Never Wager with a Wallflower - Review

Never Wager with a Wallflower (The Merriwell Sisters, # 3)

By: Virginia Heath

Expected Publication: November 7, 2023

320 pages

Genre: Adult, Historical Fiction, Romance

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Goodreads description--The third and final delightful installment in the Merriwell Sister's Regency rom-com series. Miss Venus Merriwell has been waiting for her prince to come since the tender age of fourteen. She wants a man who is selfless, academic like her, and free from all the wretched vices her gambler father enjoyed far too much before he left the Merriwell sisters practically destitute. Unfortunately, after a slew of romantic disappointments, there is still no sign of that prince at twenty-three and the only one true love of her life is the bursting-at-the-seams orphanage in Covent Garden that she works tirelessly for. An orphanage that desperately needs to expand into the empty building next door.

For Galahad Sinclair, gambling isn’t just his life, it’s in his blood. He grew up and learned the trade at his grandfather’s knee in a tavern on the far away banks of the Hudson in New York. But when fate took all that away and dragged him across the sea to London, it made sense to set up shop here. He’s spent five years making a success out of his gaming hell in the sleazy docks of the East End. Enough that he can finally afford to buy the pleasure palace of his dreams—and where better than in the capital’s sinful heart, Covent Garden? The only fly in his ointment is the perfect building he’s just bought to put it in also happens to be right next door to the orphanage run by his cousin’s wife’s youngest sister. A pious, disapproving and unsettling siren he has avoided like the plague since she flattened him five years ago…

While Venus and Galahad lock horns over practically everything, and while her malevolent orphans do their darndest to sabotage his lifelong dream, can either of them take the ultimate gamble—and learn to love thy neighbor?

Since Never Fall for Your Fiancee surprised me in such a good way, the following books in The Merriwell Sisters series have been some of my most anticipated books. My only complaints about Never Rescue a Rogue is that Diana and Giles had to follow in Hugh and Minerva's footsteps and have sex before marriage. I was disappointed that most of the antagonistic part of their relationship was skipped. Not to spoil too much, but Galahad and Venus do have premarital sex, but they don't skip out on the antagonism.

I found Never Wager with a Wallflower to have a slow start. I wasn't excited with Galahad's business ventures. I think around 30% I finally felt hooked into the story where I didn't want to put it down when I had to.

Galahad and Venus had so many similarities, even though many of them seemed like contradictions. I really enjoyed their banter that eased into comraderie and eventually into reluctant appreciation and then into more. Galahad was on board long before Venus.

I felt for Venus. She got royally screwed by someone who never should have been someone who she trusted. In this way I could totally relate to her. I even found myself getting teary over her fear of not being able to trust her instincts about people, especially men. Once you've been screwed over or trusted the wrong person, especially if it happens more than once, you can really begin to become jaded and mistrustful.

Favorite quotes:

-"Dreams, like plans, should always adapt with the circumstances, especially if the circumstances allow them to get bigger and better, and some risks are worth taking."

-...grandpa always said trust had to be given before it was earned...

-"That's cheating." "Maybe--but I'm oddly at peace with it."

Venus's sisters' gave off the impression that she was a lot more prim and proper than she actually is in her own story. Of course this could be explained away, that no one knows our true selves except us. But I felt like this made her a little inauthentic. I did like that Virginia Heath used her history, even back to her father and her desire and trust for him to be a true father and love them, as a means of building Venus's history of trusting the wrong men. This felt more authentic which was needed to balance how Venus is portrayed in the previous books versus who she really is. I loved her work with the orphanage and got invested into the orphan boys that were side characters. Never Wager with a Wallflower was better once I got past the slow beginning, and I give it 3.5 Stars. Have you read Never Wager with a Wallflower? What did you think? Let me know!