The third, and final book in Virginia Heath's charming Merriwell Sisters Regency rom-com series.
Venus pours all her energy into the overflowing Covent Garden orphanage she works for, and they desperately need to expand into the empty building next door. Galahad has been running a gaming hell in the East End when his dream of opening a pleasure palace is poised to become a reality when he buys a Covent Garden building—right next door to an orphanage. Vee and Gal know one another, and things have never been friendly, but now that they are neighbors, they are at odds, and sparks are flying.
Dual POV, slow burn, enemies to lovers with witty banter, and Gal is a cinnamon roll who falls first. He's also a self-made businessman who had come from difficult circumstances and was not born into nobility, which was refreshing in a Regency romance. As his story slowly unfolded, I grew to love him more and more. Bookish Vee was headstrong and stubborn and had not had an easy life either. Each chapter started with an entry from Vee's journal from her early teen years to the present, which was fun to read and a clever way to show her character growth.
Found family was a theme throughout, and I enjoyed seeing characters from the previous books. But it was the kids from the orphanage and the Reverend, who also worked there with Vee, who stole every scene they were in! They were lovable characters who brought comedy, shenanigans, and heartwarming moments.
This was a lovely way for the series to end, entertaining and escapist with a satisfying ending and touching epilogue. (But the book also functions as a stand-alone.) Even though I am sorry this series has ended, I look forward to reading whatever Heath writes next!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press Griffin for the opportunity to review this ARC. I enjoyed it!
My steep was English Breakfast Shagadelic from The Tea Spot. A blend of four black teas, they describe better than I ever could-- "tea fit for the Queen, but lighthearted enough for Austin Powers." It's really good!
www.theteaspot.com
PUBLISHER'S SYNOPSIS:
Never Wager with a Wallflower is the third and final delightful installment in Virginia Heath's Merriwell Sisters Regency rom-com series.
Miss Venus Merriwell has been waiting for her prince to come since the tender age of fourteen. She wants a man who is a 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 hall 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?
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