Rating: 🤩

Years ago, I thought I didn’t like historical romance. I don’t even know who that person is anymore, because actually I love it? And while this isn’t a new revelation for me (I probably had it last summer or thereabouts), The Perks of Loving a Wallflower by Erica Ridley was a great reminder. Because wowowowow I loved this book.

The Perks of Loving a Wallflower is actually the second in a series following the adventures and love lives of the Wynchester family—a group of orphans made family by Baron Vanderbean who all use their individual skillsets to fix problems outside the laws and customs for people who need it—but I haven’t (yet) read any of the others. (Reviewer’s note: Apologies for that very very long sentence good god.)

This one follows Tommy Wynchester, master of disguise, nonbinary but without the language for it, as she works her family’s latest mission. The only problem: Her client, bluestocking Philippa York, is the woman she’s been in love with for a year—and Philippa doesn’t even know Tommy exists.

Meanwhile, Philippa has problems of her own. Her parents are scheming to marry her off to a man with a decent title as soon as they can. But while Philippa doesn’t want to disappoint her parents, she also doesn’t want to marry a man she doesn’t love. And she hasn’t felt anything for a man… ever, actually. (You can see where this is going.) But when she meets Tommy, things change.

This book was so fun. It was cute. It was sweet. It was a touch mysterious. It felt a little like a Shakespearean romantic comedy, what with the regular disguises from Tommy, the silliness, and also the gender play.

But—to me, anyway—it was better, because Tommy is canonically nonbinary, even if the words for that didn’t exist at the time. She saw herself as simply a person, and wanted to be seen and loved as such. Not a woman, not a man, but a person. Personally, my understanding of my own gender identity is complex and the words I use to describe it change as I learn new ones. Even so, Tommy is one of the best nonbinary representations I’ve read recently.

I also really loved Philippa. She was smart, she was kind, and, to be honest, I saw everything Tommy saw in her. She also read as perhaps demisexual (or at least on the ace spectrum)? Like I think it would be easy to see her as a standard romance novel lead, who only has eyes for the other main character (I feel like this happens a lot in romance). But as someone who’s demisexual themselves, her lack of romantic feelings towards all of the people she’d met before Tommy, and her worry that something was wrong with her deeply resonated with me.

One thing I will say, though, is that if you’re the type of reader who prefers your historical romance to be historically accurate in all ways… you may not enjoy some aspects of this book. While I’m no expert on the time period by any means, there were some things about the plot and the characters that felt outside the realm of possibility for the time. I personally liked that. I like when historical romance plays with politics, queer identity, feminism, race, disability, etc. in a way that may not have been true for people at the time. If that’s not you, imo that’s your loss. Because this book is fantastic. 💖