“The Earl Not Taken” by A.S. Fenichel
I really enjoyed my time within this story. It was fun, and frustrating at times, to be with Penelope ‘Poppy’ Arrington as she must decide if beliefs she has always held as absolute, are absolutely true. And, then there is Rhys, and his side of the story. I received an ARC of this story from the publisher via NetGalley with the hope that I would post a review. This is a worthy read, if I do say so myself. Happy Reading ! !

This book rang false on several levels. 4 young women, who were sent to boarding school in Switzerland and remained friends. they agree, after one of them is forces into a bad marriage then widowed, will not marry. Poppy is the most outspoken of the group and enlists the help of a known take to investigate the fiancee of one of the women. A.S. Fenichel does not do a good job at portraying a regency romance. I am not sure if the time frame is Victorian or Edwardian. There is a mixture of the custums and morals of both and Fenichel had several moments that did not fit into either. poppy was the most self deprecating character and Rhys was week and whiny. The instant hate to love romance was too quick. Plus Poppy was too "expirienced" her first time while knowing nothing about men. Poppy fell victim to the love diseace, the one that cures the shrewish heroine of her socaily unaceptable behavior the moment they fall i love. Suddenly they are no longer strong and independent. I mean Poppy was even cures of her clumsiness. The way they investigated the fiancee was lame. While it was intended to be one of the main plot points I don't think Fenichel knew how to write it. A lot more research into life in whatever era she was writing in was needed.
Fenichel lost a lot of little details For example all of the characters used made up Greek god names partnered with domestic items, but at one point, late in the book Poppy explains to the others that she uses them because her mother did not let her use the words she heard in the barn. Why would she explain a habit they all have to them? The parents were the worst part, all they did was lament that their daughters were unmarried and how hard their lives were with spinster daughters. This was their entire personality. Sadly I will not be finishing the series nor recommend it to anyone.

I would like to thank netgalley and Kensington Books for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Poppy was sent away to boarding school in order to curb her unlady like behaviour. Unlikely for her parents it failed, and she met three
lifelong friends. After one of her friends Aurora, escapes from an abusive marriage, Poppy must ensure that no other friend is treated in the same way. When her friend Faith, becomes engaged to a man she doesn't know, Poppy must team up with Aurora's brother Rhys to shot on the man.

I loved that there was more diversity that you usually struggle to find on histrom. But it was overly long, and did start to drag towards the end. If he had actually said I love you earlier when he was thinking that he needed to show Poppy how he felt, then a lot of issues could have been dealt with much quicker

A.S. Fenichel’s The Earl Not Taken offers a unique spin on the historical romance but some elements of the book, including the heroine’s characterization, left me a bit cold.

Poppy Arrington’s best friend Aurora has just buried her abusive husband when their other best friend Faith informs them that she’s to be married soon and doesn’t know her fiancé. Poppy and their other friends decide that they’re not willing to chance that Faith’s husband is a good man so they’re going to investigate him.

Reeling from his anger and guilt, Aurora’s brother Rhys, an Earl, offers to help in their investigation. But there’s a problem: Poppy’s detested Rhys since she caught him in flagrante as teenagers and he’s disliked her since roughly the same time.

Is there a chance that they’ve misjudged the other? And even so, is it possible for Poppy to change her long-held bitter views on marriage?

Rhys shows admirable growth throughout The Earl Not Taken and his treatment of Poppy during intimacy, how he gives her control and soothes her insecurities afterwards, is particularly nice. He’s remorseful over his past words and actions toward Poppy and his steadfastness will likely please anyone who loves a groveler.

Poppy’s behavior doesn’t always seem as easy to understand. There are brief references to some of the potential reasons behind her actions & feelings throughout the book, and a more extended explanation comes later, but more thorough introspection earlier probably would have helped me connect with her better. Her growth does come—thanks to her friends, who refreshingly aren’t afraid to call her out when necessary—but it happens a little too late for me.

The language used and some of the plot elements also lack some subtlety and it kind of took me out of the story at times.

But I really enjoyed how Poppy doesn’t automatically want to be married and how she attempts to open Rhys' eyes about the plight of women—and how his eyes are opened throughout the novel. Also, the portrayal of Wallflowers who have formed a lasting friendship, an enclave within a society that doesn’t understand them, is always something I can root for.

2.5 stars

I received a complimentary ARC from Netgalley but all opinions provided are my own.

Charming! I think readers should have a trigger warning going in, but this book was really exciting for me. Getting to see a character really come into her own was fun and liberating and sexy!

Four young ladies become firm friends after their parent send them to finishing school to become proper ladies.
The wallflowers of West lane have made a pact to protect each other from dishonest men. When one of the girls is about to be married off to a Duke without ever seeing him, Poppy and her three friends make it there mission to find out the future husbands true character. And to do this she needs the aid of the Earl of Marsden, Rhys Draper.
As Rhys and Poppy become entangled in her friends matters they soon find themselves in a love story all of their own.
I love a good historical romance and this one did not fail to deliver. I enjoyed this book from start to finish. This is a light read that requires little thought but leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy.
I will definitely be reading the next book in the series.

Four young ladies are sent to a Swiss finishing school, because their parents have surrendered. The parents believe that the girls are in need of corrections and the ability to learn to actually be presentable in public. The young ladies consider themselves wallflowers and they enjoy that fact. Their situations of being on the sidelines in social situations, brings them very close to one another. They would all do anything for one another. The girls’ thought processes are not typical for the time period. It is much more of a twenty-first century outlook.

When they leave school and return to London, Aurora is immediately married to a man who emotionally and physically abuses her. She only confides in the three other girls, Penelope (Poppy), Faith and Mercy. She makes each of them promise not to tell her elder brother Rhys. She is afraid he would do something foolish, like killing her abuser. Rhys is not told anything until after the abuser is dead. His hear is broken because he did not know and was unable to protect and help the sister he loves.

After she is widowed, Aurora’s life becomes much better. She does not feel as a broken hearted widow would normally feel. But, because of expectations of society, she will need to remain the picture of a grieving widow. Poppy, Faith and Mercy are relieved for her.

Suddenly, Faith is promised to a duke she has never met. He is a man who is unknown to all of them. So, it is decided they will investigate and find out the quality of his character. No one wants Faith to suffer the same fate that Aurora faced.

Rhys is drawn into the investigation because a man can go places young ladies cannot. And he wants to makeup for not being able to protect his sister.

Because of an episode when Poppy first met Rhys, she has little regard for him. In fact, because of her family history she has little regard for any man. She has decided that all men lie, cheat and are abusive to wives and children. She has decided that there is no benefit for women in any marriage.

As Poppy and Rhys are thrown together during the investigation, each of them become attracted to the other. Rhys wants to prove to Poppy that he is not a man with no integrity. But, she does not believe anything good about him.

That is what made me not a huge fan of Poppy. Even when she saw with her own eyes, she chose to believe the worst.

For a young woman who was considered to be intelligent, it seemed she was unable to get beyond her preconceived notions. Each time she got close to realizing that Rhys is not the same quality as her father, she ignores the facts and returns to her biased views.

Rhys was generally a patient man. He could not understand why Poppy had a bad impression of him because of something he did when he was young. I believe partly that would have been true in the time frame of this story.

At one time, there were acceptable situations which would not necessarily be acceptable now.

This is the first in a series, and I do look forward to reading the next book in the series. The reader is introduced to each of the characters. Ms Fenichel is an obviously talented author. Her characters are well developed and the plot is an interesting premise.

I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley. I am voluntarily writing this review and all opinions are completely my own.

” We each have our own truths . One might believe he can run as fast as a lion .Perhaps he can , But if he believes the lion is faster then that is his truth “

From time to time , I love to read a historical romance novel , getting all the ” Jane Austin ” Books feelings and reading about a different period with different cultures , rules , people and stories .

I’ve requested ” The Earl Not taken ” as the blurb was really intriguing , enemies to lovers story ?! Why not !! But unfortunately , the story was too fast-paced for my liking .

Poppy and Rhys love story was promising .

But there was no ( Realistic ) Development at all , despite their unresolved issues and complicated feelings , their relationship was rushed .

I had a problem with their romantic scenes , there was no passion , reading them felt like reading a manual 😛

And Poppy – As mentioned – was a virgin which made reading the ” Sex scenes ” super confusing .
There were a lot of repeated conversations that didn’t add anything new to the story .
Personally, I loved the side characters wayyyy more and I’m actually really excited for their stories , especially Arora.

In General , my three stars rating is for the wonderful writing style and not this story .
That’s why I will for sure read another book by this author.

**I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. **
This is my fort book by this author. This book is both a best friends brother and an enemies to lovers romance.
I love that these 4 girls understood they did not fit into society’s small box so they took the term Wallflower and used it with pride. I love that there is discussion about violence in a marriage in a historical novel as well as the discussion of a woman’s lack of rights.
The feelings that Rhys has for Poppy seem abrupt in the beginning and are introduced in a clunky way. Poppy’s determination to paint all men with one brush became a bit tiresome. However, I loved the way Rhys sets out to support her and win her over without pretense or trickery.
This was easy read and I am intrigued about the rest of the wallflowers.

This novel is a charming enough debut but not a standout. I always enjoy a historical romance but this one has many social and mental issues that are wrapped up within its pages. This novel touches on some issues of abuse and women having control of their own sexuality although it is well written for the time period it is a bit heavier than i normally prefer.

This book was such a good read, I couldn't put it down! The story and the characters were so well written it felt as if you were actually in the story!

I absolutely adored the concept of this book. Four women become close friends in a boarding school for girls and swear to look out for each other, especially after one of them had to suffer under her husband who died after three years of marriage. So they plan to find out more about the fiancé of one of the others before she marries him. They get unexpected (and a bit unwanted) help from Rhys, the brother of the now widowed Aurora. Especially Rhys and Poppy have to work together which is hard for both of them due to surprising feelings and stuff that happened in their past.

So yes. I liked the sound of that but to be quite honest, I was underwhelmed. There just wasn’t enough of anything, I missed so much. First of all, why did the girls have to go to this boarding school in Switzerland? It’s a school for difficult high society girls. But in what way are the four girls difficult? From what I could read in the book they’re just a bit headstrong but I couldn’t really find difficulties that would justify shipping the girls off to another country.

Yeah, Poppy is clumsy. She falls all the time and sometimes can’t keep her mouth shut but I don’t see that as a reason to go to this school. I also don’t really see why the school even had to be in the book since it was only the place where the four women got to know each other but I never really got to know what happened there, what made them thick as thieves, how their time there was (except good). I just thought the whole thing with the school was a bit unnecessary?

I also couldn’t get warm with Poppy. As I said she is clumsy and falls all the time and rips and makes a mess of her dresses but do you really need to say it every second page? Yes, I know that she trips all the time but I don’t need to hear it from her mouth all. The. Time. I just had to roll my eyes sometimes because it was kind of a „ugh not again“ thing for me. Apart from that, I found Poppy quite annoying. She doesn’t really trust herself and acts against her better judgement all the time.
And what I found to be unbelievable as that suddenly Poppy stops being clumsy. Like, how can falling in love change you from tripping over something constantly to being elegant as hell? Huh?

Rhys was another thing. At the beginning, I liked him a lot. He tried to get in Poppy’s good graces, not even knowing, what he did wrong and why she despises him so much. Rhys is sweet and caring and would do anything for his sister. But as the story progresses he becomes too… idk. Romantic? Sappy? Talkative, especially. I liked Rhys and Poppy’s banter and arguments at the beginning but their romance just went too fast and then there was too much drama and I just got annoyed.
Especially since a big part of the drama was thanks to Aurora, Rhys‘ sister who did nothing the whole story expect being a widow. And then causing the drama which I didn’t think fit her character too well, but ok.

I liked the side characters way more than the protagonists. I adored Geb Arafa and Nicholas and their friendship. I also liked Faith a lot. And I really hope the second book will be more to my liking because I’m very interested in Faith and Nicholas‘ story.

I feel like this novel had a lot of potential - definitely for you if you like historical romances - but I couldn't really connect with it. I think there needed to be more backstory of the girls' friendship at the beginning: tell us more about their background from the start; otherwise, I don't understand why they're as tight-knit as they are. For a moment, I thought I accidentally skipped over a chunk in the ebook ARC. It also didn't feel like the Regency era - I know Poppy is supposed to be a rebel and everything, but so was Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice but she does so without being such a...mess? At the beginning of the novel, there is this stilted conversation about how the four women became known as the Wallflowers of West Lane that I thought could have been shown to us instead. That dialogue in particular felt forced.

The Earl Not Taken started off really well. Four high class girls sent off to a boarding school to learn how to behave, instead becoming the inseparable Wallflowers of West Lane. Poppy adores her Wallflower girls, they’ve been through a lot together, but when she has to stand by and watch one of her precious girls get beaten and dragged through a marriage of pain and misery, her resolve that all men are terrible stands true. Poppy is determined to make sure none of her Wallflowers ever go through that again, and she herself is determined to never marry and live a life of freedom. She will never be made into a man’s possession.

Whilst I like this premise with Poppy’s resolve, it’s also infuriating to listen to over and over again in the story. There is a lot of emotional stubborn repetition with Poppy that after a while, I found it difficult to like her. Yes Poppy we understand all men are bad in your eyes, but seriously? Grow up. I wanted to shake her at times. She is so naive and difficult, I’m surprised she gets any attention from men at all – even for her title. I actually felt sorry for Rhys, and honestly, well, Rhys kinda went flat for me right at the start. He fell for Poppy because she was the first girl who wasn’t infatuated by him which starts off as more of a conquest and quickly turns into desire. He walks around with his heart on his sleeve, which is off putting. For once I didn’t like how often we had his point of view shared, it was too much jealously, pining and teenage infatuation for me. Take away the social historical hierarchy, this book could easily be put into the YA teen romance category.

Putting aside my resentment for the overall romance in this book, I really liked the friendships that came with it. It’s clear that all four of the Wallflowers are completely different in personality but that doesn’t stop their bond, I love their individual natures and how they all fit in their tight little group. Poppy being uncoordinated and prejudiced, Faith with her prim and proper exterior but full of mischief, Mercy being agile and level-headed, and Aurora, who comes across as the mother of the group with her strong beautiful disposition. Their resolve to stick together is sweet, I would have liked to have seen more of their exploits together.

With all that in mind, I do admit that I didn’t put the book down and finished it in one sitting. The ending was entirely predictable but I guess there was a small part of it that reminded me of pride and prejudice with it’s strong-willed characters that kept me going. I also enjoyed getting to know the additional characters that the author added in which were well written and extremely likeable, Rhys’s friend Garrett and his direct playful personality, the mysterious Egyptian Mr Geb Arafa and his remarkable home full of art who isn’t quite accepted in society as an outsider, not to mention the secretive Duke of Breckenridge himself, it’s enough to keep you wanting more.

First book in the series. Steady paced story with very likable characters. Poppy was my least favorite even with being the main female character. She was too rigid in her thinking about Rhys and marriage in general. She seemed really narrow minded about marriage basing it on just a few of them that were close to her. Her contempt of Rhys was unfounded for the extreme feeling. Throughout the book he showed he wasn't a bad person yet she still held on to the belief. If I based the book on Poppy alone it would be a 3. The other Wallflowers and Rhys pulled up the rating. Rhys especially was swoon worthy. Would love to read the next, of which we saw bits and pieces starting to develop in this book.

I'm always up for a good Regency romance and love to see how two people find love, despite the intricate rules of society. I like the premise of "The Earl Not Taken" with a group of four woman who bonded in a Swiss boarding school for difficult girls, and are now back in London society. One of the group, Aurora, has been widowed and had a horrible marriage and another, Faith, is engaged to Nicholas whom she knows nothing about and is understandably worried about his personality. Penelope (Poppy) and Aurora's brother Ryhs decide to find out what they can about Nicholas and the adventures begin. So far, so good.

However, I think it's a fine line between creating an unconventional daring character who bucks societal norms .... and a character that just doesn't listen to reason and holds tight to preconceived ideas despite every indication that she is completely WRONG in her assumptions. I found Poppy incredibly irritating in her steadfast belief that all men are evil, marriage is only pure slavery for a woman, all men will cheat on their wives, all men lie - you get the idea. Since we don't really get a good sense of Poppy's unconventional character prior to the start of the story, it's far too easy to dwell on her thoroughly irritating stubborn adherence to these ideas, while Rhys comes off as a one-dimensional saint who has fallen in love with Poppy, and bends over backwards to placate her every concern and worry, which usually results in Poppy running away and hiding. Sigh.

I wanted to enjoy this love story, but just found it carried this dynamic until almost the very end of the book. 3 stars.

Historical used to be my favorite genre, so I jumped on the chance to snatch this one up.

The Earl Not Taken started well. We get introduced to this squad of wallflowers who bonded together while at a boarding school. These women/girls were supposedly so terrible that their parents sent them out of the country to this boarding school, yet it really just sounds like they were a little quirky?

I enjoyed Poppy and Rhys’s antics, watching them plot out and scheme as they work together and slowly become friends.

Our heroine Poppy is the big downfall of this novel. She’s extremely judgmental and unwilling to change her mind. She has a terrible view of marriage, which is not surprising based on her upbringing and her friend’s abusive husband. But when her frenemy Rhys becomes her lover, she still sticks to her inflexible ways.

Gah, the back and forth was constant. Poppy (and Rhys at times) was immature, even for the time period. The Wallflowers as a whole felt flat, with very little depth. I’m hoping this debut only suffers from the dreaded “first in the series” flaw, and that the rest improve.

This looked like such a fun book that I requested it on NetGalley as soon as I saw it. The cover didn't hurt either because that is the type of cover I like, especially for historical romance.

This book is about Poppy (Penelope), who is part of a group of friends called the Wallflowers of West Lane. She and Rhys, one of her friend's brothers, join together in order to evaluate the man her other friend is meant to marry to see whether he was a good person or not, especially after Rhys' sister's marriage went so badly. Poppy isn't very good at being a proper lady but she is a very loyal friend and she is willing to work even with the man she so dislikes to help protect her.

This was a fun, very quick book to get through, I finished it in a day. I enjoyed the premise, with four women who are very different characters with very different personalities. I enjoyed seeing how they met (though there was a very strange conversation between the four of them when the author was obviously trying to tell us how they met, became friends and got their name but it was unnatural and awkward in the way it was done) and I really liked seeing their friendship, which kept coming up again and again throughout the book. One of the main conflicts was between Poppy/Penelope and one of her friends, which was refreshing to see because normally the only conflicts happen between the main character and the love interest.

On their own, Penelope and Rhys were characters I enjoyed. Penelope is obviously kind but jumps to conclusions and Rhys is far too willing to listen to his dead father's words about who he should marry and all that. I liked how we got POV chapters from both of them, allowing me to see both sides to the story.

However, I did not particularly enjoy their romance, especially in the beginning part. Penelope finds Rhys in a compromising position with a woman, that is how they first meet, and thinks he is the worst kind of rake. She is disdainful of men and marriage altogether and dislikes Rhys for seeming to be like men like her father. However, this is taken to an extreme. She immediately jumps to the worst possible conclusion for every single thing he said to her and there was one conversation, near the beginning of the book, where I had to reread the conversation between the two of them because I could not see exactly where Penelope got the insult from what Rhys said. There is reading a person wrong and there is pulling things out of thin air and the latter happened far too often for me. I enjoyed enemies-friends-lovers books but I would like to see the two of them actual enemies, rather than Rhys pining after Poppy and Poppy treating him like he was the worst kind of person based on a quick first impression and a few conversations of snarky insults. Rhys got some character development as he learned more about how other people experienced the world but Poppy kept on holding onto her wrong opinions until about three-quarters of the book and then something happened and she completely changed her mind. I couldn't help but think that when they're married and Rhys does something a little out of the ordinary, Poppy will immediately jump to the conclusion that he's cheating on her because there is absolutely no trust on her part.

There were a couple of other niggling things I had an issue with, such as Poppy's clumsiness being magically cured after having sex. Is this a trope I have luckily missed through all my reading of romance? It was not one I particularly liked. I also do not how I feel about the Egyptian side character, Geb. I feel like he was there more as a token than anything else, I felt he was flatter than most of the other side characters.

The romance between Faith and Nicholas on the other hand, I really enjoyed and I am definitely going to check out the next in the series. This is not likely to be a book I would recommend, despite the lovely cover, but it was a nice introduction to the series.

3 stars!

This was a fun read! Poppy is such a relatable character. She’s fiercely loyal, bright, funny and prone to clumsy mishaps. Poppy is set against marriage as she believes men only interested in her dowry and will treat her as nothing more than property. She’s particularly determined to stay away from men like Rhys, the Earl if Marsden, who is a rake and unfortunately her best friend’s brother. The tension between Poppy and Rhys was entertaining at the start. As things turned toward romance I was finding myself wanting to tell Poppy to stop being so stubborn. I was absolutely engaged in this story. I would say that while this book was entertaining and I enjoyed the writing, the plot was fairly predictable so it’s not a book that I would say stood out in this genre for me. Still, it’s one I wouldn’t mind reading again.

The main characters had known each other for years, but there was a sudden change and I didn't feel like the book showed why. The next book in the series sounds interesting, but it's iffy if I will read another book by this author.