Review - Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas

Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In Secrets of a Summer Night, by Lisa Kleypas, we are introduced to the Wallflowers, a group of four young women who make a pact to help each other to find husbands. This book, the first of the series, focuses on Annabelle Peyton, whose advancing age and dire financial circumstances have made her desperate to find a husband before the end of the Season, or else be subject to an even worse fate. Her attempts at wooing a member of the peerage are thwarted at nearly every turn by Simon Hunt, an entrepreneur whose significant wealth and financial savvy have given him an (albeit small) inroad into the aristocracy. After Simon makes an indecent proposition to Annabelle, she is determined that he is the worst man of her acquaintance, but can’t quite stifle her growing attraction to him.

This book is an interesting look at the changes faced by the aristocracy in light of growing industrialism in mid-19th century England. Kleypas captures the inherent hypocrisy of the peerage faced with a decline of the way of life they’ve always known, while still scorning the new modes of trade. Her characters straddle this line and are constantly faced with the pulls toward both the “old” and “new” ways of things.

The story was told primarily from Annabelle’s point of view, there were very few times the reader was presented with Simon’s viewpoint or inner monologue, which would have been very enlightening at several points in the story. Otherwise the book was able to convey its points with aplomb. Looking forward to reading more from this author!


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