Tessa Dare is one of my auto-buy historical romance authors. I don’t even need to read a blurb or know what the book is about to put it on my TBR list. The Wallflower Wager is the third book in her Girl Meets Duke series and I absolutely adored the two previous installments.

Lady Penelope Campion had a softness for animals. Gabe had no softness at all.

The Wallflower Wager features Lady Penny Campion and her new neighbor, Gabriel Duke. Penny has a soft spot for anything wounded, lost, or in need of a bit of gentleness in their life. She lives in a house her brother owns, with only her old nurse and a passel full of pets. Gabriel was raised on the mean streets of London and has clawed his way up to where he is now. A man who buys up the debt of the aristocracy and then takes over their properties. He’s what in today’s world we would call a house flipper.

Gabe and Penny meet when Penny retrieves her wayward parrot from the house next door, not realizing that it is currently being occupied by its new owner. And it was a rather delicious way for our lovely couple to meet, you could feel almost feel the tension between them sizzle and snap.

This is very much a sweet, loving, sunshine heroine meets grumpy, broody hero romance. She wants to stay in London so she makes a deal with her aunt to make some changes in her life, the main thing being to find new homes for all her pets. He needs for her to remain in her home so that he can flip his house and make a tidy profit, so he agrees to help. There is witty banter, cute pet moments, great friendships, and two people who can’t help but fall in love.

Tessa Dare books are always fun, fast reads and this was no exception. There were some deeper themes as the book progressed, but all in all I would consider this to be a lighter historical romance. Highly recommend.

Final Grade- B+

Favorite Quote:

She looked not only desirable, but necessary. A part of him. The better part, of course. The part where his redeeming qualities might be hiding, if indeed he possessed any. Gabe doubted he did, but he found himself longing to search her thoroughly, inside and out, just to be sure.

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I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this book being that the main character was kind of a bad guy in the previous series. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Shadow of Doubt is the first book in the Beginners Guide to Necromancy spinoff series. Hadley (Amelie) featured prominently in that series and not in a good way. But she’s looking for redemption and Linus wants to be with his new fiancée in Savannah, so she’s in Atlanta, learning to become its new protector.

But in true Hailey Edwards fashion, she reeled me in right from the beginning and had me rooting for Hadley. Add in the delicious broodiness of Midas Kinase and the chemistry brewing between him and Hadley and woooo boy am I hooked.

Hadley is creating a new life in an environment that readers will find familiar. She’s living at the Faraday and working closely with Linus’s allies in the city, all while under the supervision of Linus himself. When a series of murders takes place Hadley is called upon as Potentate to investigate. This brings her in contact with the local gywlligi pack and its beta and heir, Midas Kinase. Suddenly she finds herself with a new partner, and knee deep in blood, body parts, and warg/fae/gywlligi politics.

I enjoyed being reintroduced to Linus’s colleagues in Atlanta and the greater look into the gywlligi pack. The mystery was solid and the romance between Midas and Hadley intriguing. I wonder if it will be as addicting as Grier and Linus. All in all this was a fabulous first book in a series and I am more than ready for what comes next.

Final Grade- B

Favorite Quote:

Bent, not broken. That was me. I hoped it was me. I wanted it to be.

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On my Kindle this week:

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