A Night Like This by Julia Quinn

 Anne is a governess and Daniel is a recently returned from exile, Earl.  When they meet at a Smythe-Smith musicale, some small sparks start flying.  We know as well as they that nothing can be done about these sparks; after all think of the class system in England -  an Earl and a Governess?  Well stranger things have happened and so the story begins!

We learn a lot about Daniels’ exile and return very early in this book, but we don’t learn anything about Anne until later and I love how that seems to make the story much more interesting.  When evil things start happening, it is assumed that Daniels ‘enemy’ is behind it, but can he really be sure.  After all he doesn’t know that there is someone out there that may like to see Anne dead too.

“A Night Like This” is told with Ms Quinn usual style; combining romance with humor and wit, a lot of mystery and excitement and a sensuality that can make you shiver.  Perfectly fleshed characters allow you to visualize them with no trouble, although this book doesn’t have Ms Quinns usual brisk pacing and some parts of it sort of lag, things do pick upon to an almost fever pitch in the second half of the book.  

A wonderful and worthy read for anyone who has loved  Ms Quinn’s earlier works. In addition, this may be read as a standalone book, since nothing that may refer to earlier works will muddy the reading of this one.