A review by lucy_qhuay
Diary of an Accidental Wallflower by Jennifer McQuiston

1.0

I picked this book up since I had read a lot of good things about this new author and I wanted to see if I would add another to my top of historical romance favourites. No such luck, thus I don't think I'll ever read anything else by her.

The only word I can use to describe 'Diary of an Accidental Wallflower' is 'lacking'.

This book lacks everything in every department, mainly:
- captivating prose
- well-developed characters
- interesting plot
- believable/beautiful romance

I love historical romances where the heroine is the one with the 'blue blood', so to speak, and the hero is a commoner/self-made man/illegitimate child and we have that here, so that was one good things I was looking forward to.

I'm sad to say even that didn't live up to expectations.

Clare, the heroine, is a spoiled society princess with a high and mighty attitude, who thinks it is oh-so-fashionable to play the role of a dumb idiot in society and to have friends who absolutely can't wait to be the first ones to stab her in the back.

Yes, sir. I can't imagine what a woman could ever want more. Not a true friend, who only ever cares about her and her well-being, for sure.

Not a man who is the one to see through her perfect little façade and find out she's not as stupid as she seems (Apparently. I'm still waiting for evidence, though.)

Definitely not a man who ridiculously falls in love with her, when all she does is snubbing him and talking about how he's so inadequate for her, because he's a lowly poor doctor, and how she should be focused on winning her duke, who is her uncle, by the way, as she later finds out.

What the hell kind of mess is this? Not that I felt any kind of love here.

First of all, Clare spent 99% of the book rambling about how she was meant for the duke aka her uncle, only giving up on that notion when it was found she was related to him and that she wasn't a viscount's daughter as she thought she was, which led to the realization she loved Daniel.

Also, there are only two kiss scenes, the first ending with her vigorously slapping Daniel for daring to descend upon her in that fashion and the second taking place when some lunatic is doing acrobatics over the Thames.

And let's not even talk about the only miserly sex scene. I didn't know if I should laugh like a mad woman or throw the book at the wall, when in the middle of the ravishment Daniel's splendid thought was that 'Clare's bones intrigued him'.

I mean, what? o.O

Maybe I could tolerate the situation if it was Clare's ass or breasts that he was talking about, but her bones? Really? You get turned on by that?

I know you're a doctor and yadda, yadda, yadda, but that is seriously creepy.

As if this wasn't enough, the book had lots of family drama, with a marriage falling apart, 'big' secrets being revealed and miraculous solutions to everyone's problems.

Seriously, I can't deal with all of this.