The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare

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The August theme for the patreon exclusive review for the Smart Women Read Romance podcast was wallflowers. The winner of the poll was The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare. This is the third book in her Girl Meets Duke series. I applied this to the prompt feel good for the Summer of Swoon board 3.

Lady Penelope has taken in another animal, this time a parrot. She escapes into the neighbors house. It's been recently purchased and has been going through renovations. Penny sneaks over to catch the bird and ends up running into the new owner, Gabriel. He's a self-made man and known as the Duke of Ruin. He's hoping to flip the house and use Lady Penny's as a neighbor as a selling point. When her brother and aunt threaten to send her back to the country, Gabriel and Penny hatch a plan to help her stay.

Of the three books in this series, this was my favorite. I would probably give it 4.25-stars or 4.5 if pressed to differentiate, but I went ahead and rounded down. Penny was very sweet and loving and I really fell for character. I mentioned in The Governess Game that I was a little nervous going in since the blurb kind of made me think of Love in the Afternoon, my favorite Lisa Kleypas and one of my favorite historicals. Thankfully this had a completely different feel. I loved the connection between Penny and Gabriel. Also, I've come to a realization. Now when it comes to historicals, especially regency era, I'm not the biggest fan of class difference unless it's the man that's self-made. I just feel like a lot of the tropes that I dislike are commonly found more when the lower class is the woman. Although Lisa Kleypas almost single handedly is the exception to the rule. Gabriel here I really enjoyed and gave me the same kind of aura.

Where this feel short for me is once again I feel like we spent more time on one person's trauma than the other. I also felt like there was so much packed in the last 30 pages that I wish we would've dealt with some of it earlier. I just found myself wanting more before the epilogue. Although I did like the turn around of Aunt Caroline, but also wish we saw a little more of her. Also, I feel like this one got a little more pushy about women's rights and feminism. Usually Tessa Dare is an author I feel like doesn't beat you over the head, but this one was more obvious. It just kind of took me out of the fantasy.

I still really enjoyed the book overall and I do see the hype around the next book. I know it's been pushed back a couple times and people are still waiting for it. There is a placeholder for 2024, but I know that Tessa posted late last year that is a placeholder and she's hoping to get it out before then. I'm certainly intrigued, especially with the blurb. I was excited to chat about the book a couple days ago and am excited for the next pick, the theme is Werewolves!

Have you read The Wallflower Wager?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Wallflower Wager, Tessa Dare, 4-stars, 1 day, eBook, 353 pages, published in 2019

The Governess Game by Tessa Dare

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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