TEST
Lady Penelope – Penny – Campion has a new neighbor. Penny has been living in London for years, kept company by one deaf old housekeeper and a menagerie of pets. She has a few friends in the area but no man in her life. That is, until her pet parrot flies into the house next door.
Gabriel Duke – known as The Duke of Ruin – has made his living buying up the debt and secrets of England’s nobles and then calling them in. He has a chip on his shoulder – a shoulder which now has a parrot sitting on it thanks to his neighbor, Lady Penelope. He isn’t angry though, because he’s trying his hand at the regency-era version of house flipping, and Penny’s aristocratic status gives his new real estate an excellent address.
Unfortunately, Penny’s family has decided it’s time for her to move back to the countryside where she grew up. For Penny, this means returning to the scene of a traumatic childhood. For Gabriel, it means potentially losing his home’s greatest asset. But all this can be avoided if they take the Wallflower Wager: Penny’s aunt has agreed to help her stay at home in town, if Penny can a) get new clothes, b) get rid of the pets, and c) appear in the society columns. Gabriel and Penny are on a mission.
I’m a Tessa Dare fan and have read a number of her books including both the preceding books in the Girl Meets Duke series: The Duchess Deal (currently my favorite regency) and The Governess Game (if you start with The Wallflower Wager it’s no problem – the books in the series don’t need to be read in order). For me, what makes her books especially enjoyable is that she never forgets that good writing is as important as good romance. There’s nothing worse than a romance in which the hero and heroine can’t hold a conversation and all you can think is PLEASE STOP TALKING AND GO TO BED ALREADY. Gabriel and Penny have no problem holding conversations. Example:
“Every time I speak three words, you look as though you’re going to swoon into my arms.”
“I do not,” Penny objected, knowing very well that she probably did.
“You sigh like a fool, blush like a beet. Your eyes are the worst of it. They turn into
these . . .these pools. Glassy blue pools with man-eating sharks beneath the surface.”
“I hope you’re not planning a career in poetry.”
“For the good of us both, you have to cease gazing at me.”
I also really appreciate that whenever Ms. Dare has the chance to either go for dramatic prose or humor, she goes for humor. There’s an entire scene involving the birth of a baby goat which is midwifed by Gabriel and Ash and Chase (the heroes from the previous books) which could have been full of on-the-nose-prose trying desperately to convince me how wonderful/kind/tender Gabriel is. Instead, Tessa Dare makes it a hilarious scene of three grown men trying not to freak out and arguing over who has the thinnest arm to reach up the poor goat’s birth canal. Additionally, Dare is FULL of surprises. Not only does she always go for humor, but she also always goes for originality. There’s an entire subplot involving Gabriel’s housekeeper, who seems to have fallen out of a gothic novel, that’s a perfect example. If there is a sexy, witty, funny and/or original way to look at or say something, Tessa Dare is going to find it, and it grounds the story and makes it feel vivid and genuine.
As for our hero and heroine. . . Penelope originally irritated me a little, living in her house with all her nutty creatures (she names her hens after King Lear’s daughters). At first, I saw her as the sort of eccentric heiress that one can still find in any metropolis, surrounded by her spoiled animals. However, there’s much more to her behavior than that (more on that later). As for Gabriel, he grew up as a “a street urchin”. His life story is brutal, but despite the references to his “instinctive, defensive anger that had become as natural to him as breathing”, he is not a scary hero. He’s a good guy and I enjoyed the portrayal of their attraction to each other. The story itself feels flirty – the banter, the inner monologues, the PoVs, everything. Penny informs Gabriel after initiating their first kiss: “I was grateful for your help with Bixby, and more than a little overwhelmed by that display of brute strength. All that flexing.” (That said, the sex scenes aren’t particularly memorable, which was a bit of a letdown.)
A big part of what kept this book from getting a higher recommending grade was that in the last third, Tessa Dare drops a bombshell about Penny’s past, and the story shifts from focusing on the romance and becomes more about Penny reckoning with her past. Without going into excessive spoiler territory, suffice to say that she is a sexual abuse survivor. Ms. Dare handles the subject with sensitivity; I just wish that she had woven more of this part of the story in earlier on, so it didn’t weigh so heavily on the last section. I ended the book feeling as though I had just finished a story about women’s empowerment rather than one about two people falling in love.
Overall, if you’re looking for a romance that never tries to rest on its sexual laurels and short change you on the writing, The Wallflower Wager is a safe bet. I’d even be willing to wager that you won’t make it to the end without highlighting at least one passage that makes you just laugh, smile, or think to yourself: I’d never considered it that way, but she is totally right.
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Grade: B-
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 24/08/19
Publication Date: 08/2019
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Part-time cowgirl, part-time city girl. Always working on converting all my friends into romance readers ("Charlotte, that was the raunchiest thing I have ever read!").
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It’s such a shame that with all the talk of not being a virgin not equating to a woman being ruined in this book, the author STILL chose to have the double standard setup of a virgin heroine and an experienced (slutty) ‘hero’. And in this story it would have been possible to have a different backstory. All the hints earlier in the book (the heroine saying she could not be compromised, etc.) seemed to promise as much. Oh, but apparently it was better to go with child molestation as the backstory to ‘save’ her hymen.
Such a disappointment.
This one was a solid B+ for me; I think Dare did a good job balancing the heavier parts of the novel and the lighter.
I agree with Caz. Current Dare books focus on feel good plot lines and incedental comedy and for me lacking in complexity in character and plot development. She is basic and not comparable to the likes of Vincy.
“Current Dare” doesn’t work as well for me either.
So I have a problem: I really liked The Duchess Deal and DNF The Governess Game (which may have been due to external circumstances, but I am still reluctant to try again).
If you have read all three of them, what is your personal opinion: Will this one be my cup of tea or should I give it a miss? Or do I just have to give The Governess Game a second chance?
The Governess Game is a step behind The Duchess Deal and a larger step behind The Wallflower Wager. Unfortunately for you The Wallflower Wager is nothing like The Duchess Deal, as it goes all out for humour unlike anything else Tessa Dare has done. I would associate The Wallflower Wager with the out and out comedy of Mia Vincy’s A Wicked Kind of Husband and Julia Quinn’s What Happens in London and Ten Things I Love About You.
Sorry, but Mia Vincy’s humour is way more sophisticated and I certainly wouldn’t describe A Wicked Kind of Husband as an “out and out comedy”. TD has, in her last few books, been far too “knowing” in the way she seems to be saying to her audience – “look how funny I am”.
“I certainly wouldn’t describe A Wicked Kind of Husband as an “out and out comedy”. ” If you know of books funnier than A Wicked Kind of Husband, I would love to hear of them.
I didn’t say it wasn’t funny. I said it wasn’t an out-and-out comedy. By that I mean the book may be funny but it isn’t positioned as a comedy. TD’s recent books are intended to be light and frothy and that’s fine; I’ve just found the humour to be somewhat forced in places, unsophisticated (as I’ve said) and I dislike the feeling I’ve got of the author winking at me over her shoulder. The two books aren’t in the same leage – in my opinion.
It was not for me.
The Duchees Deal was a dnf, barely managed to get through The Governess Game, the current one sits in the tbr pile.
My favorite Tessa Dare is “A Week to be Wicked”. It’s my go to audiobook when I just need a laugh!
Agreed – I don’t think she’s ever topped that one.
I’m such a fan of The Goddess of the Hunt.
The first chapter of The Goddess of the Hunt is the perfect bite sized romcom.
I guarantee The Wallflower Wager is funnier. Unfortunately it only has glimpses of the emotional highs that A Week to be Wicked provides chapter after chapter. (It was my second favourite romance.)
I enjoyed it just a little more than Charlotte did… it is my new second favourite romance
Easily the funniest thing Tessa Dare has ever written with plenty of romantic thoughts, lines and moments that made me MMMM and with a climactic moment that induced supreme respect for Hero, heroine and writer.
You’re right, Tessa Dare is great fun. I laughed out loud so much while reading this. Loved the goat scene and pretty much any scene with Ash, Chase, and Gabriel. An excellent third book in the series! I loved the romance between Penny and Gabriel – so nicely done.