The Secrets Of Sir Richard Kenworthy (Smythe-Smith Quartet, #4) by Julia Quinn
Historical Romance
384 pages
January 27, 2015
Avon
Reviewed by Tori
Favorite Quote: “Did you really think she was going to smile and say, ‘As you wish, Sir?’ “
Sir Richard Kenworthy needs to marry quickly and doesn’t have the time nor inclination to go through the usual hoops in order to find a bride. He asks a friend to help him find a young woman who may not be as cautious or ask too many questions and he is led to Smythe-Smiths and Iris. Richard sees a young woman whose looks wouldn’t garner her a first, second, or even third look but there is something about her that calls to him. He knows she is the one for him but circumstances may force him to lose her before their life together can even begin.
Iris Smythe-Smith isn’t your usual debutante. With somewhat bland looks and affordable personality, she fades into the background quite often and is content with that. When an attractive stranger demands an introduction to her, she is hesitant. When he begins to flirt and charm, she becomes suspicious. The more time they spend together, the more Iris suspects something is afoot. When a surprise marriage proposal is bungled and circumstances force Iris to marry Richard, she is determined to discover all his secrets. But when she does, how will she ever forgive him?
I fell in love with Julia Quinn and her stories when I was introduced to her Bridgerton series. From there I became a fan and have read almost everything she has written. Her stories are energetic, humorous, romantic, and very family orientated. Meddling parents, obstinate heroes and heroines, exasperating siblings, and a menage of eccentric circumstances always blend together to give romance readers a romance that beats the odds while hitting all the high notes.
The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy starts out pleasant. A meet cute with the atrocious Smythe-Smith family musicians provides the perfect opening for our hero to engage the heroine and set his plan in motion. Plenty of humorous banter and tongue in cheek situations set the stage of what promises to be quite a journey between two people for whom fate (and some dubious circumstances) have brought together. I enjoyed getting to know Iris and Richard. Even knowing Richard was being duplicitous, I found him charming.
As the story progresses, Quinn gives us hints towards the dark secret that Kenworthy is carrying. We are privie to his thoughts and we are warned that once Iris learns of this secret, all will not be well. It’s well written and flows smoothly but there was a part of me that wasn’t enamoured as of yet. Both Iris and Richard are amicable people. Intelligent, steady, witty, and strong for whom family means the world and they will sacrifice for them. The passion and chemistry I’m used to seeing from Ms. Quinn wasn’t quite as effervescent. The entire ‘courtship’ was all very subdued. It’s only after Richard marries Iris and she learns the real reason why he married her do I feel the artifice in the first half of the story is stripped away and we see the real Iris and Richard. The pain, the sorrow, the confusion, the humiliation, and the anger is there and they are magnificent when their emotions are laid bare for all to see.
“I know why you married me, you needed someone who would need you even more. Someone who could overlook a suspiciously hasty proposal and be desperate enough to thank you for it.”
****
“…he could not see anything beyond the shattered look on Iris’s face, and he had an awful sense that he’d broken something within her, something he could never repair.”
It’s at this moment that the story becomes so much more than I had anticipated and I was firmly hooked. Quinn reintroduces our couple to one another and the sparks I had missed in the beginning erupts in a fiery blaze. Iris is not the amicable woman she seemed before and Richard is both confused and enchanted by what he sees. This is the woman he felt was peeking out from beneath her placid and uninspiring looks. This woman who is both fire and ice. This is the woman he had fallen in love with… and then betrayed.
“She was such a contradiction. So ethereal in looks and so pragmatic in mind. […] Had he thought her innate personality would allow her to get over the fundamental insult of their marriage? That she would just shrug and say, ‘Quite right, that makes sense.”
The conflict is painstakingly laid out as Iris learns more about the situation and realizes exactly why Richard did what he did. She is sympathetic to his problem but remains true to herself and seeks to find another way out of this mess. Richard also sees beyond his own expectations and begins to look at the situation from Iris’s point of view. He realizes that the consequences of his actions will cost him much, much more than he had originally anticipated.
“He did not see how she could ever love him not after what he’d done. But he had to try. And maybe it would be enough that he loved her.”
Quinn writes a seemingly lightweight frivolous romance that divulges into deeper emotions and temperaments, creating a love story that will confound and delight fans everywhere.
RATING: B
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Great review. I like Julia Quinn but have not been keeping up with her recent stuff. Now I want to rush right out and get this book. Is this a good entry place into the series or would it be better to start at the beginning of the series?
Thank you. Though this is the last book in the Smythe-Smith Quartet, it’s can be easily read as a stand alone. It revolves almost solely on h/H with limited past character(s) or event(s) interaction.
I was a bit let down with this one. I didn’t really feel much of a connection between Iris and Richard. I loved Iris so much, and I don’t know if JQ really proved to me that Richard deserved her. But I did still enjoy it. But it was far from love.
Glad you enjoyed it though.
It took the last half for me to really see it. I needed Richard to be an arse and Iris to be angry. I did feel the resolution came a bit to easy but enjoyed it all never less. Sorry it didn’t blow you away. :(
I REALLY miss “ZOMG A+” Julia Quinn… *le sigh*
Me too. *pets May softly*
I was really frustrated by this book. I am a big fan of Julia Quinn’s books, although there are a few that I didn’t enjoy as much as the others. This is the first one of hers that I ended up actively disliking. Richard was a deceptive manipulator, and although he apologized, he still insisted on having everything his way (it was changed circumstances, not a change of heart, that led him to alter his plans). His interactions with his sister left me feeling that he was motivated as much by a desire to control and punish her as by a desire to protect her. All three Kenworthy siblings came across as dishonest and narcissistic. I could not believe in the HEA, because it seemed that Iris had married into a toxic family and simply decided to make the best of it because she had no other options. I sincerely hope that JQ’s next book features a more likeable hero; otherwise, I may need to break up with her.