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Series: The Wallflowers of West Lane, #1
Tropes: enemies to lovers
Publication Date: 03.17.20
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency
Heat Level: 2/5
Rating: 2.5 disappointing "strong" heroine stars
Three years at a Swiss finishing school didn't exactly turn Lady Penelope Arrington into a proper debutante, but she did make three strong friendships. The four ladies call themselves the Wallflowers of West Lane and are determined to protect each other from dangerous men after the marriage of one of their own turned out to be a violent disaster. Now another of their number is set to marry a duke she's never met and Poppy is determined to learn his character. Unfortunately, to be successful she needs the help of her friend's rakish brother.
Rhys Draper, the Earl of Marsden, has always been at odds with Poppy since he met her when she was just a girl. Now she needs him and Rhys is determined to figure out why he inspires her ire and disdain. But as they spend more time together, Rhys is shocked by the true depth of his feelings for her. But Poppy never wishes to marry and she and Rhys are soon at risk of being discovered in a compromising position and having their decisions made for them.
I was excited for this series and a little light-hearted girl power, but this book had a lot of issues for me. Firstly, the general book factors. Beware, there is some venting ahead. This is a pet peeve of mine that most probably won't notice, but I'm a horse person so for me it is glaringly obvious: horses do NOT bray, ever, no matter how spooked they are. This is only donkeys and some mules. Besides that slight annoyance, there were also several issues with forms of address and characters who should've had the title of lord but never did. Aside from all that, perhaps most importantly is the fact that this book is modern in the extreme. I expected much of this from the cover (which I really do like), but this is truly just a modern novel set in a time with carriages.
Technical issues aside, what really killed this one for me was the heroine. She was extremely immature, even for age 21, not to mention judgmental, arrogant and rigid in her thinking. She seemed to believe no one else could possibly know more than she and even when met with new information, she insisted on maintaining her beliefs and assumptions, even knowing she was wrong. This to me is not strong-willed or independent, it is simply being hateful and willfully ignorant. Also Poppy's use of odd and annoying curses involving Greek and Norse mythology (though she only acknowledged Greek) just didn't fit the situations and settings they were used in and sounded awkward, though perhaps this made them fitting of her character.
As for the hero, Rhys underwent a good bit of growth and development, which only served to show the lack thereof in Poppy. After Poppy's anger was vented at him (one of many times) for his failure to prove his true feelings for her, Rhys set out to do just that, and then Poppy couldn't understand what the fuss was about and I just wanted to shake her for her hypocrisy. More background on Poppy might've helped but her behavior just showed a lack of character to me, independent of her very understandable lack of self-esteem. Many times she seemed to make up reasons to blow up at Rhys and I even went back and reread and couldn't understand what he had said that made her so angry.
In fact, the majority of the book is Poppy storming off and running away and this along with her incessant and repetitive vitriolic diatribes against all men, regardless of whether she knew them and their character or not, struck me as a highly hypocritical judgment since most of her annoyance stems from women being treated this same way. Rhys wasn't bad, I just really don't know why he thought Poppy was so sweet, wonderful and intelligent because I never saw her demonstrate any of these qualities and he wasn't enough to carry this book for me. Any development we saw from Poppy came in the last 15% or so of the book and for me it was too abrupt and too little too late and her lack of growth was a huge turn off.
This particular heroine killed the whole book for me, but Nicholas (not so much Faith) interested me enough that I'll likely check out the next book and hope it jives better with me.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Rhys Draper, the Earl of Marsden, has always been at odds with Poppy since he met her when she was just a girl. Now she needs him and Rhys is determined to figure out why he inspires her ire and disdain. But as they spend more time together, Rhys is shocked by the true depth of his feelings for her. But Poppy never wishes to marry and she and Rhys are soon at risk of being discovered in a compromising position and having their decisions made for them.
I was excited for this series and a little light-hearted girl power, but this book had a lot of issues for me. Firstly, the general book factors. Beware, there is some venting ahead. This is a pet peeve of mine that most probably won't notice, but I'm a horse person so for me it is glaringly obvious: horses do NOT bray, ever, no matter how spooked they are. This is only donkeys and some mules. Besides that slight annoyance, there were also several issues with forms of address and characters who should've had the title of lord but never did. Aside from all that, perhaps most importantly is the fact that this book is modern in the extreme. I expected much of this from the cover (which I really do like), but this is truly just a modern novel set in a time with carriages.
Technical issues aside, what really killed this one for me was the heroine. She was extremely immature, even for age 21, not to mention judgmental, arrogant and rigid in her thinking. She seemed to believe no one else could possibly know more than she and even when met with new information, she insisted on maintaining her beliefs and assumptions, even knowing she was wrong. This to me is not strong-willed or independent, it is simply being hateful and willfully ignorant. Also Poppy's use of odd and annoying curses involving Greek and Norse mythology (though she only acknowledged Greek) just didn't fit the situations and settings they were used in and sounded awkward, though perhaps this made them fitting of her character.
As for the hero, Rhys underwent a good bit of growth and development, which only served to show the lack thereof in Poppy. After Poppy's anger was vented at him (one of many times) for his failure to prove his true feelings for her, Rhys set out to do just that, and then Poppy couldn't understand what the fuss was about and I just wanted to shake her for her hypocrisy. More background on Poppy might've helped but her behavior just showed a lack of character to me, independent of her very understandable lack of self-esteem. Many times she seemed to make up reasons to blow up at Rhys and I even went back and reread and couldn't understand what he had said that made her so angry.
In fact, the majority of the book is Poppy storming off and running away and this along with her incessant and repetitive vitriolic diatribes against all men, regardless of whether she knew them and their character or not, struck me as a highly hypocritical judgment since most of her annoyance stems from women being treated this same way. Rhys wasn't bad, I just really don't know why he thought Poppy was so sweet, wonderful and intelligent because I never saw her demonstrate any of these qualities and he wasn't enough to carry this book for me. Any development we saw from Poppy came in the last 15% or so of the book and for me it was too abrupt and too little too late and her lack of growth was a huge turn off.
This particular heroine killed the whole book for me, but Nicholas (not so much Faith) interested me enough that I'll likely check out the next book and hope it jives better with me.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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