This book wasn't bad. Aside from the hero taking all the blame on himself for the past when it wasn't all his fault, especially what injured him. And aside from the heroine's 'all about me' response to something that had nothing to do with her (and saved someone she loved, by the way). The only thing that really bothered me about this book was the wholly unnecessary last chapter that was included for the sole purpose of inserting a sex scene. It didn't occur naturally within the story and was added onto the end for . . . some reason. Romance authors: NOT EVERY ROMANCE NOVEL REQUIRES A SEX SCENE. I PROMISE. 

The genre's focus on sex (increasingly graphic and crude sex at that) has become quite tiresome. 

Other than the above, what I really enjoyed was the hero and heroine growing closer to each other and their banter. There was a great foundation for a relationship between them.

This was an audiobook and not one of the more tolerable narrators. Her voice seemed strained. Like her accent was fake. The female voices she did were good, but the male voices could be rather cringe-inducing.

I love Julia Quinn. She’s one of my favorite historical romance authors. She writes the kind of historicals that I absolutely love. The kind that make me laugh, make me mad and makes me want to have its babies. I wanted to have this books babies. I thought it was adorable and perfect and just fantabulous. Hugh and Sarah were wonderful characters that leaped right off the pages and their witty banter kept the book going, hitting all of my happy buttons.

At first, I couldn’t remember who the hell Hugh was. I read the first part of the prologue, wondering…who the hell are all of these people and then BAM, it hit me. And I thought, “Duh. I remember who Hugh is now.” I thought it was pretty clever of Julia Quinn to write Hugh’s book. He’s not your normal hero. He’s not perfect. He’s wounded and he’s unhappy but man did he have potential and Quinn wrote him up and I fell right in love with him.

I liked Sarah from the previous books but she wasn’t my favorite. I think Iris is and man, I’m really looking forward to her book…we do get her book, right? Sarah was kind of a wallflower character for me. She existed in the background of the other books and I never really paid her much attention. But man was she quite the heroine in this book. She was dramatic and she was loud but I really, really liked her.

Hugh is one of those nerd heroes who makes being a nerd, sexy. He can do complicated math in his head and his memory is something for the books. He’s really good at cards because he counts them. He was injured in the duel between him and Daniel Smythe-Smith (Sarah’s cousin). Daniel was shot in the shoulder but is fine. Hugh was shot in the leg and he can’t walk without a limp anymore. In A Night Like This, we see Daniel coming to grips with the duel and what he’s done to Hugh and you see them try to repair their friendship. In this book, we see a bit more of that and we see what really happened the night of the duel and we see Hugh come to terms with it and truly move on from that night.

Hugh and Sarah do not get along. Sarah holds him responsible for Daniel having fled the country to save his life from Hugh’s father. That whole scandal pushed her coming out a year and in the year that she was supposed to come out, 14 gentlemen proposed and got married. Sarah is now one and twenty years of age and she’s still not married.

She blames this on Hugh.

Sarah has made it crystal clear what she thinks of Hugh and Hugh doesn’t care because he doesn’t care about Sarah. But when Honoria asks Sarah to help Hugh feel welcome at her wedding to Marcus, Sarah has no choice but to agree. This was the beginning of the end of her hatred for Hugh Prentice. Over the course of the two weddings that Sarah and Hugh attend (first Honoria and Marcus’ and then Daniel and Anna’s), a bond is formed between the two and a love that takes them both by surprise pops up and wraps them both up.

This was a good book. It was fun and entertaining and I didn’t want to put this book down. Even when Hugh’s stupid father makes an appearance and makes me want to punch him in the throat, it was good. Seeing Hugh’s background and seeing what he went through and what he survived made him my very favorite hero of the series so far. I adored him and I really liked Sarah as well. This was a good book and it was a fabulous addition to this series and I cannot wait for more. I’m pretty anxious for the next book. Read this one!

My review contains spoilers and they're mostly my thoughts as I went with the book...

The Sum of All Kisses by Julia Quinn was one of my most anticipated releases this year. Now that I’ve read it, I’m heaving a sigh of pure contentment. This had a little of everything à la JQ; funny scenes, witty (even sometimes confusing) dialogues, Smythe-Smiths, Pleinsworths with a very short mention of the Bridgertons.

For those who have never read JQ before, start with the Bridgerton series because that is where the Smythe-Smiths were introduced. This is a yearly musicale of ‘legendary’ reputation with four Smithe-Smith cousins butchering Mozart enthusiastically. A musicale that has been going on for a long time and even though the ‘music’ in question is horrendous more often than not, everyone invited always attends for some odd reason. The cousins change as they marry. Married women can’t be in that musicale, only unmarried ones, in the hopes of making a good match, hence showing off their ‘talents’. Their mommas are always convinced, just as the girls, that they’re prodigies in the making! But, there would always be one unfortunate girl who is intelligent enough to know how bad they actually are and even though you’d feel for her, there’s nothing to be done as she has to go along with the flock, or so to speak.