Review: Winning the Wallflower: a Novella by Eloisa James
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 25, 2014
Book #2.5 in Eloisa James’ fun and flirty Fairy Tale series.I love the premise of this story. Tall, gangly, wallflower heiress, Lucy Towerton—tall as a tower—is relieved when Cyrus Ravensmore, a wealthy yet untitled young man, asks for her hand in marriage. She can finally stop looking for a man who is tall enough and man enough to not mind her height. However, there is a problem. Cyrus didn’t actually ask for her hand, he asked her parents. And he doesn’t act at all like a suitor; there is no touching, talking, or even kissing."He wanted an engagement that everyone would immediately understand to be a  matter of property and propriety. The last thing he wanted was even the faintest rumor of love or passion…”Cyrus Ravensmore has a plan. After his mother, the daughter of a duke, married a mere solicitor in a scandalous love match, he has determined to restore the family honor and respect. In this way, he reminded me of Kate Westbrook from Cecilia Grant’s A Woman Entangled.“He hadn’t thought of her as a person at all. Miss Towerton was merely one of the objects on his list, the plan that had been forged years ago at Eton.”So when Lucy’s great aunt leaves her a fortune, her mother orders her to break the betrothal. But Lucy likes Cyrus, despite his faults. Since he doesn’t show any signs of becoming a doting suitor, however, she reluctantly heeds her mother’s advice and breaks it off. In a wonderful scene, Lucy laments to Cyrus all he has been lacking in her pursuit of her, worthy of Elizabeth Bennet’s set down to the shocked Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice."She wanted loyalty, respect. And genuine liking. She wanted him to look at her, and for her to see more in his eyes than lust.”Now, now, Cyrus realizes his grave mistake and sees Lucy for the very first time. And he’s determined to win her and show her that he cares. He’s so very serious but when Lucy tells him off, he realizes he has not been the gentleman he believed he was. Lucy opens his eyes to love, yes, but also to fun and life. He courts her properly and not so properly, much to her delight."Partnership hadn’t been on his damn-fool list, but all of a sudden he knew he wanted it. Maybe more than all the things in his plan."I like the role reversal here as Lucy cuts Cyrus loose and then he must grovel for her love and affection. Go, wallflower, go!Olivia, Lucy’s best friend, is in a similar situation, one that many women of this time period found themselves in. They have no choice as to their marital partners, the one person who can make their life a misery or a joy. Marriage is a business transaction.“'It doesn't seem fair that neither of us is able to choose a spouse.'”Olivia is engaged to her tepid cousin, Rupert, but she is making the best of it because he isn’t mean to her and what more can a girl ask for? Olivia’s story follows in The Duke is Mine.Memorable moments:“‘That’s what I would like in a marriage: a daily opportunity to ogle a beautiful man.’”“‘It would be a terrible thing to be in a marriage predicated on a man knowing that his wife hankers after him, while he condescendingly pats her head once in a while.”"The look in his eyes should be outlawed, she thought. Or at least bottled and sold to forlorn maidens.”"It was his innate decency. The way he accepted it when she told him he was a pompous ass. The way he apologized, with words and—much more convincingly—with a kiss."A very charming novella.