Customer Reviews

Winning the Wallflower

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Be forewarned that this short story is only 50% of the total download. The rest is promotional excerpts from other James' works: Her new HR to be released Dec. 27, The Duke Is Mine; previously released HRs A Kiss at Midnight and When Beauty Tamed the Beast; and her e-book novella Storming the Castle: An Original Short Story with Bonus Content.

So this novella is definitely short. It is also sweet and romantic but nothing new in the HR genre. Heroine Lucy, daughter of Lord and Lady Towerton, is self-conscious about her over-average height and has turned into a wallflower. She doesn't have a large enough dowry to make up for her perceived drawbacks and has not received one offer of marriage from men of the ton. (An aside to mention is that Lucy is the best friend of Olivia Lytton, another wallflower, the heroine of the new James HR to be released soon.)

Rather desperate, her parents have agreed to an engagement with Cyrus Ravensthorpe, whose mother was an earl's daughter who had the gall to fall in love and elope with a commoner. Never mind that Cyrus' father is a very famous and distinguished barrister; his blood is just not even close to blue. However, the Ravensthorpes are very well off financially and Cyrus himself is extremely and independently wealthy. Cyrus has always felt a bit shunned by the ton and has plans to better himself in society, hence his wish to marry a woman of the peerage.

But out of the blue Lucy's father's aunt dies and leaves her fortune to Lucy. Now she can pick and choose a husband and her parents want her to break off the engagement to Cyrus. Lucy, however, is a bit attracted to Cyrus but unsatisfied by his aloof and cool treatment of her. She decides to give him one last chance to show any real interest in her as a person but things don't work out to her satisfaction, so they break up.

The rest of the short is a cute "learning to know each other as people and falling in love" theme and it's an enjoyable read. It is, at the same time, not particularly groundbreaking and not really deserving of the classification "historical" because the behavior and speech of characters is definitely out of period. I guess I shouldn't complain about that aspect because very rarely does one come across an "historical romance" that is really historical.

I love Eloisa James' books! I have probably read just about everything she has written - especially her historical fiction. Due to an inheritance, Lucy becomes a girl in demand. She is already engaged, but when she inherits, her mother forces her to break her engagement because now the man isn't suitable since he doesn't have a title.

Coming face to face with the man she agreed to marry, Lucy forces Cyrus to tell her why she was selected for his bride. Forced to confront his own reasons for choosing her, Cyrus acknowledges that he chose her because she was safe...not given to giggling, drama, or other foolishness. She "checked a box" on his list of successes he wants to achieve. Sadly, this confirms Lucy's opinion of what happened when she became engaged. She continues to challenge his behavior, his thinking, his actions.....and breaks the engagement, even though she didn't want to.

Faced with the loss of the woman he was going to marry, Cyrus realizes that maybe the way he chose a bride was wrong. The two of them have to figure out if the engagement is what they want, or if they want to call it off completely, no matter what Lucy's mother wants.

I know this is a novella, but I thought that the ending was a bit abrupt, in my opinion. It just seemed to be resolved, without the usual depth of understanding I expect from her books. One thing I liked was that there were several excerpts from other books. One of them, The Duke is Mine, is the story of a secondary character within Winning the Wallflower. I'm looking forward to reading it.

I received this book from the publisher through the Edelweiss program. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own. This review originally appeared on my blog.

I agree with the other reviewer who warned: this is a SHORT novella. I love a new book from Eloisa and was very excited to get this novella before her next novel arrives. I have no complaints except to say "I wish there was more!" Great teaser till the next book but I was just starting to get attached to the characters when the story ended.

And like all novellas, you have to be okay with the small 'leaps' the characters take (e.g., becoming more confident, discovering something complex in what feels like an instant).

I didn't relate to Lucy as much as others might (she's very tall; I am very short) but she was very easy to understand and root for.

And for .99, I'm not complaining. :)~ hehe

Some times novellas are too short to convey a full story, but this one succeeds very well. The hero starts out too arrogant; the heroine too quiet--the end result is a broken engagement. The hero is shocked by the rejection into rethinking his approach to life. If you like interesting protagonists, this will please you.

Lucy is a wallflower...and not your average wallflower...she's a tall wallflower! Poor Lucy, always the source of despair for her title hungry mother. Lucy is engaged to marry a non-titled man, one Cyrus Ravensthorpe, whom her mother hates! Never mind he's the handsomest man in the Ton! But Lucy is unhappy in her engagement to Cyrus because he doesn't talk to her, doesn't take her riding, doesn't attend social functions with her, and didn't even ask her to marry him after he spoke to her father! (So rude!) Suddenly, Lucy is an heiress and now she's become the focus of every fortune-hunter in polite society and Lucy's mother insists that she break her engagement to Cyrus. But Lucy doesn't really want to and yet...because of the aforementioned reasons, Lucy does break the engagement! Cyrus is a man with a plan and Lucy is #6 on his plan list! He doesn't want to loose her, but he must now change his plans...Cyrus doesn't like to change his plans.

I like how, after she becomes an heiress, Lucy finds her spine. She really puts Cyrus through his paces to court her and compete with everyone else suddenly in the picture. (I especially like Rathbone). She makes him realize she's a person too and to not just assume she would marry him. She teaches him to ask for what he wants instead of commanding or demanding. Fortunately, he's a quick study. I loved the part when he fell to his knees in the garden to declare his love for her and said "I love you (insert very long name here)." "You are a passionate, daydreaming mathematician, (how romantic is that?), and the only woman I shall ever love." And then,,,,,and then,,,well, you'll just have to read the book to find out what happens next! But I will tell you that it involves a naughty little risqué romp and a special license.

I highly recommend this story. It's a sexy and funny fast read with ties to Eloisa's Fairy Tale series. My grade: 4.5 stars!

Lord this book is rubbish. It could have been a good story had it not takken place pretty much overnight but as it was it was just thoroughly improbable. This is the last James I read.

As I think very highly of Eloisa James, I was very happy to find and download this book when it was offered for free. As with all Eloisa James that I have read, this novella was well written and the pace, dialogue and characters (for the most part) were well enough done that I wanted to finish the story even though I wasn't swept away by the magic of it.

I think the main thing that bothered me was partway through the story, the heroine made an about-face in her personality and pulled it off so flawlessly that it truly had me scratching my head. I agree with other reviewers that that change is not in keeping with the stringent "moral code" of the time, but James wrote it well enough that that isn't what bothered me. What bothered me was that the change in the heroine's personality was a conscious decision (on the heroine's part) and it was so sudden and so completely and thoroughly done that it was like reading about two different characters from one page to the next. There was no internal doubts, struggles, slip-ups in her actions, etc. She literally was insecure and shy one page and the next she decided she was done with that persona and became outgoing and beautiful. The sudden change was too quick and absolute for me to accept it.

That said, Eloisa James is a tremendously talented writer, I have enjoyed many of her books and despite the above flaw that kept me from really loving this particular story, it was overall well written and fun.

I am a huge fan of Eloisa James, having come to read her romances only just a few years ago. Since catching up on past books, I look forward to new releases with great expectations.

I actually read this novella after 'The Duke Is Mine'. You get a quick glimpse of Olivia, who will be featured in that novel.

I liked the conflict - girl is engaged to boy, but suddenly inherits enough money to aim a little higher and secure a marriage to someone with a title. Her parents tell her to call off the engagement, which mucks up the plans of her fiancee and his to-do list. But the wallflower that no one wanted actually wants to marry him. However, she's not willing to settle for anything less than love. She will not be a pawn in his detailed plan to restore his family's reputation among the ton.

I didn't like the abrupt ending. I suppose that's where imagination comes in. The story felt too rushed and made me think that perhaps the story was not suited to a novella. There was plenty of room for character development, swashbuckling piracy... something more than just a quick no I won't marry you and yes I will followed by an Epilogue.

The first chapters are brilliant. It sets the story of Lucy, a wallflower, engaged to Cyrus, whose mother married beneath her station and who has a plan to get back into the Ton. Lucy inherits money from an aunt and her mother soon pushes her to break the engagement and look for a better (read titled) gentleman to marry.

Both Lucy and Cyrus are nice characters. Lucy, especially, shows that she has a brain and is not afraid to use it. She will only break the engagement for her own purposes and the dialogue between her and Cyrus on the reasons to get married is very very good.

Unfortunately, it all goes downward from there and since the beginning was really great, my high expectations were crushed. Maybe because of the length of the novella, maybe because the author had no idea of how to pace her plot but those two engaged characters seem to fall in love overnight and poof, on to wedded bliss.

If the author had sustained the promise of her first chapters, this would a been a five-star.

This was a charming little short story by the (almost) always-entertaining Eloisa James. I love her writing and the characters she draws in this novella are nearly as developed as they would be in a full-length. We get their motivations, and the actions that stem from these motives are believable. Even a few secondary characters are well done (although, to be sure, one of them will be the heroine of her newest book). If I had any bone to pick, it was with how quickly the H&H's minds changed, but this was necessary to the size of the book. It was well written and a pleasant place to be in, with some nice, messed-up people to be fixed by love. I especially liked the Epilogue - nice little finish. Well worth it!