A Scandal in Spring by Lisa Kleypas is the fourth book in her Wallflowers series of historical romances. We are finally reading about the final Wallflower of the group of four who three years ago, made a joint pact to help each other find their perfect husbands. Daisy Bowman has seen her sister, Lillian and her friends Annabel and Evie, all make successful matches. Daisy is a bit of a dreamer and a bookworm which, to my way of thinking makes her all that more appealing, but her father fears that she will not be able to secure an engagement so tells her that if she isn’t engaged to someone by the end of the season, he will marry her off to a business associate, Matthew Swift.

Both Daisy and her sister Lillian are horrified as they see Matthew as a younger version of their father, caring only about money and success and Lillian is also afraid that American Matthew will take Daisy to the other side of the Atlantic and away from her. Instead of pushing Matthew away, Daisy finds herself yearning to be in his company but there is something holding Matthew back. What secrets lie in his past?

This fourth book was probably my least favorite of the Wallflower books, although I liked both Daisy and Matthew. I think I just found the storyline a little difficult to believe, there was little conflict between the characters and once the revelation of Matthew’s past occurred, the resolution was very quick and easy. There is one more book in the series, a Christmas story about the four Wallflowers, that I am looking forward to as overall I enjoyed the series finding it entertaining and fun. ( )

I liked this a lot more than I expected to! Kleypas has a talent of making mundane events interesting. Personally, I'd be bored to tears if I had to write about lawn bowling and fishing, but Kleypas made these emotionally charged scenes that kept me on the edge of my seat. As a result, the pacing of this book was better than some of the other ones in this series.

I especially liked the ending where the author made it seem like the hero had been killed, but we all know the hero in a romance can't die. Nevertheless, I was swept up in emotional anticipation waiting for the reveal.

The only thing I didn't like was that, in an effort to make the former wallflowers relevant in this installment, they felt superfluous. With the exception of Lillian-Daisy's sister-the other two didn't really offer much to the story.

( )

Really quite mediocre and forgettable. ( )

I absolutely was not expecting anything like Daisy's love interest after the first three books, but Kleypas truly found an ideal pairing for her--worldly enough to handle the outside world and let her retain her dreamy persona but adventurous enough to keep her interested forever. Solid close to the series. ( )

I might be a bit fatigued by the formula by book four but I definitely appreciated the freedom of consent this book, and that we finally have a Wallflower who takes the lead in pursuing her man and acting on her own desires! To me this makes the sexy scenes a lot hotter.

Plot Summary
Finally it is Daisy Bowman’s turn to find her husband. I always liked Daisy, certainty a lot more than I do her sister (see It Happened On Autumn), so I was glad to finally get to a book focused on her. The Love Interest’s appearance felt quite forced but once we met him I did like him more than I expected. What lets this one down is the big old anti-climax in the final act when his “deep dark secret” is revelated to be actually quite lame and not really that much of an issue, before a very rushed finale.

Characters
Daisy Bowman
As the other American sister, Daisy share some of the same brash and outspoken traits as Lillian but she is generally more empathetic and reasonable. Daisy is a dreamer who prefers her books and fantasies to the dull confines of her real life.

I loved that Daisy very quickly realises that her impression of Matthew is outdated and wrong, and that she is in fact very attracted to him. We don’t waste any time on a tired “enemies to lovers” type trope (we already did that with Lillian, after all). She actually flirts with him! She is the one that pursues him, she is the one that makes the first move, and she is the one that initiates sex. I absolutely loved it! This felt so fresh and exciting after three books of sexual passivity and dubious consent! I just really needed this, thank you Lisa Kleypas!

Daisy supposed she ought to feel ashamed, locking herself in his bedroom and demanding to be seduced. Instead she felt triumphant. And strangely precarious, as if she were balanced on the edge of a new kind of intimacy that went beyond the physical.

Matthew Swift
Matthew is also an American, he is the protégé of Daisy’s father and has been around the family for most of his adult life. He is a very smart and savvy businessman, as well as somehow insanely buff simply by having a cook that feeds him well? (Sure). He has strong, confident energy but not in the aggressive, closed off macho way that Westcliff and Simon Hunt begin with in the earlier novels. Matthew is very open and respectful from the start, so his growth does not come from any personal failings aside from being kind of an idiot about this “terrible secret” he has, and a realisation that he should have trusted Mr Bowman with it years earlier.

Writing
Matthew and Daisy have some great chemistry, I really enjoyed the crochet scene. It could have been trite but I actually found it quite natural and dare I say, cute? As I have already said the fact that both parties are openly attracted, actually flirt and are very much up for the sex in this one make the scenes much more fun.

At some point, Daisy wasn’t exactly certain when, their competitiveness changed to grudging appreciation of each other’s skill. When Swift complimented her on a particularly masterful shot or when she found herself enjoying the sight of his silent calculations, the way his eyes narrowed and his head tilted a little to the side … she was enthralled.

Lisa Kleypas just knows how to write those small details, the little things that are truly romantic that all add up to falling in love with someone.

What lets the story down is that the pacing is very uneven, and by now I know what the formula is. I know that by the end of the book at least one of the pair will have faced some kind of mortal peril. In this one we know we have this “dark secret” looming to prevent them marrying. There was never any foreshadowing on the context of this secret so I just knew it was going to be stupid, this kind of thing is always stupid because it needs to be easily dealt with in order for them to marry by the end and live happy ever after with all their friends.

Not only was it kind of stupid, it was really brushed over, and over and done with in a matter of pages! It happens so fast I was just confused and never had time to be emotionally invested in Matthew’s fate or its impact on Daisy!

Themes
More on themes on my blog!
- The good men work for a living
- Family relationships are complicated

Recommendation: 3/5 Hearts
I enjoyed it a lot until the final third which was a let down but I still recommend this for the steamy, refreshingly consensual, romance with the heroine actually taking the lead. It’s not Devil in Winter (what is) but you can do a lot worse!

I would say there is a criminal lack of Evie and St Vincent, just a couple of tiny mentions. Evie relegated back to be the true wallflower of the group! ( )