Wallflower | Blog Tour

Synopsis

Wallflower (wohl-flou-erh): Identifier for someone who is shy and/or awkward. For reference, see Viola Kent.

Seventeen-year-old Viola Kent likes being invisible. Well, not literally, but she’s content being a loner, reading her books, and hanging out with the animals at the shelter. She just wants to keep her head down and get through her senior year at Durham High.

Driving Dare Frost to school every day wasn’t part of the plan.

And when Viola finds out her dad recruited Dare, his number one player, to be her friend?

Her inner Slytherin demands revenge.

The solution: Get Dare to be her fake boyfriend.

Convincing the star athlete to pretend is easier than she’d thought it would be. The hard part is protecting her heart. With every word, touch, and kiss, Viola’s feelings become more real.

The problem: Viola knows she’s falling for Dare—but he doesn’t believe in love.

This book features two sets of soulmates, one happy pooch named Hermione, so many sizzling kisses and answers the question:

Can a dork and a jock fake their way to true love?

Review

This book!! What can I say that can possibly describe how much I loved it??!

Right off the bat I’m hit with the feels after finding out Viola’s PARENTS are freaking SAL and BECKS from Adorkable!!!! Whaaaaaaaaaaa. After reading that, I had to take a minute to compose myself because all of the beautiful feelings from Adorkable came rushing back. In fact, if you need me, you can find me re-reading that book for the hundredth time.

But anywayyyy, the cuteness and feels didn’t end there! Oh, no, my friend. They continued throughout the book and had me swooning and soaring, and crying and catcalling. I loved every minute of this book.

This had the glorious fake dating trope and it was done very well! We see two characters from completely “different worlds” that come together to fake date for a cause. Dare, our love interest, kinda popped into Viola’s world in this book where before, they had been living separate lives. I soooo appreciated that this book discussed this fact. I feel like so often in fake dating tropes or in dork and popular love interest tropes, the popular one just comes out of nowhere into the dork’s life and it’s never determined why. In this book, Dare and Viola actually talk about why they weren’t in each others’ orbits and what changed in this book to bring them together. I was so happy this happened!

Another thing that set this book apart for me from other similar books was Tyson. Tyson, the popular jock that everyone is in love with (other than Dare), is actually a nice guy. He wasn’t some jerk that was mean to everyone for no reason and I loved that! Popular characters can be nice too! Thank you for modeling that O’Gorman.

Something else I loved about this was all the fandom references!! Viola made so many references to many beloved series and movies and I was here. for. it.

Now, the part I’ve really been wanting to talk about…the romance! As I already mentioned, this book has a wonderful fake dating trope which means that our lovely Viola and Dare date without having romantic feelings for each other. But in a very real sense, they have romantic feelings for each other. I loved all their fun banter with each other. Dare was always getting on Viola’s nerves with his prideful remarks and it was just so funny to read about them interacting. On top of that, they both had things they needed to work through and realize, and they were able to jump-start that change in each other. I loved them as a couple.

Overall, there was so much to love about this book and you’d be crazy not to read it if YA romances are your jam. I’m so glad I was able to revisit old characters while continuing on with new ones. This book was truly a delight!

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed a gifted and advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rating

Author Interview

What inspired you to write this book?  Hi there!  I’m Cookie O’Gorman, and I write YA & NA romance.  I was inspired to write WALLFLOWER because I loved the idea of this awkward, shy (until you talk to her 😊) girl having to drive Mr. Popular, the star jock, to school every day.  And then, I wondered what would the girl do when she finds out her dad asked this guy to be her friend lol?  It just seemed like a such a fun story idea, and my characters Viola and Dare won my heart, so of course, I had to write their happily-ever-after!

What is your favorite thing about Viola?  What about Dare?  I love Viola for her amazing heart and because she’s a hopeless romantic, Harry Potter fanatic and dog lover.  And I love Dare because he is just…sigh.  Dare is so charismatic, thoughtful, funny, kind, and such an awesome, perfectly imperfect guy. That’s definitely more than one thing for each of them, but I couldn’t pick just one lol!

Please describe your book, WALLFLOWER, in three words?  Swoon-worthy. Fun. Romantic.

What was your favorite scene to write?  I loved every scene with Viola & Dare.  Though the kissing ones were particularly fun to write!

What do you hope readers gain from reading WALLFLOWER?  I hope WALLFOWER makes readers laugh, sigh, and smile.  I hope they finish Viola & Dare’s story with a feeling of giddiness and an undeniable case of the warm fuzzies.  And I hope it makes everyone who reads it believe in happily-ever-after 😊.

About the Author

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway