Review: Wallflower Gone Wild by Maya Rodale

Goodreads Summary:

Being good has worked out very badly for Lady Olivia Archer. All she has to show for four seasons on the marriage mart is the nickname Prissy Missy. Her prospects are so bleak that her parents have betrothed her to a stranger with a dire reputation. If Phinneas Cole—aka The Mad Baron—wants a biddable bride, perhaps Olivia can frighten him off by breaking every ladylike rule.

Phinn has admired Olivia’s poise and refinement from afar…qualities that appear to have vanished now that they are officially engaged. This Olivia is flirtatious, provocative, and wickedly irresistible. She’s not at all the woman he bargained for, yet she’s the only one he wants.

He’s determined to woo her. She’s determined to resist. But Olivia is discovering there’s nothing so appealing as a fiancé who’s mad, bad, and dangerously seductive…

Publication Date: March 25, 2014

Wallflower Gone Wild was such a cute read! I adored the love interest Phinn and I really liked that he wasn’t a typical historical romance hero. I also enjoyed the humor in the novel that came about over a series of misunderstandings.

I liked Olivia and I could emphasize with how hard she had it with her overbearing mother. There were a few times I wanted to reach through the book and slap Lady Archer over the ridiculous expectations she placed on her daughter. The way Olivia went about getting out of the marriage to the man her parents had chosen led to some hilarious over the top moments.

Phinn was great. Although the rouges and rakes in historical romances are usually swoon-worthy, I liked that Phinn was a nice guy despite the gossip about him. He had a science nerd quality to him that made him oblivious about certain things, like how to win a woman. There was plenty of hilarity when he took (bad) romantic advice from his friend Lord Rogan.

The romance is slow-building which I love in historical fiction. By the end, the heat began to build between Olivia and Phinn and I loved how they both learned to alter their perceptions of one another to make their relationship work. I’d recommend the Wallflower Gone Wild to fans of light and fluffy historical romances.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this novel for review!