Regency Makeover Part 1: The Bride behind the Curtain
Regency Makeover, Book #1
By Darcie Wilde
ISBN: 9780698408128
Author’s website: http://www.darciewilderomance.com/
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Una
Description:
Even wallflowers find a way to bloom…
They were dismissed as hopeless—girls too plain, too shy, too gauche to stand any chance in the ruthless competition of the London season. But Helene Fitzgerald, Madelene Valmeyer, and Adele Edmundson have no intention of remaining wallflowers. Aided by the notorious novelist, Deborah Sewell, they form the Wallflower Pact and set out to find true love for themselves—and maybe even their chaperone.
The Bride Behind the Curtain
Adele Edmundson has always been considered too plump and too awkward for the fashionable world. But the girl has a discerning eye for fashion, filling notebooks with designs for beautiful dresses. She also has an eye for the dashing son of French expatriates, James Beauclaire. With a little help from her friends, and a talented modiste’s assistant, Adele’s gowns take society by storm and she begins a secret flirtation with James, who finds himself torn between family loyalties and true love. But as all Adele’s impossible dreams begin to come true, can she resist the temptations of a world suddenly throwing itself at her feet?
Review:
This story was delightful mainly because it did not deal with the usual pretty girl ending up with the Duke etc. who has been courting her. Adele has been introduced as someone who is intelligent, has a flair for designing fashion for women and who has always been too plump to fit in to Ton society. It doesn’t help that her well-meaning aunt has dressed her in the most unbecoming clothes. In fact she has been brutally bullied and harassed for her entire life. When she accidentally falls into the lap of James Beauclaire behind the curtain her life begins to change. With her 2 other unfit for society friends they decide that they will take life into their own hands. With Adele’s fashion design and a competent seamstress who just happens to be James’s sister they find a sponsor in the novelist writer Deborah Sewell and set out to set society on fire forming the Wallflower Club.
The story is funny poignant and well developed and truly kept me turning pages. It also made me realize the trials and tribulations women had at this time when they weren’t considered the norm. These women were left on the sidelines hoping for a widowed man to come and be thankful to have someone to run their houses. Other than that the women became a burden to their families as the families focused on marrying off their more eligible girls usually for money rank and position. Little was done to see if the match was compatible.
James is presented as French expatriate who is there to charm and marry Adele’s beautiful younger sister and obtain the money his family desperately needs. With his father in France trying to salvage the family money, his sister trying to take care of his ailing mother James finds that the need for money is always consuming him. When he meets Adele he realizes that he is pursuing the wrong sister and the wrong lifestyle. He too has to make serious choices.
Can both Adele’s and James dreams come true? The author develops the characters in such a way that I know for one I will be looking out to future stories that will give me the outcomes of the others in the Wallflower club. A great series to look forward to!
