This was another fun read, I really enjoy this series (and I’ve read them in an absolutely ridiculous order 😂). 

This one is about Evie and she comes off kind of quiet, a bit demure but she really goes for what she wants. She wants to be able to go take care of her father who’s dying but her uncles that she lives with won’t let her, they’re abusive and controlling. So she hatches a plan to ask notorious rake Sebastian to marry her so she can be free to do as she pleases. I honestly feel like he was just bored and curious so he agrees. They had an interesting relationship. She gained a bit more boldness and with her he finally found things to care about (slowly falling in love with her but also managing her father’s club). Lol this man, she asked him if he’d ever thought about getting a job and he was like why the devil would I do that and then proceeded to inspect every inch of her fathers club when he walked in the door and suddenly he had ideas and things.

For the most part I did enjoy his progression. He started out not caring about anything or anyone but developed feelings throughout the book and realized feelings are okay. He did do a couple questionable things at the start like trying to initiate sex while she was sleeping just after they were married (really Sebastian) to which she did end up reciprocating but she was asleep, just cause you’re married doesn’t mean you can take liberties especially when this is a marriage of convenience and then he called her a bitch when she wouldn’t sleep with him again and I was just like well that was rude and uncalled for. But like I said throughout the book he got better.

I think this is the first Kleypas book I really liked. It's got its faults--product of its times with all the head-hopping, and goes hard into anti-fatness to signal someone is a 'bad' person. I thought the miscommunication between Evie and Sebastian was uneven, sometimes great and sometimes felt weak and just there to force the plot. The Big Baddie subplot felt a bit weak because they're basically a clown villain. There to be Bad, and though there were reasons given, it felt like those were pretty surface level and could've been made into something more. But...Big Baddie is only there to create drama for the main couple and it's successful enough.

Sex scenes are good, and I liked the love confession at the end even if I thought their relationship could've used a little more building out.

Another book down from my TBR list and I for one am happy to check this off.
Granted had I known it the third of a series, I might have thought about reading the first two but I do love that it worked as a standalone quite well for the most part as the author didn't depend too much in the first two books to tell this story of Sebastian and Evie.

I give it to Sebastian—he is a rake, through and through. He's selfish, overbearing and he knows it and admits it which probably got him into some trouble as this book starts with him already contemplating his last scheme and how the shy and stuttering woman happened in his home.

That in itself was a great setup and had me intrigued because I have no idea how Evie with her gumption and smarts is actually a wallflower...unless her attitude has something to do with Sebastian because, aside from her stuttering which probably lead to her shyness due to being ridiculed, I don't see other wallflower tendencies unless it's more apparent in the previous books.

I wish there was more of Sebastian moments. I feel that really could have helped his character's arc from rake to husband of convenience to caring and loving at the end because while I enjoyed the book, I just didn't really fall for it but I had moments were maybe with a little more something, I could have.

Meh. So many fans of jelypas seem to love this pairing of Evie Jenner and Sebastian. I didn’t really get into their romance. I got bored with the melodramatic side stories of the casino and stalker and Evie’s friends. I don’t know if I will bother with others from The wallflowers. But at least I can return to the Ravenels and see the 1880s St Vincents. 

I know this is a lot of people’s favorite Wallflowers book, but while I enjoyed it, I didn’t like it quite as much as the two before it. The story is fast-paced and fun, and I did love the characters, but it didn’t quite click for me as well as the others. It’s still a fun read.