Smitten by Books

A new (well actually old) feature I’m adding to the reviews that we do here is to give readers the ability to also rate the book. Comments are definitely encouraged if you’ve read The Summer of You and choose to give it a rating.

The Summer of You
Author: Kate Noble
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Pub. Date: April 6, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-0425232392
Retail: $15.00
352 pages

Lady Jane Cummings is certain that her summer is ruined when she is forced to reside at isolated Merrymere Lake with her reckless brother and ailing father. Her fast-paced London society is replaced with a small town grapevine. But one bit of gossip catches Jane’s attention- rumors that the lake’s brooding new resident is also an elusive highwayman.

Jane must face the much discussed mysterioso after he saves her brother from a pub brawl. She immediately recognizes him from London: Byrne Worth, war hero and apparent hermit-whom she finds strangely charming. The two build a fast friendship, and soon nothing can keep this Lady away from Merrymere’s most wanted. Convinced of his innocence, Jane is determined to clear Byrne’s name—and maybe have a little fun this summer after all.

~*~*~

Julia Quinn fans especially will love this rich and romantic story

Despite the author’s delightful voice, this Regency started out a tad slow for me, largely because it seemed to take some time for the heroine, Lady Jane Cummings, and the hero, Byrne Worth, to come together. The story begins in London with the return of Jane’s brother, Jason, from a year-long European tour. The declining health of their father, the Duke of Rayne, forces them to their Lake District cottage on Merrymere Lake and the charming village of Reston. Jane concerned me throughout the first few chapters due to her superior attitude toward the people of the country and her great unwillingness to leave the frivolity of London and all its distractions from her responsibility to her ailing father. But once she began to fall in love with the idyll country setting again, I began to warm up to her.

Byrne is the town hermit and the suspected highwayman who plagues the area. It didn’t take long to like the hero of this book. The most important aspect of this story, to my eye, is character growth. Jane and Byrne both grow exponentially from beginning to end and it was Byrne’s growth from unsavory scrooge with a history of substance abuse to Jane’s champion that is most touching and realistic.

“Was I so grotesque, lying ill in your library?”

“No!” she cried, her eyes flying to his face.

“Then why do you not avail yourself of the way out? I’ve given you permission to end your little rehabilitation project and consider me a lost cause! Hell, I’ve given you ample reason today.”

“You are not a lost cause! And you’re not a…a project to me!”

“Then what am I Jane? If I’m not a lost cause or a project, you don’t pity me, and won’t hate me, then what else is there?”

He held her gaze then, saw the rise and fall of her chest as her breath came hard and heavy. He felt every nerve in his body come alive, every sensation pool at the base of his spine, as he repeated…

“What else is there?”

He saw it then, in her eyes. The awareness of what he was asking. The answer.

“Jane,” he said again, “what else is there?”

The moment fell between them. And then…

And then nothing was between them.

True to his name, in the end this unlikely hero is quite worthy of a duke’s daughter. Their relationship is also realistic because of its slow but steady progression, the sweet build-up that is missing from much of romance these days:

“I want…to be your friend,” he breathed, lowering his head slowly, painfully slowly, to meet hers.

“You are,” she replied in a whisper. He was so close now, he could feel the linen of her nightdress dance across his body under the water.

“Good,” he sighed, then grinned. “I always wanted a friend with freckles.”

“I don’t have freckles,” she replied. She tried to be sharp, but instead all he heard was the whisper of a challenge.

“I beg to differ,” he responded. “Here’s one.” He laid his lips against her cheek, where her freckles glowed against her moonlit skin. “Here’s another.” He kissed the corner of her eye, felt the thick lashes fall blissfully. “Another one.” It was just on the end of her nose, making her giggle against her will. And then, “This one’s my favorite.” He let his lips dance just above her lip.

This was not the quick, hard kiss he had given to silence her. The grappling, surprising need from his loft. The kiss was seduction.

As soon as Jane and Byrne began to come together on an emotional level, I quickly fell in love with this book. This is helped by a cast of vibrant and endlessly entertaining secondary characters. Instantly, I rooted for Dr. Berridge and Victoria Wilton’s budding relationship. The setting of Reston and Merrymere was my favorite aspect of the book. If all of this wasn’t enough, there’s an added theme of intrigue as Byrne and Jane team up to catch the real highwayman and prove Byrne’s innocence.

The Summer of You is defined by Kate Noble’s fresh, resonating wit. She is a natural storyteller with a colorful voice that flows beautifully throughout the story. The only qualm I had with the writing itself was the occasional jarring POV shift, but that isn’t near enough to deter me from scouring local bookstores for more of her backlist.

Rating: 7.5 (Good +)

Heat-Level: 4 (Hot)

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