Secrets of a Summer Night - Lisa Kleypas

I also read this one in English, in my kindle, during my short stay in London(I have no idea if this is the right cover, but who cares?). In fact, I devoured most of it in one night, because I simply couldn't sleep. It's very easy to read and fun, but I guess I've read too many of these by now.

  

The plot isn't original, but I don't think it has to be - there's some comfort in knowing what to expect and that that all will be well in the end. That's what you want when you read these books, it would be very upseting if the couple didn't end up together or the author decided to kill one of them or a nice character was left in some terrible situation... 

 

The book is fun and the characteres are lovely enough. It's annoying for a twentieth century woman to see how desperate these girls are to marry (almost anyone will do if his situation in life is adequate), but you have to try to think like them... It must have been difficult for girls back then. Still, it's a happy-go-lucky-lets-party book, There's a lot os seduction and a lot of sex,a lot of dresses and dancing and partying and ploting with the girls. There's also a very funny scene in which the girls are caught in their underwear, playing Rounders, which sounds very much like basebal...   

 

I liked the main character's american friends more than I did her, though, because they are tougher, more independent and more modern.  She worries to much about her situation in life, about getting a nobleman to marry, about manners and families and stuff. Of course there's a lesson to be learnt there... The male character is also fine, a little rough, a little threatening, a rich working man with no title and no wish to marry who very quickly changes his mind. 

 

The problem with this book, and the reason I didn't enjoy it more, is... Well, first, you have the repetition of a threat that pushes characters into feeling more and /or admiting feelings: (SPOILER) she is bitten by a snake and scares him to death, later he almost dies, forcing both of then to admit their feelings. Also, her mother almost kills someone, which opens the girl's eyes (she's a bit smug and always feels her family is a bit better than his because they are noble) and allows for a better relationship between the mothers too... see?

 

I don't like that caveman vibe"she is mine, mine" that I get from the male character, he's possessive enough to marry her so that no other man can have her, and he's a bit overprotective for my tastes, but I guess that pleases most women, because there are sooo many characters like this in books written to and by women. Don't bother explaining it to me, I'll never understand.

 

I also didn't like characters' repetitive brooding about the feelings they don't want, about the atraction they feel for each other, about how rude or annoying this or that person is, and so on. Some stuff made me roll my eyes and think "just get on with it, you guys for my". Also, too much sex and very unlikely reactions - why does every author makes girls see stars and "enjoy" themselves terribly in their very first time... several times? 

 

A nice read, but it's not likely that I'll be reading the other girls' stories. I definitely prefer Julia Quinn.

 

Um livro agradável, que nos oferece mais ou menos aquilo que esperamos quando o abrimos (não tenho nada contra isso, como já tenho dito), uma história leve, com muitas conspirações femininas, muitos vestidos e festas, muita sedução e sexo, uma personagem feminina com alguma personalidade e uma personagem masculina que fará suspirar muitas senhoras - a mim não, infelizmente, não apreciei o espirito possessivo do rapaz. Há algumas cenas engraçadas, como quando as senhoras são apanhadas seminuas ao ar livre por causa de um jogo (uma espécie de basebol), e umas quantas reviravoltas que me fizeram revirar os olhos - ela está em perigo, ele salva-a, ele está em perigo, ela salva-o -  para além dos inevitáveis confrontos que advêm das suas diferenças sociais e da resistência a sentimentos indesejados. No seu conjunto, é uma leitura rápida e bem disposta,  mas não o suficiente para ler os restantes desta série, embora tenha gostado bastante das wallfowers  americanas.