Devil in Winter: This was my favorite as it is very Beauty and the Beast-esque. The shyest and richest wallflower, Evie Jenner enter a Faustian deal with the rakish Lord Sebastian St. Vincent. Marriage so she can escape her abusive relatives and he can have more finances to pump into his gentleman’s club. It’s just a beautiful romance as Evie melts his aloof, ladies-man demenour to become her most staunch defender. Evie also grows too, growing a backbone and some more self-esteem despite her stammer. Because that’s what love does, it brings out the best in both of them and makes them believe themselves to be better, braver people as their significant others see them to be.

Also it’s just so sweet to see two people who think they’re alone in the world fill that loneliness with someone who understands and will work to make sure they don’t feel that way again. Plus this book is the intro to the dashing Cam Rohan from The Hathaways series and has such great scenes of female friendship among the Wallflowers, especially the scene where they’re revving up to protect Evie when they think Sebastian is blackmailing her into marriage.

Secrets of a Summer Night: The first book in the series sets the tone as four best friends set their minds together to get a man. While this sounds sooo 21st century, in the Regency era it really mattered when a female’s wealth was dependent on her husband. And in Annabelle Peyton’s case, she needs the money fast. The family’s finances have been in disarray since her father’s death, and she has suspicions that her poor mother has entered a mistress-arrangement with a lecherous mean-fisted man in order to pay the bills. When that abusive man hits on her, her mission to marry a suitable young man hits to high gear. If only Simon Hunt didn’t get in the way. He’s exactly what she doesn’t want, being the son of a butcher, a self-made man and irritating the hell out of her. Obviously, you can see where this is going. I thoroughly enjoyed the exploration of class differences and how it majorly affected the views of each other with Annabelle being snobby and having to change of her view of the working class and Simon trying to let go of his prejudice to see that she has changed her perspective.

It Happened One Autumn: This is a classic rivals to lovers set up that is always enjoyable albeit a bit predictable but it has the additional premise of an American heiress meeting an English duke. Can someone say culture clash?! So it is quite fun to see Westcliff’s astonishment as the girls show legs and more as they play a secret game of baseball in the yard or feel the tension of Lillian navigating the society sharks that snubb her every move. Plus it has the requisite character developement of Westcliff letting go his iron grip on tradition and respectability to go after the woman he actually loves despite her American-ness, and Lillian realizes she doesn’t need to push and contradict everyone just because and it’s okay to play the part of duchess without losing herself.

Scandal in Spring: Now it’s Lillian’s little sister’s turn for romance, and she has to do it quick. As the last unmarried Wallflower, her father sees Daisy as a disappointment and if she can’t get a catch quick, he’ll marry her off to his protege in the shipping business, Matthew Swift. Daisy can’t have that, not only does she hate failure but she hates Swift even more. Just as with her older sister, the man she despises may be the one who she has the most in common with, both sharing the weight of other’s perceptions and preconcieved notions upon them and not sure how to break out it. Well that and Swift has a warrant out for his arrest. It’s Kleypas so there’s always a big actiony twist with guns blazing and grand rescue. It’s formulaic but was also needed as I found the books of the Bowman sisters to be a bit cliche.

A Wallfower Christmas: This is the shortest book, more of a holiday novella and it ranks last because of the many plots it’s juggling. Not only does it try to give mini conflicts and resolutions to all the four Wallflower couples but it has to introduce brand new characters; Lillian and Daisy’s brother Rafe, the prim Natalie Blandford. So it’s crowded, and the Wallflowers’ plots take away from more exploration of Rafe and his whirlwind romance. But that was honestly okay because it felt like a rip-off of the Leo Hathway-Catherine Marks romance in Married by Morning minus the whole prostitute angle.