The Sum of All Kisses (Smythe-Smith Quartet, #3) in Fans of Eloisa James & Julia Quinn

Nov 16, 2013 Diane rated it it was amazing

Wonderfully clever story of Sarah Pleinsworth and Hugh Prentice. Sarah despises Lord Hugh and blames him for her cousin's exile and her own unmarried state. When she first meets him she lets him know that she believes that the world would be a better place without him.

Hugh finds Sarah to be a bit of a drama queen. He suffers daily for his foolish decision to duel her cousin and he does not need a silly girl to remind him of his failures.

When they met up again at a family wedding the two are for ...more

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Mar 11, 2014 Melissa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014-reads

I really wish that I could give this book a higher rating. I was super excited to get the chance to read Hugh's story. Hugh made a very stupid mistake that led to permanent damage in his leg, effectively crippling him for life. But his mistake did not just cost him. Daniel Smythe-Smith also suffered when Hugh's father decided to put a hit order out on him, sending Daniel to the Continent to save himself. We saw in book two that Hugh was able to eventually work out some sort of deal that allowed I really wish that I could give this book a higher rating. I was super excited to get the chance to read Hugh's story. Hugh made a very stupid mistake that led to permanent damage in his leg, effectively crippling him for life. But his mistake did not just cost him. Daniel Smythe-Smith also suffered when Hugh's father decided to put a hit order out on him, sending Daniel to the Continent to save himself. We saw in book two that Hugh was able to eventually work out some sort of deal that allowed Daniel to come home, and in this story we get to see exactly what that deal entailed. So I was excited to see this man get his Happily Ever After. He was a man suffering for the misdeeds of his past, a man judged harshly by society, and yet a man who seemed to have a bit of greatness to his personality ... a greatness that no one else really took the time to notice. He deserved a Happily Ever After. I wanted to see that ... badly. So it pains me that I can't give his story more stars.

Here's why:

I wanted more of Hugh's story. Well ... there was a lot of Hugh in this book, but I think that his development as a character should have taken more of a central part of the plot. He was a broken man ... strong, but broken. He believed he was probably never going to find love. He didn't think he deserved it. He felt that any punishment society offered him was well justified for his prior sins. Once he began to feel strong feelings toward Sarah he began to face real internal struggles as he realized that he could not be the strength to her that he believed a man should be. He felt like less than a man. These feelings were fascinating to me. I would have loved a more detailed examination of the changes that take place in him that allow him to love Sarah and eventually feel worthy of her love. Sadly, this just never really took place, and for that reason I feel as if this book lost a real opportunity to hit it out of the ballpark as a story. I did like Hugh as a character ... definitely my favorite of the book.

I did not really like Sarah much at all at first. Her anger was rooted in a good cause, but it was so over the top that it became completely irrational. When I can't feel the need for such emotion I have a hard time as a reader finding the capacity to feel real empathy for a character. That was my problem with Sarah. I didn't find her cute or witty or funny or caring at all for the first half of the book. However, once she began to put aside her irrational anger and truly see Hugh for the person he was I found myself liking her much more as a character. Her compassion for him and a real understanding of exactly what he needed in different situations made her a perfect match for him. Still, I wouldn't list her as a top book heroine on any list. Her reaction upon learning about what Hugh had promised his father seemed a huge overreaction compared to the actual situation at hand. Instead of feeling empathy for her I was highly annoyed with her, and even her eventual role in saving Hugh in the final chapters of the book was not enough to rescue my opinion of her. Bummer.

Still, with all of those issues I was still heading toward giving this a four star rating. This is Julia Quinn, after all, and she can write romances that are intelligent and witty and swoon worthy. Unfortunately I had to drop a star because of the incredibly ridiculous story line involving Hugh's father. Hugh's father was a horrible, horrible villain for this story. He was so bad, and his plans were so horrible, that he ceased being interesting as a character. Instead of adding drama and depth to the story he turned the entire thing into a giant melodramatic soap opera. His plan to ensure that there was an heir was completely RIDICULOUS. I had to put that in all caps because a lower caps word could not capture just how ridiculous this plot was. Instead of feeling any real fear or apprehension for what Hugh and Sarah were facing, I found myself rolling my eyes, thinking how badly this book had been plotted out. That is never a good thing when reading a book, and although I have regularly felt that way with other regency romances, this is the first time that I have ever felt that way in a Julia Quinn book.

Having said all this ... this isn't a bad book. I did enjoy reading it for the most part. But this is not on par with other Julia Quinn books that I have read. I still think she is the best regency romance writer out there. This book just didn't meet my expectations. Three stars. I liked it. ...more

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May 10, 2013 Fira Rosli rated it really liked it

This is a very entertaining and fast-paced book but it is always like that with a Julia Quinn's book. Overall, I do like the story and the characters are perfectly fine but of course there are glitches here and there.

What I love most about this book is that the h/h appears ALOT together and that they always spend time with each other. Not to mention that are not boring people and their conversations usually had me smiling and laughing. Julia Quinn's really good with dialogue writing but I must ...more

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Jul 29, 2013 Tahyun rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genre-romance, genre-romance-historical

Not surprisingly, great read. I read this instead of cleaning my house for in-laws the other day. I think there were a couple times when I felt that the set up was more contrived than is usual with a JQ novel. But there were so many things I just loved about the characters, that I almost forgot those little twinges.

For example, I feel like this heroine is a bit more flawed than usual. JQ's heroine's aren't usually unrealistic, by any means, but this one had this sort of "I have bad personality t ...more

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Nov 16, 2013 Tracy rated it it was ok

Three fourths into the book, the shark was jumped. :/ I'm a huge Julia Quinn fan, but I have no clue who penned the last part of this book. ...more

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Nov 01, 2013 Susan Garrett rated it it was amazing

Julia Quinn delivers once again. I could not put it down until finished. A very enjoyable light humor romance read. Can't wait until the next book in this series is released. ...more

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