A Wallflower Christmas

A Novel (Wallflowers, Book 5)

By: Lisa Kleypas

Narrated by: Mary Jane Wells

Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's Summary

New York Times best-selling author Lisa Kleypas’ sparking tale of love, romance, and Christmas magic, set in Victorian London, in which the irresistible Wallflowers help steer the course of true love for a notorious wealthy American and his reluctant British bride.

The search for true love brought the Wallflowers together. Now happily married, these four delightful society women reunite once again to help a notorious rogue find happiness under the Christmas mistletoe....

Rafe Bowman has arrived in London to meet the aristocratic young woman he hopes to marry - Natalie Blandford, the very proper and beautiful daughter of Lord and Lady Blandford. But the dashing American’s shocking reputation has preceded him. Before he can claim Natalie’s heart, Rafe must learn to navigate the conventions of London society to win her hand.

Even with the best teachers - four former Wallflowers experienced in the art of matchmaking - the wildly rich and very impatient Rafe discovers that wooing a bride is far more complicated than he expected. But Christmas is a time of magic - when a rake can become a romantic...and ignite passion in even the most straitlaced young lady’s heart. 

©2021 Lisa Kleypas (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Very Disappointing

Always great to reunite with the Wallflowers and I love the book, so I grudgingly gave this 2 Stars. However, this “revised” audible adaptation completely missed the mark for me. The new narrator, MJW didn’t seem to have a handle on the characters she depicted. Her performance was all over the place, even using the incorrect “voice” characterizations here and there. She usually does a much better job - what happened? Anyway I won’t be listening to it ever again; it was just that bad. Get yourself a copy of the original audiobook narrated by Roslyn Landor instead- you’ll be glad you did! She brings warmth and likability to the story and its characters that far surpasses this new audiobook edition.

Matthew Swift is not Irish!

The narrator did one of the Americans accents like they were Irish and it threw everything off.

Wow

Coercion is not sexy or romantic. When is harassment a goal? This is an upsetting story.

I think this is the best one in the series.

Oh, I so adored this series, but this one is the most wittiest, it's wonderful.

Good story but short for the price.

Cute story but short for the price. I wish it had been longer. also American accents sounded weird It wasn't the narrator's best work and I normally love her.

Least favorite of the series

As you can easily tell by just looking at the book’s stats, it’s quite a bit shorter than others by Kleypas. I was worried going in that I’d be wasting a credit as I normally finish longer books in only a day or two. I really loved The Wallflower series, though, and didn’t want to leave a book from it unread. This book didn’t even last me a full work day, and the story indeed felt very rushed. It was almost as if it were an afterthought. Without going into much detail, as I don’t want to spoil anything, I think it left a lot to be desired and there was a lot that could have been done to improve the story. My other qualm was that the narrator was extremely inconsistent with the characters accents, not just throughout this one book, but throughout the entire series. For example, the character Matthew Swift had an American accent in the previous books that seemed to bounce around from mid-western, to Bostonian, to New Yorker. In this book, the narrator gave the same character an Irish accent. It was mentioned he had Irish lineage, but he was supposed to have been American by birth. It was bothersome, to say the least. If you’ve read the other books in the series and you’re just dying for more— it’s ok, I supposed. However, I think you wouldn’t be missing out if you skipped this one.

Fun

Mary Jane Wells does an amazing narrator job again. This was a fun. short story including some of my favorite characters with an introduction to some new ones.

Lovely to visit with the wallflowers

Predictable story but lovely to visit with the wallflowers. The toupee story made me laugh. And I adore Mary Jane Wells…. Except when she attempts American accents. I’m American and the accents are just off. And distracting.

too rushed

The hardest part about listening was the horrible American accents, God awful. The story felt like the author had an idea but raced to the conclusion, making the story line impossibly improbable.

Outstanding

Love these books. All of them are amazing. I laughed I cried. Couldn’t wait to read the next one. ❤️❤️