by Sarah MacLean
Series: Barenuckle Bastards #1
Genres: Historical, Romance, Adult
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: June 19th 2018
Source: ARC received for review
Star Quotient: ★★★
Kiss Factor: ✷✷✷
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The Book Depository
I am very picky about the historical romance novels that I pick but Sarah MacLean happens to be one of my auto-read author in the genre. She always writes compelling romances that draw me in from the beginning.
Wicked and the Wallflower was a book I couldn't wait to read so as soon as it was in my hands, I dove into the book, only to find that I was having a hard time. I set the book aside at the time and only picked it up again recently because of Becky's review. The second time around, I had a much more pleasant experience reading
Wicked and the Wallflower. It's still not a favorite from MacLean though. I was intrigued by the setup of a wallflower falling in love with a devilish king of London's dark street. I mean everything about that premise just appealed to me! One of the issues I faced while I read this book was my inability to connect with the characters. I liked Felicity - I thought she was a sweetheart who truly bloomed and became the best version of herself during the book - but I also didn't find her to be particularly memorable. I was also sure that I would LOVE Devil (I really did hate his name though), but even he was very lackluster even with his angsty past, in my opinion. We are told about how he is this dark and broody character, but we hardly ever see that side of his personality. For a "king of London's dark streets", he was rather dull. The guy also constantly called the heroine by her full name after every sentence he uttered to her and that drove me batty! I also felt like
Wicked and the Wallflower was unnecessarily long. I don't mind romance novels that are lengthy, but this book was very repetitive. As far as the romance went, it was sweet and I thought the chemistry between Devil and Felicity was a strong presence throughout the book. What kept pushing me through the pages of this book was the siblings' interactions between Devil and his brother and sister. I was also very curious about the villain (future anti-hero?) here. I have my fingers crossed that he is getting a book too because there was a lot of history there that I hope MacLean delves further into. Sarah MacLean is undeniably a very strong writer, but I don't think this so-called darker tone that she explored here was executed all that well. That being said, I will still read everything and anything by her, so I will definitely continue on with this series in the hopes that it gets better.
