#like she's p specifically not queer coded in any way (womp womp) and it's a job necessity thing

[mermaidsirennikita]

What would you say is your favorite HR series? Like ravenels or maiden lane or bridgertons etc each series has a stand out book and then some duds but which one would you say has the least ...duds?😂

Definitely not the Ravenels or Bridgerton lol. I can only say that I WHOLEHEARTEDLY recommend 2 Bridgerton books. The other ones I find fair to bad; like there's nothing wrong with Romancing Mr. Bridgerton or It's In His Kiss, exactly, but they don't work for me. The Ravenels I like a lot more, but I'm not as... passionate? About most of them? As I am about other Kleypas series.

I think as a WHOLE The Wallflowers is one of the strongest HR series there is. I loooove Autumn and Winter. Summer and Spring I like, but am not passionate about; however they fit and slide in soooo well with the other two and the quartet (plus the Christmas novella) is so cohesive and you really believe in the friendship between these women (and the men for that matter; part of why the Sebastian St. Vincent Fuckery is so good is that you feel like he and Westcliff have known each other a long ass time).

I also think that The Wallflowers reads the most like it should be read as a series? The Bridgerton books, as a contrast, are about siblings, but imo they're pretty easy standalone reads. The only ones that may benefit a bit more from reading them in sequence are like... Romancing Mr. Bridgerton and... for a bonus...? On The Way To The Wedding? Because Gregory wants what Kate and Anthony have? But I didn't emotionally attach to Gregory... at all.. so. Idk that it worked well in my case.

With The Wallflowers, you get the setup of the girls' friendship in Summer, pluuuus the very obvious hints that Westcliff wants to fuck Lillian so bad he literally doesn't know what to do with himself (the rounders scene). In Autumn you of course have the Greatest Villain to Hero Introduction Of All Time with Sebastian. (Also! Annabelle is pregnant! A baaaaaby!) If you're completely lame, you read that book and you're like whining about how he's just tooooo baaaaaad but if you're a fun bitch, you read that book rooting wholeheartedly for Westcliff and Lillian but also kind of enjoying that bit where she makes out with Sebastian because he can very obviously fuck. And then he kidnaps her and it's great.

Spring is probably the least set up of the books following Summer, but you do have the benefit of the context of the Bowman sisters' family history. And it all eventually loops in with Lillian and Westcliff having a baby~ and St. Vincent slooooowly but suuuuurely being let back into everyone's good graces because Evie is knocked up and there's no getting rid of him now lol.

Other than The Wallflowers, I'd say Maiden Lane. For its length it has a shocking amount of legitimately good, compulsively readable books. Even the ones I'm not as big a fan of typically have classic Hoyt Moments. Like I remember Duke of Pleasure being one (that I ironically own a signed copy of) where the tropes aren't my typical thing? Widower, girl who pretends to be a boy a lot. But there's a scene where instead of like? Doing a fakeout makeout? He's like "people are coming let's do a fakeout blow job because everyone will think you're a sex worker and leave us alone". And she's like "lmao sure" but then actually bLOWS HIM TO COMPLETION AND SWALLOWS???? IN A PUBLIC VENUE? I'm not even sure if they'd like... done anything more than kiss at that point. Like it goes from kissing to swallowing his cum in the street.

And that shit is so wild that I have no choice but to absolutely stan.

So. Maiden Lane is good.