What a Wallflower Wants

Written by Maya Rodale

Narrated by Carolyn Morris

In the third novel in Maya Rodale's charming Wallflower series, London's Least Likely to Be Caught in a Compromising Position finds temptation in a devilishly handsome stranger . . .

Miss Prudence Merryweather Payton has a secret.

Everyone knows that she's the only graduate from her finishing school to remain unwed on her fourth season—but no one knows why. With her romantic illusions shattered after being compromised against her will, Prudence accepts a proposal even though her betrothed is not exactly a knight in shining armor. When he cowardly pushes her out of their stagecoach to divert a highwayman, she vows never to trust another man again.

John Roark, Viscount Castleton, is nobody's hero.

He's a blue-eyed charmer with a mysterious past and ambitious plans for his future—that do not include a wife. When he finds himself stranded at a country inn with a captivating young woman, a delicate dance of seduction ensues. He knows he should keep his distance. And he definitely shouldn't start falling in love with her.

When Prudence's dark past comes back to haunt her, John must protect her—even though he risks revealing his own secrets that could destroy his future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Sep 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9780062359650

Maya Rodale

Maya Rodale began reading romance novels in college at her mother's insistence. She is now the bestselling and award-winning author of smart and sassy romances. She lives in New York City with her darling dog and a rogue of her own.

Reviews for What a Wallflower Wants

[akbouterse · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My first book by this author and I enjoyed it! Someone recommended this to me and I enjoyed it. There's definitely some silly moments with the plot but overall, this was pretty good.

This book starts with Castleton and Prue encountering each other after Prue is stopped by a highwayman on her way to eloping. The plot sort of carries on from there as they get to know each other. The other major plot point is that Prue was raped by a man named Dudley a few years before the start of this book. This event a Prue's recovery is a major part of this book so definitely know that going in. I thought that plot point was handled pretty well. I think Rodale did a good job avoiding the idea that falling in love will fix your trauma. There are definitely some modern sensibilities sprinkled in but this is fiction so I'm almost always fine with that sort of thing, but your mileage may vary. A lot happens at the end and some things were a bit silly, I mean Roark jumped through a window on a horse into a ballroom, or at least I think that's what happened because then they just have a conversation and dance, presumably with a horse standing behind them but I was satisfied with how this wrapped up.

The characters are fun. Castleton has a big secret that keeps part of his identity undercover until the very end. We know more about Prue but there was still a moment at the end what I thought "wait, does Prue have a family?" I would have appreciated to learn more about both characters beyond their secrets and other struggles but I did like them as a couple. I liked the way Castleton treated Prue with regards to her experience with assault. The sex is really tame in this book but in the context of the larger plot, this was fine with me. I'm not sure if this is typical with Rodale's books or if she did that because of the sexual assault part of this book but either way it was fine.

I would definitely read more from this author. I own the first book in this series and I would also love to read the book about Mr. Knightly, the newspaper man we see briefly in this book. I enjoyed the relationship and the plot and hopefully I'll enjoy whatever I read next from this author.

[pnrlist · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked the decent amount of angst around the heroine's past trauma, even if the resolution was pretty historically inaccurate. I liked this though - will check out others of the series if they cater to my favored tropes. (3.5 stars)

[bookworm2bookworm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the third book in this series and in my opinion the best book so far in this series. The reason for it are the two leads and their collective heartbreaking and heartwarming backstories. The author did an outstanding job handling really heavy subject, while adding some humor throughout the story.

If you love complex characters, these two are it. Both have a need to get rid of some past baggage in order to surrender to the love they both feel and deserve.
The plot "thickened" as the story progressed and kept me in constant state of anticipation of the end result.

Great story with some angst and suspense. Well worth the read!

Melanie for b2b

Complimentary copy provided by the publisher

[aubreygross · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've looked forward to Prudence's story for months. I've also really enjoyed every book by Maya Rodale that I've ever read. What a Wallflower Wants ended up leaving me feeling a bit let down, though.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I'd suspected that Prudence had been raped long before I read What a Girl Wants (the contemporary counterpart to What a Wallflower Wants), just from a few clues left here and there in the previous two Wallflower novels. Rape is something that isn't often handled in romance novels, so I was very curious to see how Rodale would write a heroine who had experienced something so horrific.

Unfortunately, there were things about the book that kept me from enjoying it anywhere near as much as I wanted to. There was a lot of head-hopping, which kept drawing me out of the story (and isn't something Rodale's typically done in her previous novels, which threw me even more). There were also some weird formatting things (which could have just been my Kindle App acting up) and some very jumpy bits that made no sense. These things alone made it hard to truly immerse myself in the book.

John was almost too good to be true. In a lot of ways he was perfect for Prudence--she needed someone who would be patient with her and who understood (as best as someone who's never been raped can understand) all of her hangups and trepidations and trust issues. That last part, though, really hung me up--Prue had all these trust issues (understandably so), but within a week has sex and falls in love with John. Every rape survivor's story is different, and some move faster than others, but for Prue this just did not feel "right." I had a very hard time believing that she'd fallen for him that quickly, and that she'd trusted him and her body with him that quickly. Which made John's big secret reveal even worse, IMO...

Ends up John isn't who he says he is. Is he still a good guy at the core? Yes. Did he do whatever he had to in order to survive and achieve his goals? Yes. Did he hurt anybody by doing what he did? Eh, not really, but it's still morally shaky. He lied to Prue about something as important as his identity. She was understandably upset. I thought she forgave him far too quickly (if he'd been spying for the government under a different identity that's one thing--but masquerading as his probable half-brother who's out of the country is just...not cool, even if he was an empathetic character), especially considering her trust issues regarding men.

The entire timeline just felt rushed, and I felt like Prue's story should have taken much more time, because to me her story wasn't just about falling in love, but about learning how to love herself again and healing from one of the most horrific things that can happen to a person. Healing is hard. It takes time. Things don't just magically fall into place.

All of that being said, Rodale did some things with this story very well. Prue letting her figure get "rounder" is a very common reaction. Her aversion to being touched was completely believable. Telling the story of her rape in bits and pieces via flashback, and focusing more on Prudence's feelings than the act itself was done very well. I loved the fact that John taught her how to defend herself, and that she used what she'd been taught and took a lot of her power back over Dudley. I loved that she took even more power back by writing a letter for all of London to read. The story was told with a lot of sensitivity. I especially appreciated the fact that at the beginning of the book Rodale's very upfront about this being a book that deals with rape (I've read some that didn't, and that can be a very dangerous thing if it triggers a reader). And I'm glad that Dudley died, even though I feel like his demise was too nice for him (I also had a love/hate thing going for the scenes in his POV--on one hand I didn't want his POV, but on the other I'm glad we got it).

Overall, it was a good book, but not the best of Rodale's that I've read.