Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn
Honoria Smythe-Smith is the youngest of her siblings and has always tried her best to fit in with her closest sibling, Daniel. When Daniel started bringing his best friend around, she tried to fit in with Marcus as well. The rest was history… at least until Daniel had to flee the country after a night of gambling gone awry. Three years and a bad leg gash later, Marcus is knocking on death’s door with Honoria and her mom to the rescue. The longer Marcus and Honoria are together, the more they realize their feelings are no longer platonic.
When I saw that the Smythe-Smiths had a spin-off series, I knew I had to read them. I love the main series, but a series following the various members of the famous Smythe-Smith quartet? Count me in! In this series opener, we follow Honoria and Marcus through their rotating perspectives. Honoria is getting ready to perform in her family’s annual musicale as well as start her third year of hoping to find a respectable husband. This time around, she’s got her eyes set on a Bridgerton, which Marcus approves of… sort of.
Speaking of Marcus, he’s practically a Smythe-Smith himself due to spending so much time with the family. He barely had any family to begin with, and now he’s all alone in the world and missing his best friend who has barely written since he fled the country. Marcus is shy and very serious, and he hates visiting London, but it’s something he’s willing to do so he can keep his promise to Daniel. The promise in question? Make sure Honoria marries well. It’s a promise Honoria has no idea about.
I absolutely loved this book. While Honoria and Marcus aren’t the most entertaining characters nor do they have the type of chemistry that’s on fire, it’s a romance I can get behind. They’re both sweet, kind, and caring characters who genuinely care for the people around them. I particularly enjoyed Honoria’s relationship with her family, and how she enjoyed practicing for the musicale despite being a terrible violin player. It’s fun to watch how each of her cousins react differently about the show while she’s determined to make it fun for the family that are no longer performing as part of the quartet. I also loved that Marcus appeared to be ultra serious and stand-offish but that he’s actually just shy and socially awkward. It was also nice to see how much he cared for the people around him.
While the romance isn’t on fire, it’s soft and sweet. It was so much fun to watch the pair fall in love and then realize that they had fallen in love. It’s even funnier to watch them interpret the other’s interest in each other as the exact opposite of what they actually feel. I had a lot of fun reading this, and it was even funnier to see an old favorite character again. Lady Danbury is one of my favorite characters, so I’m excited to see her turning up to the muscales in each book.
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