Queen B’s Decree: Historical used to be my favorite genre, so I jumped on the chance to snatch this one up.
The Earl Not Taken started well. We get introduced to this squad of wallflowers who bonded together while at a boarding school. These women/girls were supposedly so terrible that their parents sent them out of the country to this boarding school, yet it really just sounds like they were a little quirky?
I enjoyed Poppy and Rhys’s antics, watching them plot out and scheme as they work together and slowly become friends.
Our heroine Poppy is the big downfall of this novel. She’s extremely judgmental and unwilling to change her mind. She has a terrible view of marriage, which is not surprising based on her upbringing and her friend’s abusive husband. But when her frenemy Rhys becomes her lover, she still sticks to her inflexible ways.
Gah, the back and forth was constant. Poppy (and Rhys at times) was immature, even for the time period. The Wallflowers as a whole felt flat, with very little depth. I’m hoping this debut only suffers from the dreaded “first in the series” flaw, and that the rest improve.
Book: The Earl Not Taken by A.S. Fenichel
Series: The Wallflowers of West Lane #1
Genre: Historical
Hotness: mild salsa
Plot Devices/Tropes: enemies-to-lovers