SCANDAL IN SPRING - Lisa Kleypas
The Wallflower Quartet , Book 4
Avon
ISBN: 0-06-056253-6
August 2006
Historical romance

Stony Cross Park, England - 1844

Four girls going through the Season in London meet and form a solid friendship.  Calling themselves the Wallflowers because no man wants to talk or dance with them, they decide to help each other find a man to marry and end their solitary lives.  Three of them have met and married the men of their dreams, and now the last Wallflower, Daisy Bowman, is left. Thomas Bowman has decided his daughter must find a husband before the end of May or he will pick Daisy's husband...his assistant, Matthew Swift.

Oh, Daisy well remembers Matthew Swift from dad's business in America .  Thomas Bowman is a wealthy businessman, and Matthew is his protégé.  Everything Daisy despises about her father, his time spent working and ignoring his family, Daisy feels is personified in Matthew.  And besides, he stares at you as if he can read deep into your heart; he's a lanky bag of bones and altogether too pragmatic and down to earth for the ethereal and bookish Daisy.  Daisy's sister Lillian agrees to have a house party, and her husband and his two friends will bring any and all available men, both morally and monetarily worthy of Daisy's hand.  But when Daisy meets the handsome Matthew at the wishing well, he is nothing like the man she remembers.

Matthew Swift has been called to England by his employer, supposedly to start a new branch of the business in Bristol . When Daisy tells him her father is promising him a part of his business if he marries Daisy, he is dumbfounded.  The idea is fantastic, but like cool water on a hot summer's day, it is Matthew's fondest dream to live his life with the fabulous Daisy. But, the secrets of his hidden past leave him unsure whether to woo Daisy or fervently hope she marries someone else and ends his misery.  But as with all lovers, trying to resist the siren call of love is easier said than done.  Can Daisy accept Matthew as he is and come to terms with being her father's pawn, and can Matthew confront his past life and marry a woman he thought was so far out of his reach he didn't dare hope?

Written in a style that is uniquely Lisa Kleypas, the heartstrings are pulled, the chuckles come, and she reaches deep inside us and brings out every emotion she can grab.  We can feel Daisy's disappointment that her mother and father care nothing for her happiness, and we understand the feelings Matthew has had for Daisy for years, the loneliness he felt in his life until spending time with her and her family.

Oh, come on; admit you know Lisa Kleypas is known for the perfection of her secondary characters intertwining through different stories!  SCANDAL IN SPRING is no different; bringing back the other three Wallflowers immediately makes you reach for the old books in the series to refresh your memories with their stories.  Lillian Westcliff is Daisy's sister, and her husband Lord Westcliff is one of my favorite characters next to Derek Craven.  Annabelle and Simon Hunt's and Evie and Lord St. Vincent's unions exemplify the meeting between the English gentleman and that special woman who then live their lives with passionate love for each other.

SCANDAL IN SPRING follows the other books in the series, SECRETS OF A SUMMER NIGHT (November 2004), IT HAPPENED ONE AUTUMN (October 2005), and THE DEVIL IN WINTER (March 2006).  SCANDAL IN SPRING totally stands alone, but do not deny yourself the pleasure of enjoying all the books.  I can only hope there is another story in the works before the perfection of this one wears off.

Carolyn Crisher