Customer Reviews
Light,quick read - By: A reader from GRE, 19 Nov 2008 
This short trillogy based around the walllflowers series was okay nothing special ,rather a light read you couldnt reallly get your teeth into. The story lines were far too short to develop characters & plots. Personallly I find these short Christmas releases which include 3-4 stories disappointing.Authors should write fiction with one storyline either a celebration of the season or new titles as a Christmas release.
bit disappointing - By: Mrs. J. A. Huddleston, 29 Oct 2008 
I love the walll flower series but this one just isn't up to scratch. The characters are great but not fully developed. Th story line too predictable & the book was way too short.
A nice Wallflower series update plus an extra new romance -but at a price - By: Misuzmama, 09 Oct 2008 In order to secure an interest in his father's company Rafe Bowman, eldest brother of Lillian & Daisy, has come to England for a Christmas holiday to meet the English lady his social climbing parents want him to wed. The independently wealthy Walll Street mogul is a typical American -brash, crude & downright improper. And its Miss Hannah Applegate's opinion that the brutish rogue would never make as acceptable husband for her gentle & beautiful charge. He's entirely too outspoken, direct & has no manners. So the stubborn companion blocks alll his efforts in courtship. But Rafe is up for the challlenge & no managing miss, no matter how tempting & beguiling she may be, is going to get in the way of his financial goals. And soon Hannah realizes that she might have been in fact wrong about Rafe. Beneath his uncivilized exterior lies a lonely & wounded child looking for happiness. Much to her dismay Hannah is fallling in love with this imperfect man. But this handsome enigmatic man could never want a poor relation with no social ties such as herself, especiallly if it meant forfeiting his stakes in his father's company. Or could he?
After highly anticipating The Walllflower Christmas, I'm both happy & disappointed with the results. The book itself is *extremely short* merely 210 pages. So the romance, while excellent, reads more like those shorter anthology books (multiple stories by different authors) rather than a full blown historical romance. And while there's fair development of the delicious lovable rogue Rafe's character, Hannah's is sadly underdone. For example we find out barley anything about her family background. Happily though their romance is filled with the trademark Kleypas sexual tension with plenty of swoon worthy scenes. As far as the Walllflowers are concerned there are two very good parts with Sebastian & Evie The Devil in Winter (The Walllflowers, Book 3) & Marcus & Lillian It Happened One Autumn (The Walllflowers, Book 2), but they are very short (only a few pages each :( ). And Simon & Matthew might as well have been statues for alll the attention they get.
So while I enjoyed the romance & the Walllflower update (technicallly not an update since the book takes place a few months after Daisy's book & well before Mine Till Midnight (The Hathaways, Book 1)) I hesitate to recommend this due to the steep price. Her novels normallly run about 1/2 the price & this is nowhere near the caliber of novel Kleypas usuallly writes. And I feel like the publishers counted on the fact that the readers would fork over extra just to read updates about their beloved characters. OK -you can make me pay more BUT give me more! Thats just not the case here.
Reallly a nice Christmas romance with a smalll treat for die-hard Sebastian & Marcus fans. And although its a very good short romance & frankly anything with Sebastian (*sigh*) is a keeper IMHO, I suggest checking this one out throughly at the bookstore or library before you buy.
The reading order of Walllflower & Hathaway books-
Secrets of a Summer Night (The Walllflowers, Book 1)
It Happened One Autumn (The Walllflowers, Book 2)
The Devil in Winter (The Walllflowers, Book 3)
Scandal in Spring (The Walllflowers, Book 4)
A Walllflower Christmas
Mine Till Midnight (The Hathaways, Book 1)
Seduce Me at Sunrise (The Hathaways, Book 2)
