The Perks of Being a Wallflower in Historical Romance by Christy Carlyle
I relate to wallflowers in fiction. Could be because, way back in the Stranger Things era, I kind of was one.
If you time traveled back to the 1980’s, you’d find me somewhere in the cluttered rush of a high school hallway. I wasn’t the cool girl or the super fashionable one. I was bookish and bespectacled, though I did have an elaborately decorated locker.
There weren’t any fancy balls in my life, no Empire gowns or chairs at the back of a room full of elegant dancers. I was just quirky. I didn’t fit in any of the cliques that existed at my high school. Maybe I was a bit of a loner. I certainly never got an invite to the prom.
Maybe that’s why I’ve never defined wallflowers as the shy unassuming girl, but the unique one. Sure, she might prefer books to most people, or be awkward when she means to be eloquent, but there’s more to every wallflower, and she’ll surprise you every time.
I think of wallflowers on a continuum that includes Molly Ringwald’s Andie in Pretty in Pink every bit as much as Anne Elliot in Jane Austen’s Persuasion. Take the time to notice an unappreciated young woman, and you might just find someone who’s fierce and clever and as interesting as any heroine ever written.
History—where the marriage plot rules and women who didn’t conform to society’s expectations were likely to be scorned or overlooked— isn’t the same as historical romance. Romance is the ideal place to celebrate the wallflower who no one expects to be fabulous. In historical romance being unusual isn’t a curse. It’s an opportunity to shine.
So, who are a couple of my favorite recent quirky, unconventional wallflowers in historical romance?
Lisa Kleypas gave us a perfect example in one of my favorite books this year, Devil in Spring. The story opens with Lady Pandora Ravenel sitting in a chair at a ball, bored out of her mind. Oh, so relatable. And we soon find that Pandora isn’t shy or meek. She’s loyal, stubborn, and bold. And once the hero actually takes the time to notice her—let’s just say, in an odd situation—he can’t stop noticing how unique and appealing she is. Pandora is the quintessential unconventional wallflower.
Lily Maxton’s recent The Rogue’s Conquest gave me a wallflower to love too. Eleanor Thompson is more interested in entomology than etiquette, and she’s bold enough to go and present her paper at a men’s scientific society—in disguise, of course. And, of course, former prize fighter James MacGregor notices her, including her faulty disguise, and does what a rogue should never do. He becomes bewitched by a wallflower.
In my latest book, How to Woo a Wallflower, I loved allowing my quirky heroine to revel in all of her uniqueness. Clary Ruthven was the girl in the back of the ballroom who nobody asked to dance, partly because she has no intention of conforming to society’s expectations. Despite being the daughter of an etiquette book writer, she’s a natural born rebel and never follows the rules, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. She’s not your typical Victorian lady, but she’s one of my favorite wallflowers.
Who are your favorite literary wallflowers?
I have very mixed feelings about wallflower books.
To be clear: I was a bona fide wallflower. I didn’t bother going to school dances, but some neighbours of mine used to rent out a gym a few times a year to teach their kids’ friends how to do ballroom dancing, and I would end every damn one of them in the bathroom in tears because no one would dance with me except the fathers, including this guy who was allegedly my best friend. Thanks to years of ballet training, I was one of the better dancers, but I was also shy, bookish, bespectacled, profoundly depressed, indifferent to clothing, and generally weird. Still am, apart from the clothes.
Wallflower books should be absolute catnip for me, right? I thought so, too. I’ve read a lot of them. Yet somehow I rarely manage to like them or identify with them as much as you’d think I would (or as I’d thought I would). I do sometimes enjoy them, but they often leave me cold, and I’ve gradually developed a wariness for them.
I’m not entirely sure what it is, although part of it is definitely that they tend to have a very strong “not like the other girls” vibe, and that always bothers me even though I get the appeal It’s also partly that I’ve learned the hard way that the kind of men who like wallflowers like us for all the wrong reasons.. It’s not just these things, but I have trouble articulating the rest.
My favourite wallflower is probably Melisande Fleming from Elizabeth Hoyt’s _To Seduce a Sinner_. Not because there’s no “not like the other girls” vibe (there is, albeit less of one), but because it doesn’t have those other things I have trouble articulating.
OMG–I adore Melisande. Thank you so much for reminding me of her. She and Miranda from The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever are two bookwormish heroines I’d forgotten how much I loved.
You’re welcome! I just reread Melisande’s book last week, and if anything it worked even better for me the second time.
I love that series.
I have read Quinn’s book, but not the title by Hoyt. Great recommendation. I’ll go pick it up, and thanks for commenting. :)
I like wallflowers too, and I think it is primarily because I subscribe to the “still waters run deep” motto. The way people present themselves in public spaces is not nearly the whole story and wallflowers are almost always misunderstood or overlooked. My current favorite fictional wallflower is Kat Tanner from Penny Reid’s Knitting in the City series. Her book is out in March and it is long anticipated in this long running series.
Thanks for the recommendation! I do like that aspect of wallflowers too–the opportunity to explore what’s beyond the label. Personally, my favorite wallflowers are those who don’t truly fit the mold of the moniker at all.
While I hate the book, I did really like the heroine of Sarah MacLean’s One Good Earl Deserves a Lover, Philippa.
I’ll have to go and take a look at Philippa again. ;)
I have to agree with you about Pandora – she’s who always pops to mind when I hear this question. I love that she’s a wallflower largely because she can’t be bothered with the game that would be required of her otherwise. I empathize, oh gurl do I empathize.
Yeah, I loved her as soon as Kleypas introduces us to her doing the quintessential wallflower thing—sitting alone in a ballroom—bored out of her creative mind and doing word games in her head. I maybe shouldn’t admit that’s pretty much me at half the parties I’ve attended as an adult. Relatable.