The Wolf and the Wildflower
USA Today bestselling author Stacy Reid’s addictive tale of two lost people who are found…by each other
London is buzzing with the news that James Winters, the Duke of Wulverton—thought lost at sea a decade ago—survived in the harsh wilderness of the Yukon. Now he’s been returned to his family, his responsibilities, and a nightmarish world of artifice and noise. He has three weeks to become a refined, elegant duke for the Queen…or doom the entire family to ruin and scandal.
Promising psychologist Jules Southby knows a lot about disguises. She’s secretly been living as a boy since birth, enjoying the freedoms of men and knowing little about how to behave like a woman. When she meets the alluring duke, she’s unprepared for his raw, masculine beauty and icy intelligence…or that he can see through her darkest secret.
Jules has very little time to transform the duke into a true semblance of an English gentleman. Yet his very presence seems to unravel her in every way. Their attraction is stark and achingly real—and forbidden. But loving the lost duke would mean losing every sacrifice she’s made to earn her freedom…
- Pages
- 330
- First published
- May 23, 2023
- Language
- English
- Edition
- Ebook
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Shelved by 2 Litcadians
Reviews
- emotionalreflectiveSlow-paced
Started March 6, 2025 · Finished March 8, 2025
This is the kind of book where afterwards you go through all your Libby bookmarks and make sure you don't have anything else by the author on your TBR. On paper this was something I should have loved which is why I am SO disappointed in it. From the cover blurb, it sounded like she was going to be tutoring him on how to exist in society again but there was basically none of that, and the crossdressing also was not used for fun gender play nearly as much as I was hoping for. Like, there are multiple makeouts AND AT LEAST ONE BLOWJOB while she is wearing a fake moustache, which is one of the most imaginative concepts I've ever encountered, and this is never described as being part of the sensations of the action? Why am I even here! What is the point! Also, I have to say I really hated all the sommelier scent kink stuff. Either write a shifter novel or don't. There's no way you can convince me this man who was living with wolves eating raw meat is reliably able to put a name on caramel and apricot scent undertones without practice. James was unlikeable in general besides the annoying scent kink. He sure seemed to fully understand how much privilege he had the whole time and exploited it an awful lot; there's being an alpha hero, and there's being emotionally damaged, and there's just being a self centered entitled ass. Jules deserved better. It was one of those where I was like 'maybe he is just the first man you had sex with and actually you'd realize there were other options just as good if you shopped around a bit' which is, you know, not what I should be thinking when reading a romance novel. At least it didn't do some of the worse Crossdressing Romance Novel Crimes, and I liked that Jules was not shown as bemoaning her sad fate of being Edwardian England's cutest twink psychologist, but the main issue about the gender disguise was that lying to your whole family for years is kind of stressful. But the book also just...didn't seem to be enjoying anything it was doing. Where are my shenanigans. Where is literally anyone having a good time at any point. Even the sex scenes while intense didn't seem like they were having all that much fun. Finally, besides the often overwrought prose, there were some pervasive editing and grammar issues which sure didn't do anything to endear me to a book I was already annoyed with.
Finished June 8, 2024