Review: Never Wager with a Wallflower

I went through quite the reading slump in September (I feel like this is an annual occurrence). It’s frustrating to get frustrated with your reading choices so after finishing a book, I looked well ahead at my reading list and found just the right book to help pull me out of my slump: Never Wager with a Wallflower. This is the final book in Virginia Heath’s Merriwell Sisters series and it was just as lovely and delightful as the previous two.

Here’s the book’s description:
Miss Venus Merriwell has been waiting for her prince to come since the tender age of fourteen. She wants a man who is selfless, academic like her, and free from all the wretched vices her gambler father enjoyed far too much before he left the Merriwell sisters practically destitute. Unfortunately, after a slew of romantic disappointments, there is still no sign of that prince at twenty-three and the only one true love of her life is the bursting-at-the-seams orphanage in Covent Garden that she works tirelessly for. An orphanage that desperately needs to expand into the empty building next door.
For Galahad Sinclair, gambling isn’t just his life, it’s in his blood. He grew up and learned the trade at his grandfather’s knee in a tavern on the far away banks of the Hudson in New York. But when fate took all that away and dragged him across the sea to London, it made sense to set up shop here. He’s spent five years making a success out of his gaming hell in the sleazy docks of the East End. Enough that he can finally afford to buy the pleasure palace of his dreams—and where better than in the capital’s sinful heart, Covent Garden? The only fly in his ointment is the perfect building he’s just bought to put it in also happens to be right next door to the orphanage run by his cousin’s wife’s youngest sister. A pious, disapproving and unsettling siren he has avoided like the plague since she flattened him five years ago…
While Venus and Galahad lock horns over practically everything, and while her malevolent orphans do their darndest to sabotage his lifelong dream, can either of them take the ultimate gamble—and learn to love thy neighbor?

I admit that it took some time to get over the time jump between book two and three and that Venus and Galahad had initially met when she was barely a teenager. *shudders* Once I (mostly) set that aside, I could focus on the story that was right in front of me and I was able to enjoy it.

One of the things I like about this series is the relationship between the sisters and how important they all are to each other. We don’t get a ton of scenes with the rest of the family but the scenes that were there were incredibly impactful. They also served to remind me how much I loved the found family aspect of the story. Blood family can be important but so can the people you choose to surround yourself with and I think this story illustrates that well.

This is not a series that takes itself too seriously and it was a lot of fun to read, even when it was addressing less-than-fun topics, such as the state of orphanages in London in the Regency era (yes, I’m being vague - I cannot remember exactly what year this series, and this story in particular, took place!). I always find there’s a nice balance between the frothy romance and the look at what the world was like in a different time.

One of the things I like about this series is the relationship between the sisters and how important they all are to each other. We don’t get a ton of scenes with the rest of the family but the scenes that were there were incredibly impactful. They also served to remind me how much I loved the found family aspect of the story. Blood family can be important but so can the people you choose to surround yourself with and I think this story illustrates that well.

I’m quite sad Never Wager with a Wallflower was the last in the Merriwell Sisters series. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the time I’ve spent with the three sisters and their suitors and am glad Virginia Heath introduced them to the world.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, St. Martin's Press, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*