Ah yes, the Smythe-Smiths, the terribly talentless quartet that graces Bridgertons pages with its bad music. It is a family tradition though for each girl to play in the annual recital until they die or get married, whichever comes first. So here I rank the stories of the ladies behind the instruments.

1. A Night Like This: After three years, Daniel has returned after a long sorjorn in Italy where he’s been hiding from a dual gone wrong. His honor is in tatters but he is a handsome, rich duke so the ladies of the ton are more than willing to let bygones be bygones. But they are not the ones who have caught his eye. When the mysterious governess Miss Wynter takes place on the piano during the annual Smythe-Smith recital, Daniel is intrigued and settles his sights on her. But Anna can’t let herself get caught up with this nobleman no matter how his eyes soften around her. She is escaping her own dangerous past and must give up love to keep herself and Daniel safe.

2. Just like Heaven: This was a good introduction to the Smythe-Smith family and the importance of their musical quartet. Honoria acknowledges that they are bad, but it seems all the alums insist they uphold anyway, she just can’t imagine why. But that’s not the important part. The best part was the enemies to lovers romance between Honoria and Marcus. Marcus was Daniel’s best friend and had always seen Honoria as his friend’s kid sister but after Daniel goes on the run, he fufill his friend’s wish to look after her during her debut. Their sniping was fun and helped to transition from enemies to friends who recognize each other as grownups to well. . . that something more after Marcus’ deathly illness. The only thing that prevented this book from becoming the number one was how long Marcus’ sickbed took up so there left little room for spicy romance at the end.

3. Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy: This one was a bit harder to swallow. I mean seriously, the titular Sir Richard romances Iris because he thinks she’ll be the easiest mark, being considered plain and undesirable. Real nice, right? And the secret reason for why he does it, even more so. I mean any other person would run for divorce immediately, but in spite of that I can’t blame Iris. Because the rapport they build up together really does make them feel perfect for each other. Plus it helps Sir Richard really does become overwhelmed with guilt for fake-compromising Iris in order to fufill his goal and spends much of it beating himself up for it. But he is a difficult MC to root for so it might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

4. The Sum of All Kisses: This was interesting as the main hero is a mathmatician and a cripple thanks to the aforementioned dual Daniel participated in above. So he’s not likely to sweep Sarah off her feet. Not that she’d want that. They hate each other. Yep, another enemies to lovers romance but I found the reason for the anonymity kinda dumb so that part wasn’t intriguing. Their romance was a perfect fit as they both had a dry wit that was enjoyable. Plus it was sweet as Sarah assured Hugh he was enough for her and just as much of a man as before. The only downside is the villain of the piece, Hugh’s sadistically insane father. He’s so insane it borders on unplausible and made the reasoning for why Hugh and Sarah couldn’t get married feel stupid and drawn out.