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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
4.5 stars.
I really enjoyed this series.
The Wallflower series features 4 "on the shelf" ladies who have been watching other ladies land husbands among the peer, but no one offers for them. The things they have against them:
Annabelle Peyton (the heroine of this story) has no dowry, the snobbiest of the crew and the most ambitious of the friends.
Evangeline Jenner: lacking in money as well, but she is the most shy of the group, yet the most observant. She also stutters a little bit (except if she is talking to an animal or child).
Lillian & Daisy Bowman (American Heiresses, who aren't "peer" and therefore considered vulgar), are bold and fierce and defiant, but undesirable as they are new money from the Continents.
So one evening, while they sat at a ball, since no one asked them for a dance, the ladies decided that they would help each other land husbands, and they dubbed themselves "The Wallflowers." Since Annabelle was 25 years old and the oldest, they would start their plan with her.
Annabelle is desperate because her family is broke and soon, they won't be able to afford her younger brother Jeremy's education. Her mother does whatever she can, but it is no longer enough. Annabelle has had offers to be a mistress, but the ever ambitious Annabelle believes she can do better and she wants a husband who is a peer.
A butcher's son and merchant, Simon Hunt, has been pursing Annabelle, but Annabelle is put off because he is not a member of her class. She doesn't want to settle and marry beneath her, even though Simon is extremely wealthy and she is broke.
Simon and Annabelle begin a game of chess, both literally and figuratively. Simon wants to win the queen of his heart and Annabelle wants to win what she thinks is her hearts desire--to be a wife of someone with Noble blood.
There is something about Lisa Kleypas books that just transports you into the story. Even if you find the people annoying, you can see where they are coming from and they always seem to evolve as the story progresses. She weaves timely humor into her stories and has great pace with the plot.
Annabelle's stubborness was annoying, but I applaud the author for the consistency. I just couldn't help but laugh to myself that she is broke, wearing paste jewels and rags for clothes, but she considered Simon so beneath her. Her mother also looked down on him, though she was having to pay her bills through less than respectable ways.
It reminds me of how people value "appearances" over actual content. Also how people would do almost anything to attach themselves to the "celebrities" of society, just so they can continue with the appearances. This is like the 1800 version of the Real Housewives Of Orange County or Beverly Hills. Still fake, still lacking in substance and still catty. I am glad things worked out for Annabelle and Simon and her family. I was proud of Annabelle because letting go of an idea is very difficult. But I credit Simon for his patience and love for helping Annabelle see beyond the facade. I can't wait for Book 2!
I really enjoyed this series.
The Wallflower series features 4 "on the shelf" ladies who have been watching other ladies land husbands among the peer, but no one offers for them. The things they have against them:
Annabelle Peyton (the heroine of this story) has no dowry, the snobbiest of the crew and the most ambitious of the friends.
Evangeline Jenner: lacking in money as well, but she is the most shy of the group, yet the most observant. She also stutters a little bit (except if she is talking to an animal or child).
Lillian & Daisy Bowman (American Heiresses, who aren't "peer" and therefore considered vulgar), are bold and fierce and defiant, but undesirable as they are new money from the Continents.
So one evening, while they sat at a ball, since no one asked them for a dance, the ladies decided that they would help each other land husbands, and they dubbed themselves "The Wallflowers." Since Annabelle was 25 years old and the oldest, they would start their plan with her.
Annabelle is desperate because her family is broke and soon, they won't be able to afford her younger brother Jeremy's education. Her mother does whatever she can, but it is no longer enough. Annabelle has had offers to be a mistress, but the ever ambitious Annabelle believes she can do better and she wants a husband who is a peer.
A butcher's son and merchant, Simon Hunt, has been pursing Annabelle, but Annabelle is put off because he is not a member of her class. She doesn't want to settle and marry beneath her, even though Simon is extremely wealthy and she is broke.
Simon and Annabelle begin a game of chess, both literally and figuratively. Simon wants to win the queen of his heart and Annabelle wants to win what she thinks is her hearts desire--to be a wife of someone with Noble blood.
There is something about Lisa Kleypas books that just transports you into the story. Even if you find the people annoying, you can see where they are coming from and they always seem to evolve as the story progresses. She weaves timely humor into her stories and has great pace with the plot.
Annabelle's stubborness was annoying, but I applaud the author for the consistency. I just couldn't help but laugh to myself that she is broke, wearing paste jewels and rags for clothes, but she considered Simon so beneath her. Her mother also looked down on him, though she was having to pay her bills through less than respectable ways.
It reminds me of how people value "appearances" over actual content. Also how people would do almost anything to attach themselves to the "celebrities" of society, just so they can continue with the appearances. This is like the 1800 version of the Real Housewives Of Orange County or Beverly Hills. Still fake, still lacking in substance and still catty. I am glad things worked out for Annabelle and Simon and her family. I was proud of Annabelle because letting go of an idea is very difficult. But I credit Simon for his patience and love for helping Annabelle see beyond the facade. I can't wait for Book 2!
Reread: March 2017
I finished my exam today and needed a break before studying for a test tomorrow, so I picked this up again. I forgot how much I love the Hathaways and how sexy Simon Hunt is. *swoons*
First read: March 2016
It seems that I have found a rival for St. Vincent in Simon Hunt.
I have a type.
I finished my exam today and needed a break before studying for a test tomorrow, so I picked this up again. I forgot how much I love the Hathaways and how sexy Simon Hunt is. *swoons*
First read: March 2016
It seems that I have found a rival for St. Vincent in Simon Hunt.
I have a type.
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The stars of this book aren't the main characters lol, and that's totally fine. Borderline obsessed with Lillian and Evie - also Lilian and Westcliff are about to be enemies to lovers I can feel it. Simon and Annabelle are pretty forgettable, although I am always a sucker for hurt/comfort and the pet name SWEETHEART during the comfort.
the plot is banana bonkers—there's a snake bite AND a train explosion?? but the pacing is weird; our MCs get together very quickly (seeing a theme for my Kleypas reading) and this is yet another Kleypas where SA is used as a plot device and it absolutely did not need to be there
the plot is banana bonkers—there's a snake bite AND a train explosion?? but the pacing is weird; our MCs get together very quickly (seeing a theme for my Kleypas reading) and this is yet another Kleypas where SA is used as a plot device and it absolutely did not need to be there
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Story: 2.75 stars
Narrator: 3.75 Stars
Overall: 3.25 stars
I've been wanting to read a Lisa Kleypas book for a while. She seems to be a prolific writer and several of the romance review blogs I follow rave about her books.
After reading the descriptions of the first book in each of her "major" series, I chose to read this book, the first book in the Wallflowers series, as the premise sounded great to me. Four young women make a pact to help each other find husbands. Not only did it seem to fit my liking for a lighthearted tone in a romance novel, but I love historical romances that feature friendships between women and not just rivalries. So I should have loved this book.
Except that I couldn't stand the heroine, and the hero was largely absent intellectually and emotionally, so I never connected with him---yet, even so, I still thought he was too good for the heroine. And that's not how I want to feel at the end of a romance novel.
Technically, Kleypas is a moderately good writer. I was continually critiquing her style in my head, though, as she tends to head-hop quite a lot---but in a way that's probably only noticeable to another writer who's been dinged on it time and time again in critiques.
Storywise, however, is where this novel was lacking for me. Annabelle, our "heroine," is petulant, spoiled, snobbish, and snotty---with absolutely no right to be. I know that Kleypas wanted us to see her as part of the down-on-their-luck gentility, those on the fringes of aristocratic society, who would have only socialized (and married) within that sphere. But the truth of the matter is that Kleypas never really gives us a solid explanation of how Annabelle's family is tied to the aristocracy and why, if they're so poor that her mother is having to prostitute herself to a disgusting old lord of something or another, Annabelle is even accepted into aristocratic society. She has no title, no dowry, and no future. In reality, people like this weren't typically invited to social functions with earls and viscounts, much less courted by men at that level.
Yet Annabelle's driving motivation is to marry a peer---someone with an inherited title and A LOT of money. But . . . this is set in the 1840s, which happens to be one of the times of transition in England when a lot of the peerage were hemorrhaging money as the Industrial Revolution was beginning to pick up steam (ha-ha) and the economy was changing and leaving most of them behind. It was the rising middle class---men like Simon, our hero---who were emerging as the movers and shakers in society. And while it really wouldn't be until after the Great Exhibition in 1851 that this class of wealthy entrepreneurs would really start taking their place in society, Kleypas set up Simon as one of these: an independently wealthy (filthy rich, apparently) son of a butcher who rubs elbows with some of the highest echelon of the aristocracy. Again, not really realistic, but, for the sake of suspension of disbelief, we'll let her run with it.
Annabelle and Simon meet in the prologue and he steals a kiss. Chapter one opens a couple of years later, at which time Annabelle hates Simon and doesn't want anything to do with him. The problem is that she's in her early 20s, the Season is almost over, and she has NO marriage prospects. Her younger brother may have to leave school and go to work to support her and her mother if she can't find a rich husband.
Simon is still obsessed with this girl from whom he stole a kiss, and so he's been trying to pursue her by stalking her---I mean asking her to dance at all of these society balls that both of them are inexplicably invited to all the time. Annabelle knows that he's rich---everyone does---yet, strangely, she basically tells him that he has a snowball's chance in hell of ever getting her to dance with him, much less let him court/marry/sleep with her.
Let me explain---she's to the point at which she's starting to think she's going to have to take an offer from one of the titled gentlemen to become a mistress just so that she and her mother don't starve. Yet she continually spurns the attentions of a VERY wealthy man, just because he's a butcher's son and not a peer of the realm. Because snob.
So she and the three other girls she ends up sitting in the wallflower corner with at all of these balls suddenly start talking to each other after months and months of ignoring each other. They decide to help each other find husbands. Since Annabelle is the oldest, she's first. The other girls (well, Lillian, who's the most outspoken) also hate Simon for being "common" (though Lillian and her sister, Daisy, are upstart wealthy Americans, so that's really a pot/kettle situation there).
They all finagle invitations to a country house party. There's a plain, weedy, weak, overly intellectual, nerdy (choose your negative adjective) lord there whom all the unmarried female guests (from the descriptions of them, it seemed like there had to have been at least 50 of them) are after because he's one of the few single titled men left. Instead of flirting with him, the way they all do, Annabelle takes the approach of trying to appear disinterested in him romantically but interested in his pursuits and passions---which seem to mainly be droning on about the flora and fauna of Hampshire. Yes, we get it. He's a big bore. But a big bore with a title and, we assume, money.
For some reason, he takes a liking to Annabelle. The Wallflowers decide the best way for Annabelle to win him is to get into a compromising position with him (just to be alone together in this time period was compromising enough, to be seen kissing would have sealed it for sure) and they'll come by and witness it so that he's forced to marry her. Although Annabelle has a few qualms about this idea, she goes along with it.
But . . . plans are put on hold due to a health issue. This is the point at which Simon actually starts looking like a hero. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long.
Without giving away too many spoilers, Simon and Annabelle end up getting married---voluntarily---about two-thirds of the way through the book. And from there on, it's just sex, sex, sex, interrupted only by his buying her extravagant gifts, like a five-carat diamond ring---which, of course, prompts more sex. And it's not even good sex. It's awkwardly written and stuff I would have skipped past if I'd been reading a print version and not listening on audio. The scenes didn't add anything to the characterization (made her look worse, as a matter of fact) nor did they add anything to the plot or development of the relationship.
Annabelle continues to be snobbish and mercenary even after she's voluntarily married Simon, even to the point of offending his family. This is the woman who knew her mother was whoring herself out to pay the bills, yet she's going to look down her nose at the family of a successful merchant who lives in the same neighborhood where she and her mother could barely afford to live?
It takes another massive (and highly implausible) crisis right at the end of the book for her epiphany moment to come---and even then, it's not enough to redeem her character and the way she's been throughout the rest of the book.
I've read tons of reviews that drool all over Simon as the perfect hero. Um...no. Not only does he stalk Annabelle for a couple of years until she agrees to marry him (and the only thing she really has to offer is the fact that she's supposedly so beautiful every man who sees her instantly wants her), there aren't enough scenes from his viewpoint to really give us a reason as to why he'd want to marry her (other than the insta-lust he felt the first time he saw/kissed her) for me to be able to determine if he really does have qualities to qualify him as a "hero" in the truest sense. He's handsome. He's wealthy. He's kind...to a point. In the beginning of the novel, he actually thinks about whether he'd marry her or just make her his mistress! That's not hero quality, for me.
Now, all of that said, I may go ahead and read the second book in this series, because I hope that Kleypas can actually follow through on the sparks/fireworks hinted at between Lillian and Lord Westcliff.
Narrator: 3.75 Stars
Overall: 3.25 stars
I've been wanting to read a Lisa Kleypas book for a while. She seems to be a prolific writer and several of the romance review blogs I follow rave about her books.
After reading the descriptions of the first book in each of her "major" series, I chose to read this book, the first book in the Wallflowers series, as the premise sounded great to me. Four young women make a pact to help each other find husbands. Not only did it seem to fit my liking for a lighthearted tone in a romance novel, but I love historical romances that feature friendships between women and not just rivalries. So I should have loved this book.
Except that I couldn't stand the heroine, and the hero was largely absent intellectually and emotionally, so I never connected with him---yet, even so, I still thought he was too good for the heroine. And that's not how I want to feel at the end of a romance novel.
Technically, Kleypas is a moderately good writer. I was continually critiquing her style in my head, though, as she tends to head-hop quite a lot---but in a way that's probably only noticeable to another writer who's been dinged on it time and time again in critiques.
Storywise, however, is where this novel was lacking for me. Annabelle, our "heroine," is petulant, spoiled, snobbish, and snotty---with absolutely no right to be. I know that Kleypas wanted us to see her as part of the down-on-their-luck gentility, those on the fringes of aristocratic society, who would have only socialized (and married) within that sphere. But the truth of the matter is that Kleypas never really gives us a solid explanation of how Annabelle's family is tied to the aristocracy and why, if they're so poor that her mother is having to prostitute herself to a disgusting old lord of something or another, Annabelle is even accepted into aristocratic society. She has no title, no dowry, and no future. In reality, people like this weren't typically invited to social functions with earls and viscounts, much less courted by men at that level.
Yet Annabelle's driving motivation is to marry a peer---someone with an inherited title and A LOT of money. But . . . this is set in the 1840s, which happens to be one of the times of transition in England when a lot of the peerage were hemorrhaging money as the Industrial Revolution was beginning to pick up steam (ha-ha) and the economy was changing and leaving most of them behind. It was the rising middle class---men like Simon, our hero---who were emerging as the movers and shakers in society. And while it really wouldn't be until after the Great Exhibition in 1851 that this class of wealthy entrepreneurs would really start taking their place in society, Kleypas set up Simon as one of these: an independently wealthy (filthy rich, apparently) son of a butcher who rubs elbows with some of the highest echelon of the aristocracy. Again, not really realistic, but, for the sake of suspension of disbelief, we'll let her run with it.
Annabelle and Simon meet in the prologue and he steals a kiss. Chapter one opens a couple of years later, at which time Annabelle hates Simon and doesn't want anything to do with him. The problem is that she's in her early 20s, the Season is almost over, and she has NO marriage prospects. Her younger brother may have to leave school and go to work to support her and her mother if she can't find a rich husband.
Simon is still obsessed with this girl from whom he stole a kiss, and so he's been trying to pursue her by stalking her---I mean asking her to dance at all of these society balls that both of them are inexplicably invited to all the time. Annabelle knows that he's rich---everyone does---yet, strangely, she basically tells him that he has a snowball's chance in hell of ever getting her to dance with him, much less let him court/marry/sleep with her.
Let me explain---she's to the point at which she's starting to think she's going to have to take an offer from one of the titled gentlemen to become a mistress just so that she and her mother don't starve. Yet she continually spurns the attentions of a VERY wealthy man, just because he's a butcher's son and not a peer of the realm. Because snob.
So she and the three other girls she ends up sitting in the wallflower corner with at all of these balls suddenly start talking to each other after months and months of ignoring each other. They decide to help each other find husbands. Since Annabelle is the oldest, she's first. The other girls (well, Lillian, who's the most outspoken) also hate Simon for being "common" (though Lillian and her sister, Daisy, are upstart wealthy Americans, so that's really a pot/kettle situation there).
They all finagle invitations to a country house party. There's a plain, weedy, weak, overly intellectual, nerdy (choose your negative adjective) lord there whom all the unmarried female guests (from the descriptions of them, it seemed like there had to have been at least 50 of them) are after because he's one of the few single titled men left. Instead of flirting with him, the way they all do, Annabelle takes the approach of trying to appear disinterested in him romantically but interested in his pursuits and passions---which seem to mainly be droning on about the flora and fauna of Hampshire. Yes, we get it. He's a big bore. But a big bore with a title and, we assume, money.
For some reason, he takes a liking to Annabelle. The Wallflowers decide the best way for Annabelle to win him is to get into a compromising position with him (just to be alone together in this time period was compromising enough, to be seen kissing would have sealed it for sure) and they'll come by and witness it so that he's forced to marry her. Although Annabelle has a few qualms about this idea, she goes along with it.
But . . . plans are put on hold due to a health issue. This is the point at which Simon actually starts looking like a hero. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long.
Without giving away too many spoilers, Simon and Annabelle end up getting married---voluntarily---about two-thirds of the way through the book. And from there on, it's just sex, sex, sex, interrupted only by his buying her extravagant gifts, like a five-carat diamond ring---which, of course, prompts more sex. And it's not even good sex. It's awkwardly written and stuff I would have skipped past if I'd been reading a print version and not listening on audio. The scenes didn't add anything to the characterization (made her look worse, as a matter of fact) nor did they add anything to the plot or development of the relationship.
Annabelle continues to be snobbish and mercenary even after she's voluntarily married Simon, even to the point of offending his family. This is the woman who knew her mother was whoring herself out to pay the bills, yet she's going to look down her nose at the family of a successful merchant who lives in the same neighborhood where she and her mother could barely afford to live?
It takes another massive (and highly implausible) crisis right at the end of the book for her epiphany moment to come---and even then, it's not enough to redeem her character and the way she's been throughout the rest of the book.
I've read tons of reviews that drool all over Simon as the perfect hero. Um...no. Not only does he stalk Annabelle for a couple of years until she agrees to marry him (and the only thing she really has to offer is the fact that she's supposedly so beautiful every man who sees her instantly wants her), there aren't enough scenes from his viewpoint to really give us a reason as to why he'd want to marry her (other than the insta-lust he felt the first time he saw/kissed her) for me to be able to determine if he really does have qualities to qualify him as a "hero" in the truest sense. He's handsome. He's wealthy. He's kind...to a point. In the beginning of the novel, he actually thinks about whether he'd marry her or just make her his mistress! That's not hero quality, for me.
Now, all of that said, I may go ahead and read the second book in this series, because I hope that Kleypas can actually follow through on the sparks/fireworks hinted at between Lillian and Lord Westcliff.
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book is a fun historical romance, that had humor in it as well. I really liked the character development of the heroine, she is more of a real person. She’s not one of these typical HR heroines who loves children and kids and had no care for material things. She straight up says she needs to marry for money and it’s a refreshing change. Of note, only read the older additions, the newer ones were re-edited to delete an assestial scene of a stolen kiss in order to be PC 🙄. This scene is important to the plot and the book is dumb without it. This is one of my favorite books. If you haven’t read this book, give it a try, its unique!