jayvall reviewed The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy by Julia Quinn (Smythe-Smith quartet)
Review of 'The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Sir Richard Kenworthy has a secret and he’s come to London because he needs a wife pretty quickly. Preferably a wife who is biddable and won’t ask a lot of questions. To this end, he attends the latest Smythe-Smith musicale, thinking that it might be a good place to find a potential bride, and not realizing that most people don’t attend the musical without being under some sort of duress. Although his ears are quickly accosted when the Smythe-Smith girls start playing, he is taken by Iris Smythe-Smith and immediately decides she will do as his wife nicely.
Iris Smythe-Smith is one of the “floral” Smythe-Smiths and although she’s been out for several seasons, she hasn’t had much success. She chalks this up to the fact that she is quiet, and prefers to stand on the outskirts and people-watch rather than being in the middle of the excitement. While she’s …
Sir Richard Kenworthy has a secret and he’s come to London because he needs a wife pretty quickly. Preferably a wife who is biddable and won’t ask a lot of questions. To this end, he attends the latest Smythe-Smith musicale, thinking that it might be a good place to find a potential bride, and not realizing that most people don’t attend the musical without being under some sort of duress. Although his ears are quickly accosted when the Smythe-Smith girls start playing, he is taken by Iris Smythe-Smith and immediately decides she will do as his wife nicely.
Iris Smythe-Smith is one of the “floral” Smythe-Smiths and although she’s been out for several seasons, she hasn’t had much success. She chalks this up to the fact that she is quiet, and prefers to stand on the outskirts and people-watch rather than being in the middle of the excitement. While she’s flattered that Sir Richard is paying such attention to her, she also thinks something is not quite right, and can’t put her finger on it. Until he proposes, and compromises her in one fell swoop.
The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy is the latest book in Julia Quinn’s Symthe-Smith series. (As an aside, Iris mentions she has twenty-one first cousins, and knowing how long the Bridgerton series went on, I wonder if Quinn is laying the foundation for the Smythe-Smith series to beat that.) I was enjoying Iris and Richard’s romance, even as swift as it was, until Richard’s secret was revealed and his personality changed from a charming, thoughtful man, to a snarling, snide, rude one. I understand what motivated Richard and that he thought he was in a hopeless situation, but the about-face from him was quite shocking and even after he groveled to get Iris back, he didn’t quite win me back. Even though I didn’t like the way Richard handled his secret, I thought the secret was interesting and understandable for the time period and Quinn did a good job of portraying the (rightful) anger each involved party had. My only complaint is that the story leading up to the secret took up much more time than the actual secret/resolution and I would have preferred either less time on the build-up or more time resolving the secret.
