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rjordan19 's review for:
The Wicked Wallflower
by Tracy Sumner
emotional
funny
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
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Humor: Yes
Perspective: Third person perspective, fairly evenly split between hero and heroine
Should I read in order?
You probably don’t have to – these two spend a lot of time together with minimal time with the other characters from the series, but the series is really good and does flow together. At the very least, maybe read the prior book, The Scandalous Vixen, because the heroine here is in that book in a scene with Xander (It’s the story of this heroine’s brother). If you walk into this book alone you might feel like the story started without you.
Basic plot:
Pippa pretends to be a wallflower because she knows she never wants to marry. She aspires to do more with her life than simply get married, especially when the man she craves is off limits to her.
Give this a try if you want:
- Age gap (older hero) – they are 10 years apart but it’s talked about quite a bit – he needs spectacles for dim light reading and the heroine refers to him as having ‘advanced age’ ;)
- Friend’s little sister – Xander and Pippa’s brother have been friends for a number of years
- Class difference – heroine is the sister of a duke, hero is a commoner
- Heroine nurses hero back to health
- Later Regency time period (1826)
- Unrequited love feel (both pine for each other
- Heroine pursues hero (it’s definitely mutual, but Xander is more hesitant than Pippa)
- Hero that’s a decent amount taller than the heroine
Ages:
- Heroine is 22, hero 32
My thoughts:
I love how Sumner titles her chapters (example, Chapter One reads “Where a hero decides he must act to save the heroine”). I remember seeing authors do this years ago and I feel like I never see it anymore.
The first scene of this book, where Xander goes and basically rescues Pippa from a potentially dangerous situation is so perfect for setting the tension. I just loved it, the little touches, the longing, the wanting, the descriptions of our characters, I could just picture them so clearly here. And from here on out it just got more wonderful.
Can I just say my toes absolutely curl when the hero calls the heroine “luv”???? Every. Time!
Xander came from nothing in the rookery and has built through hard work everything he has. He still has such a strong sense of what is right and wrong and is very protective of Pippa, though he fights hard to not dirty her with his hands. He’s opening an exclusive club called The Devil’s Lair and Pippa desperately wants to see the opening.
Pippa was fun! She has no problem going after what’s important to her – she wants more out of life than to just be a wife. She is envious of what Xander can accomplish as a man, and without the ties of her level of society. She also has no problem chasing Xander – he’s definitely a participant but he repeatedly tries to do the right thing and leave her alone.
There was a lot of things I found sweet and romantic between these two. That sweetness combined with some serious steamy and emotional scenes made this a wonderful read to me. The fact that Xander keeps trinkets from her, close to him, was so cute. I also really loved the proposal at the end. This is definitely one of my favorites of the series, though I think I liked book 1 (The Brazen Bluestocking) a bit more, just because I prefer when the hero pursues. Still I loved this story!
A few other notes:
That’s Xander!
A confirmed, nay, sworn bachelor. A man born in the rookery of all places. A blackguard. A scoundrel. A rake.
Ugh I love it so much
“Have you been kissed, Little Darlington?”
“Yes,” she whispered, walking backward until she hit the gallery column. His penetrating expression, though indefinable, made her breath catch.
“Who?”
She shook her head. It doesn’t matter. It wasn’t you.
“I would kiss you like a man starved, luv. Press you against the nearest wall and make your vision disintegrate. Memorize each curve, imprint the feel of you upon my fingertips. I would find every vulnerable point of surrender and use it against you.” While her blood pulsed in her ears, he returned to his book, a test she suspected he was not actually reading. “There would be no half measures. I don’t believe in them. I’d keep us busy until our legs could no longer support us. Our lungs run dry. Our minds empty. Deafening bliss.”
So fn cute.
Macauley jammed his hand in his trouser pocket to confirm Pippa’s dance card was still there. Which, of course, it was. Crumbed from repeated handling.
This book had a lot of great moments of humor, but I really appreciated this one – when Pippa’s brother finds out his friend’s been swiving her
“She’s still a girl,” Leighton snapped, the door he’d whipped open banging against the wall. “And get your bloody hands off my brachiopod!”
Content Warnings:
House fire with injuries
Brief mentions of war in India (where his brother fought)
Brief mention of opium
Brief mention of hero trying to kiss someone else to get heroine out of his head (that’s as far as it went)
Physical abuse remembered by heroine’s father
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
47% - kiss
52% - kiss
58% - 🔥 kisses, fingering for her
60% - 🔥 masturbation scene in a carriage for him (a bit short/close to the prior scene)
66% - 🔥 oral for her, missionary
71% - 🔥 missionary
78% - 🔥 incomplete blow job, her on top in a curricle
95% - 🔥 her on top