Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas

Four young ladies enter London society with one common goal: they must use their feminine wit and wiles to find a husband. So a daring husband-hunting scheme is born.

Annabelle Peyton, determined to save her family from disaster, decides to use her beauty and wit to tempt a suitable nobleman into making an offer of marriage. But Annabelle's most intriguing and persistent admirer, wealthy, powerful Simon Hunt, has made it clear that while he will introduce her to irresistible pleasure he will not offer marriage. Annabelle is determined to resist his unthinkable proposition ... but it is impossible in the face of such skillful seduction.

Her friends, looking to help, conspire to entice a more suitable gentleman to offer for Annabelle, for only then will she be safe from Simon and her own longings. But on one summer night, Annabelle succumbs to Simon's passionate embrace and tempting kisses ... and she discovers that love is the most dangerous game of all.

This is the first book in the wallflower series. Annabelle needs to find a husband. This is her last season and not only does she need a husband but she needs wealthy one. Her family has been making ends meet and they are walking a fine line of becoming poor. Her mother has been exchanging sexual favors with Lord Hodgeham to try and ease the debts. But Lord Hodgeham is tired of Annabelle's mother. He now wants Annabelle. She'll die before becoming his mistress.

At one of the balls, she befriends 3 other wallflowers: Lillian, Evie and Daisy. Together they vow to find each other husbands and become best of friends.

Annabelle sets her sight on Lord Kendall but she can't stop thinking about Simon Hunt. Simon is not a member of the peerage, but he's extremewealthyhly. A man she can't think about marrying. Even though he's rich, he's not titled. Now, this makes Annabelle seem... snobbish. But I keep thinking, this is how it was back in the day.

Simon Hunt. Yummy. I loved when he told Annabelle to cut her game short or he'd make love to her right then and there. He tells her she has 5 minutes to get upstairs. They don't make it of course and ending making love in a linen closet. His comment, "For the rest of my life, the smell of starch will always make me hard." Yeah baby.

Another favorite scene was when Annabelle was bit by an adder. Simon was so caring and tender towards. It was really touching how he didn't want to leave her side.

Grade: B

Dylan's Take:

Hero: Mr. Simon Hunt
Heroine: Miss Annabelle Peyton
Grade: B+

Simon Hunt.

Holy hot damn this man was all that and then some for me. I hella loved me some Mr. Hunt. I really enjoyed this book. I'm hecka kicking myself for not giving Lisa Kleypas a try before now. Her writing style is fantabulous! She writes great stories and her Heroes are just the right amount of yummy!

Izzy already broke the story down for you...so I'll just tell you how I liked the book.

It was great!

There were a few times when I wanted to strangle Annabelle for being such a snob where Simon was concerned but then there were times when I understood why she was the way she was. She couldn't help she was a snob, look at her Mom! I liked though, how she learned the error of her ways and the way she stormed into the factory to save Simon....gosh, that was so cute. And then the scene where she finally sees Simon AFTER that incident and he's with Marcus. And then how she asks him to look at her and he's all bleeding pissed off at her? SO CUTE! That was my favorite scene in the whole book, the scene where they both finally acknowledge their feelings for each other. It was a long time coming and so worth it because I thought that scene was just perfect!

All of her eavesdropping was just too funny to me, when she eavesdropped on Simon and his Mother, I was glad to see that Simon stuck up for her and didn't just brush off his Mother's words, because that was his wife...I really liked how he was waiting to make her his mistress and then ended up making her his wife. I thought that bit was cute.

My favorite part was when she told Simon where she belonged...that scene was just too freaking cute!

Another thing I loved about this book was THE WALLFLOWERS! How cute were they? When they got caught by Lord Westcliff and Simon during their Rounders game had me laughing out loud at the soccer games yesterday, it was just too funny! Lillian and her loud mouth had me laughing when she dared to blame them getting caught on Lord Westcliff and Simon, gosh it was hilarious.

This book was light, extremely funny and the characters were fantastic to get to know, a big time winner in my book! I'm trying to remember if I didn't like anything in this book apart from Lord Hodgeham and there were a lot of descriptions in this book that took me forever to get through, but as soon as I finished with those endless descriptions of the fields and Simon's parents house and all that goodness, I was able to jump right into the story...I could have done without a LOT of the descriptions (which were way too wordy for me) but aside from that, the book was great!

Would I recommend this book? Absofreakinglutely!

A sure winner for real!