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My favorite romance podcast is Smart Women Read Romance. If you've been following my blog, you would probably already know this. I am also a patreon of theirs and they host a monthly exclusive review. The August theme was wallflowers and the winner was The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare. That is the third book of her Girl Meets Duke series. I have read book one, but never read anymore. Since I almost always read things in order, I needed to pick up book two, The Governess Game first! I was able to apply this to the prompt shirtless man or woman on the cover for the Summer of Swoon board 3!
We meet Alexandra, a friend from the heroine of book 1. She sets clocks and weekly travels to Greenwich to reset her own watch. When she arrives at Chase's house, the heir to a dukedom, he mistakes her as the new governess. As he has now gone from being 4th in line to the heir apparent, he has now taken charge over two young girls. They have been thrust from household to household and run off 15+ governesses. Alex and Chase had a run in months before at a local book store and she has dreamed of him since. Things happen and Alex ends up taking the job as governess.
This was super cute. I feel like I liked it more than the previous book, but it has been a couple years since I read The Duchess Deal. Alex was sweet with the girls and I liked how she was able to connect with them. I loved the personality of the girls and they felt like real, fleshed out characters. They were bratty, but it wasn't just as a stereotype. I really enjoyed the way they were written. Also, the youngest Daisy constantly kills her doll with various diseases and it had me cracking up seeing the funeral services they would have each morning.
Chase is the utmost rake, but not quite 100%. We see that a lot of it is a calculated persona he's cultivated and doesn't feel like he deserves to have a normal life or love. Where this fell short with me was dealing with his issues. I wish that we unpacked it more for him. I also didn't like the break up at the end and that we had such little time left in the book to actually see them happy together. While I really enjoyed this, it just wasn't 5-stars. There wasn't really anything specific that I disliked, but it didn't hit the emotional notes I usually look for. I didn't even really tear up with the conflict at the end.
I'm intrigued to read more in the series and know it's a favorite of a lot of people. From what we saw of Lady Penelope, she reminds me a lot of Beatrix from Love in the Afternoon. I'm hoping there's not too many parallels, otherwise it might be tough to stand up against my favorite Lisa Kleypas. If you haven't read Tessa Dare yet, I think she's a good starter author for historical romance and recommend her books. Like I just mentioned a lot of people I follow love this series, but I have to say I much prefer her Castles Ever After series so far.
Have you read The Governess Game?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: The Governess Game, Tessa Dare, 4-stars, 1 day, paperback, 373 pages, published in 2018
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