The Wallflower Wager

As all you friends already know, I'm not much of a reader of historical romances, but when I discovered this series at the end of last year, I was surprised by how fun I found it and have been very excited for this third installment since then. I never ever expected to get this ARC though, so that was another delightful surprise.

Lady Penelope Campion aka Penny was always the most eccentric of the group and it was finally nice to get to know her better. She is a warm, kind and compassionate person with lots of love to give, and shares it with the horde of animals she has rescued. I adore the idea of her giving love to those who have been abandoned, and it's very obvious that she would fall for Gabriel because he needs some of it too. He has a bad boy reputation, having built his empire from the ground up by ruining quite a few aristocratic families, but in his heart he doesn't believe that he is worthy of being loved. They have the most adorable meet cute and an instant attraction to each other, followed by lots of sexual tension. I loved watching them grow closer, especially on the pretext of rehoming her animals, and realize that they actually like each other's company. They both are also surprisingly sex positive which kinda feels more like a contemporary romance, but I thought it was done well and was quite organic to the characters themselves.

We see the whole gang back again and I was so glad for it. While reading about Emma, Alex, Nicola and Penny together is a joy, I was much more amused by Ash and Chase. They were quite protective of her and gave Gabriel a hard time initially, but the way those three developed a friendship was lovely. The bromance was a complete delight and I couldn't contain my chuckles at their antics. I really want to see more of them together too.

The first thing I expect from a Tessa Dare romance is lots and lots of banter and this book was no different. There's some absolutely silly situations, hilarious banter, lots of animal antics which left me laughing to no end and a swoon worthy romance. And among all this entertainment, we also see some hard hitting topics discussed and I thought the author wrote it all beautifully. I loved the emphasis on what defines a person's worth and how it's not wealth or station in life or virtue in case of a woman, and that everybody deserves love.

If you've already read the previous books in this series, then I'm pretty sure you will read this too and I'm 100% sure you'll love it. If you haven't, but would love to read a historical romance series full of sassy and strong female protagonists, slightly roguish and broody heroes, lots of wicked banter and swoons, then go back and pick up The Duchess Deal first because I promise you, it won't disappoint.

(This has nothing to do with the book, but ugh, Goodreads, could you make it more annoying to switch editions? Or tell people when they've added duplicates? Or something?)Books like these are the reason Tessa Dare is on my auto-read list. This was so much fun, hilarious and still heartfelt - probably better if you've read the first two in the series, since all of those characters make appearances, even including the two proto-goth wards from [b:The Governess Game 36111620 The Governess Game (Girl Meets Duke, #2) Tessa Dare https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1517431977l/36111620.SY75.jpg 57700166] (delightfully). It's four stars because of the somewhat rushed pacing at the end, but that aside, this was exactly what I expect from Tessa Dare, and she delivered wonderfully.

Don't mind me as I finish this entire series in like 2 days.

This one had more slapstick comedy and high-jinks than the other ones. I adored Penny. Gabriel won me over when he advocated for Penny's own agency over and over. I always find it very paternalistic when the guy friends are mean to the new beau and he called that out. Points for that!

Definitely some more serious topics in this book as well, but I thought they were handled well.

I'll definitely be finishing the Castles Ever After series by Tessa Dare and am really glad I continued with this author.

TW: sexual abuse of a minor

2.5 stars.

Dare writes well but a lot of issues that could have been delved into were sort of given a passing treatment. It was my first time reading a historical that attempted to address child sexual abuse in the Regency era and I felt like the execution left a lot to be desired.

I read the first two books in the series first, and Penny was not my favorite character in either of them - she never seemed as fleshed out as the other characters, in my recollection at least - so for a long time I didn't think I was going to bother with this book. I am so glad that I changed my mind and that I was wrong. Penny is such a wonderful woman, commanding in her own quiet way and asking for exactly what she wants; Gabriel had some predictable childhood trauma that took him a long time to get over, but the way he treated Penny (and her many pets) was just so swoony. The sex scenes were HOT. I'm glad there's another one in this series because these women and their men (introduced in the previous books) are delightful.

TW: molestation/childhood sexual assault (in the past)

 Wow. I've read Tessa Dare before and did not really enjoy it. I only gave this one a chance because it was a main character with lots of animals which I can really relate to 😂.
I did listen through audible and Mary Jane Wells did a phenomenal job. This was an easy breeze through read which the entire plot is about falling in love with the grumpy neighbour. You don't have to overthink anything. For  once the female main character is not some weak ‘poor me' type which I really enjoyed. Also, they didn't get married days or weeks after meeting which is the usual in these HR books.