As the fourth installment of The Wallflowers series, Scandal in Spring tells us the story of Daisy Bowman, the younger sister of Lillian from It Happened One Autumn, and American entrepreneur Matthew Swift. These two have known each other for quite some time since Matthew has been working for Daisy's father for years, but there's animosity between the two of them.
Interesting characters: Eh. Daisy is incredibly boring. Her father calls her a parasite early in the book and Daisy admits that she can't think of anything that she's contributing to the world and while that is incredibly harsh, I want Daisy to get a backbone and be thoughtful enough to defend herself. She's an important part of her family and dearly beloved by her friends and her life is perfectly defensible, but she's not thoughtful at all about her role. I want to like her, as someone who also constantly has her nose in a book, but she doesn't think or talk about the books she's reading. It's a lot like my criticism of the characterization of Lillian in It Happened One Autumn. Just saying that someone is obsessed with something doesn't make it so if the character never brings it up. We get a lot of internal thoughts from Daisy and it literally never has anything to do with books. My thoughts are roughly 50% books, 25% my pets, and 25% everything else.Matthew is vaguely more interesting. He has some dark secret about his past, but since most of this book is from Daisy's perspective, this is just a sort of lackluster subplot. Overall, this couple was about as exciting as dishwater.
Believable conflict: There's conflict very early on when Daisy realizes her father wants her to marry Matthew and she remembers him as awkward and gangly, but as soon as she sees him, there's no conflict. They are a couple who bicker. I'm not a fan of bickering and I don't like to be around couples who bicker* and I certainly don't want to read about it. Light teasing and a certain amount of playfulness is allowed, but the constant sniping and competing and disagreeing is not my style, so I guess it's believable in that way, but the main conflict was supposed to be that Matthew HAS A SECRET and, as I've already written, that subplot is subpar.
I will say, this is the first male protagonist in the series who doesn't have a daddy issue and I'm so relieved that Kleypas has chosen a different path for this last book. Matthew has a past, but his familial relations are not the main focus. It was quite a relief to learn that Kleypas can branch out a bit.
Emotional tension: Not really. Much as happened in Devil in Winter, the characters basically fall in love immediately. We know they both dig one another and there's no real buildup.
Happily ever after: Well, Matthew's legal troubles are solved and they get to be married. It was a satisfying conclusion to the series, I thought.
Overall, I'm quite disappointed in this series. It's absolutely beloved and written about as one of the greatest romance series out there, but there are no memorable characters, scenes, or plotlines. I'm not going to be telling everyone I know to read these books because, while the writing is competent and acceptable, it's just fluffy and there's nothing here to grab onto and even have a conversation about. So, carry on, Kleypas fans, but I will not be reading any more from this author.
*Do you have a couple in your family like this? Dr. BB's sister and her husband are bickerers. I'm usually exhausted after about ten minutes in their presence.
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