Book Review: The Wallflower Wager

Title: THE WALLFLOWER WAGER

Author: Tessa Dare

ISBN: 9780062672162

Price: $7.99

On-Sale Date: 8/13/19

Cover Copy:

They call him the Duke of Ruin.

To an undaunted wallflower, he's just the beast next door.

Wealthy and ruthless, Gabriel Duke clawed his way from the lowliest slums to the pinnacle of high society—and now he wants to get even.

Loyal and passionate, Lady Penelope Campion never met a lost or wounded creature she wouldn’t take into her home and her heart.

When her imposing—and attractive—new neighbor demands she clear out the rescued animals, Penny sets him a challenge. She will part with her precious charges, if he can find them loving homes.

Done, Gabriel says. How hard can it be to find homes for a few kittens?

And a two-legged dog.

And a foul-mouthed parrot.

And a goat, an otter, a hedgehog . . .

Easier said than done, for a cold-blooded bastard who wouldn’t know a loving home from a workhouse. Soon he’s covered in cat hair, knee-deep in adorable, and bewitched by a shyly pretty spinster who defies his every attempt to resist. Now she’s set her mind and heart on saving him.

Not if he ruins her first.

Author Bio:

Tessa Dare is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty historical romances. Her books have won numerous accolades, including Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA® award (twice) and the RT Book Reviews Seal of Excellence. Booklist magazine named her one of the “new stars of historical romance,” and her books have been contracted for translation in more than a dozen languages.

A librarian by training and a booklover at heart, Tessa makes her home in Southern California, where she lives with her husband, their two children, and a trio of cosmic kitties.

Excerpt:

She circled back, standing before him. “There now. Better?”

He gave a reluctant nod.

“Can you move your arm in all directions?”

He rolled his shoulder to prove it. “Yes.”

“What about your grip?

“My grip is strong.”

“Perhaps I should wrap the arm in a sling.”

“I do not need a sling.”

“Wait here. I’ll dash upstairs to fetch some linen and—”

“For the love of God, woman. My shoulder is fine.” He took her by the waist and lifted her straight off the floor, until they were eye to eye. “There. Believe me now?”

She nodded, wide-eyed.

“Good.”

In his hands, she was delicate, breakable. Her hair was a golden treasure he should never, ever touch. And oh, how he hungered for those soft, pink lips.

The familiar voice echoed in his ears.

Don’t touch, boy. She’s not for the likes of you.

Put. Her. Down.

But before Gabe could lower those beribboned pink slippers to the floor, she captured his sooty, sweaty face in her hands—

And kissed him on the lips.

Review: Tessa Dare's The Wallflower Wager is the kind of book you read when you need a pick me up and maybe a little dose of "the feels"

You will laugh with Penny and Gabe and you will probably shed a tear or two with them. Such an unlikely pair but a very fun pair.

Gabe is a rags to riches sort who made his fortune ruining the aristocracy buying up their land and debts.

Penny is a spinster with a love for animals that is getting her in trouble, from the very beginning of the book. In fact, her "meet cute" with Gabe is the result of one of her wayward animals.

Penny and Gabe had a wonderful relationship. You will love them. It is absolutely hard not to. There's so much hilarity with the animals Penny has rescued.

However, I spent the whole book wondering what time period it was set in. I also wondered at the language, because well...I read a lot of historical fiction and I pay a lot of attention to detail. The hot water heater was invented in 1889 and that so didn't feel like the time period that this book was set in.

Then there was Penny's secret which you didn't learn about until the book was nearly over. Penny couldn't just be an adorably cute eccentric spinster. No, there had to be this big dark secret hanging over her, that explains why she is the way she is.

Grrr.

Gabe could be damaged. It was kind of expected as you learn about him, but I also wished we could have learned more about him and some of the people in his life. In fact, most of the men in the book felt a bit like shadows.

This was a real "Girl power" historical romance.

The book definitely had some great moments and I loved the main characters, but the setting and some of the aspects of the story didn't sit well with me at all.

This is more a book for a person just wants a fun story without the detail. If you can get past that, its a pretty enjoyable read.

Rating: 3 flowers

Bewitching Book Tours Book Reviews: Tessa Dare Spindle Cove w/Giveaway

Beauty and the Blacksmith  

Tessa Dare

On Sale Date: April 30, 2013

ISBN: 9780062238849,

ISBN: 0062238841

Genre: Fiction / Romance

Amazon

Description:

Take a trip to Spindle Cove in New York Times bestselling author Tessa Dare’s gorgeous and sexy Regency romance.

Beautiful and elegant, Miss Diana Highwood is destined to marry a wealthy, well-placed nobleman. At least that’s what her mother has loudly declared to everyone in Spindle Cove.

But Diana’s not excited by dukes and lords. The only man who makes her heart pound is the village blacksmith, Aaron Dawes. By birth and fortune, they couldn’t be more wrong for each other ... but during stolen, steamy moments in the smithy, his strong hands feel so right.

Is their love forged strong enough to last, or are they just playing with fire?

Excerpt: How could she help staring? The man had wrists as thick as her ankle.

As always, he wore his sleeves rolled to the elbow, exposing forearms roped with muscle. He pumped the bellows, commanding the flames to dance.

Broad shoulders stretched his homespun shirt, and a leather apron hung low on his hips. As he removed the glowing bit of metal from the fire and placed it on his anvil, his open collar gaped.

Diana averted her gaze—but not fast enough. She caught a moment’s glimpse of pure, superheated virility. Sculpted chest muscles, bronzed skin, dark hair...

“Behave yourself,” he said.

The words startled her breathless.

He knows. He knows. He’s realized that refined, perfect gently bred Miss Highwood comes to the smithy to gawp at his brute manliness. Behave yourself, indeed.

She felt ridiculous. Ashamed. Exposed.

And then—suddenly—relieved.

He wasn’t speaking to her. He was speaking to his work.

“That’s it.” Perspiration glistened on his brow. With a steady hand and a low, rich baritone, he finessed the broken clasp. “Be good for me now.”

Diana turned her gaze downward, focusing on the floor. Neatly swept and fitted stones paved her half of the smithy, where visitors waited for their work. The ground around the forge was packed with black, smudgy cinders. And the border between the two could not have been more stark, or more meaningful.

Here was the division between customer and smith. The line between the world of a gentlewoman and a working man’s domain.

“There we are,” he said. “That’s the way.”

Oh, goodness. She could look away from this thick forearms and his muscled chest. But that voice.

Review: This is the most fantastic novella I've read in ages. Yes, it is a short 100 pages, but the story is different and romantic and wonderful.

How many historical romances have you read where the heroine falls in love with someone beneath her station, and by beneath her station, I don't mean in the military or a swashbuckling sexy pirate.

Not many I bet.

In this novella, Diane, who is in Spindle Cove with her mother to find a husband, a rich one, too. At least that's what mom wants. Diane, however has other ideas. She's totally smitten with Aaron, the local blacksmith, who is sweet, kind and noble.

OMG! A historical hero who isn't an alpha male!

I am so in love with Aaron Dawes!

I loved the plot twist with the stolen items too, that brought things out in the open for everyone too.

This is probably the best novella I've read. Tessa Dare is an absolute dream with historical romance. This is a story not to be missed.

Oh and you get to meet Pauline Simms too, however briefly, who is the heroine of Any Duchess Will Do.

Rating: 5 flowers

Any Duchess Will Do  

Tessa Dare

On Sale Date: May 28, 2013

ISBN: 9780062240125

ISBN: 0062240129

Genre: Fiction / Romance

Publisher: Avon

384 pages

Amazon   Amazon Paperback

Today Pauline is just a serving girl in Spindle Cove but tomorrow... she'll be a Duchess?! It's a Spindle Cove Pygmalion story as only New York Times Bestselling author Tessa Dare can tell it.

What's a duke to do, when the girl who's perfectly wrong becomes the woman he can't live without?

Griffin York, the Duke of Halford, has no desire to wed this season-or any season-but his diabolical mother abducts him to "Spinster Cove" and insists he select a bride from the ladies in residence. Griff decides to teach her a lesson that will end the marriage debate forever. He chooses the serving girl.

Overworked and struggling, Pauline Simms doesn't dream about dukes. All she wants is to hang up her barmaid apron and open a bookshop. That dream becomes a possibility when an arrogant, sinfully attractive duke offers her a small fortune for a week's employment. Her duties are simple: submit to his mother's "duchess training"… and fail miserably.

But in London, Pauline isn't a miserable failure. She's a brave, quick-witted, beguiling failure-a woman who ignites Griff's desire and soothes the darkness in his soul. Keeping Pauline by his side won't be easy. Even if Society could accept a serving girl duchess-can a roguish duke convince a serving girl to trust him with her heart?

Excerpt: “I thought you didn’t have noble impulses.”

“Believe me.” He stared into her eyes and spoke the words without lewdness or irony. “I don’t.”

If he possessed a single grain of decency, he would have set her down long moments ago. Wicked as it made him, he loved the way she was clinging to his neck. As though the world around them were a vast, frozen waste and sharing the heat of his body was her only chance to survive. It was so easy to believe, for this moment, that she needed him. Needed his touch, his mouth, his heated breath. His bared, feverish skin all over hers.

Amazing, what acrobatic contortions the lusting male mind could achieve. He’d almost convinced himself that kissing her lush, sweet lips was the noble thing to do.

Almost. But not quite.

“I’ll put you down now,” he said.

She nodded.

And then she pressed her lips to his.

Praise and curses be heaped. The girl kissed him.

Review: I am officially in love with Tessa Dare and  the Spindle Cove series. I have to go back and buy all the books now to see who fell in love with who before.

There's something about Tessa's writing that makes a story that seems as old as time, as the song goes, seem fresh and new.

In this story, the Duke of Halford, plukes serving girl, Pauline from her duties to make her his duchess, more in hopes of getting his mother to stop matchmaking.

The problem is, Pauline may be of the lower class, but she is beautiful, spunky and full of trouble! 

I can't begin to say how much I loved this regency twist on Pygmalion. 

Pauline is perfect, and I loved her attachment to her sister. And then there's the Duke's mother! You want to dislike her for what she's trying to do, but you can't! And she's just what you expect a dowager duchess to be! She turns out to be really sweet.

All I can say is the "knitting" is what will totally win you over.

I loved the scene in the library after she kissed him when he told her if it had been a real kiss she'd be "beset by flutterings."

Flutterings is my new word! 

Love it!

Pauline is the type of character with spunk and intelligence, probably more so than some of the aristocracy. She's a delight to read about and so is Griff, especially when you learn the secret to his locked room. (I'm not telling, you have to read it...) Your heart will break for him.

Wonderful book!

Tessa Dare again delivers a winner!

Rating: 5 flowers

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