it until 3 fourths of the way through. He is enthralled by Anne’s cold, unfitting name and her demure deflections of his attentions when she so clearly wants him. Daniel is not at all a rakish hero (those tend to be my favorites), but a man who has just never been in love (and mentions in passing that he’s slept with more women than he is proud of—gotta get that sexual prowess in there somehow). Low and behold the magic hoo hoo belongs to our non-virgin heroine. The victim of a perfidious lover in her young age, Anne has been ruined. But do you think Daniel cares? Not at all. He doesn’t have to be her first, just her only. What a sweet boy.
I loved that this book had a bit of humor and silliness in it. Daniel and Anne participate in a play written by Anne’s young charge/Daniel’s cousin in which Anne is an evil witch and Daniel is a very unfortunate Lord (hitting a little close to home there). The dialog between Daniel and Anne can be both light-hearted and super intense and everything in between. The range of emotion between the two characters makes them and their love totally believable.
That said, I wish there had been more personal conflict between the two characters, because I love the really heated arguments/fights. When Daniel and Anne disagree it’s so benign that I can’t imagine any real fire behind it—which is what a normal, healthy relationship should be. But this is regency romance, I want angry, dark, and brooding…or something.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn loves to dispel the myth that smart women don’t read (or write) romance, and in 2001 she did so in grand fashion, appearing on the game show The Weakest Link and walking away with the $79,000 jackpot. She displayed a decided lack of knowledge about baseball, country music, and plush toys, but she is proud to say that she aced all things British and literary, answered all of her history and geography questions correctly, and knew that there was a Da Vinci long before there was a code. Ms. Quinn is the youngest member of Romance Writers of America’s Hall of Fame, her books have been translated into 24 languages, and she currently lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest.
Thursday, June 14th: Mom in Love with Fiction
Wednesday, June 20th: Life In Review
Thursday, June 21st: BookNAround
Friday, June 22nd: I’m Booking It
Sunday, June 24th: Just Joanna
Monday, June 25th: Paperspines
Tuesday, June 26th: Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Books
Wednesday, June 27th: Book Him Danno!
Thursday, June 28th: Bewitched Bookworms
Friday, July 6th: A Cozy Reader’s Corner
Monday, July 9th: Book Reviews by Molly
You should be friends with this lady:
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/26/155117222/reading-romance-between-and-under-the-covers
Sometime that humor and silliness you mention is just what I’m looking for to brighten a dreary day. I think I might enjoy this one even though it wasn’t quite a perfect read for you.
Thanks for being on the tour!
Thanks for having me on the tour! It was quite funny and light-hearted. I liked all the talk about unicorns :) Also the abduction scenes were great. It’s nice to have a heroine who knows how to defend herself!
Pingback: Julia Quinn, author of A Night Like This, on tour June/July 2012 | TLC Book Tours
I like that this book has humor and silliness. From someone else’s review, I think I might even get the humor and silliness, which usually goes right over my head in books!
While there were many elements that I greatly enjoyed in A NIGHT LIKE THIS, it wasn’t my favorite Quinn novel. I really liked the dynamic between Anne, Daniel, and Daniel’s young cousins. The youngest cousin wants nothing more than to be a unicorn, the middle cousin fancies herself a playwright, and Anne and Daniel indulge them like the best of sports. My only complaint is the “mystery” subplot. We know that Daniel has returned to England after being banished, and we learn that Anne has a secret as well. So when mysterious things start happening, it’s not clear whether they are directed at Anne or Daniel. I didn’t love the villain, who bordered on crazy a little too much for my personal taste. I also thought that the plot was a little slow at points—things that could have been glossed over, or at least dealt with a little more swiftly, were seemingly dragged out. It made the plot move slowly until the villain comes onto the scene, and then everything was resolved quickly.
you hit the nail on the head! I agree with all of the above :)