3.5 stars
A couple other friends rated this book higher so please keep this in perspective as some of the parts that didn't work for me as well in this story are my personal preferences coming into play. This is one of those 3.5 star ratings where it's a good book, but I won't reread it and some of it didn't work for me so I rounded down, but will be great for others. Wallflower is packed with sweetness, an adorable and awkward h who's given up on her dreams, a successful elite athlete H who's confident, but cold until he softens, and some angsty family dynamics. Violet (h) and Chord (H) also have an assistant/employer dynamic happening, for those that eat that trope up.
Chord has landed on the hockey team close to his hometown thanks to some drama with a now-ex girlfriend and the hockey player who she cheated on him with from his old team. He's got a lot of anger inside and he's hyperfocused to the exclusion of building positive relationships. In a meeting introducing him to his new team, he latches on to the awkward marketing employee in the room to claim as his new assistant, to come back to his family's vineyard/ranch for the summer. Violet doesn't feel honored by this change in her job, she's got a father who depends on her at home and Chord's not giving her warm and fuzzy feelings. Once they move to Chord's house and are working closely together, attraction sparkles, Chord becomes a marshmallow for Violet, and lots of spoiling and support commence. This doesn't mean that there's not still angst however, with some long-term issues between Chord and his family and fears that Violet has regarding her father, plus what their future looks like and Violet's put-aside dreams of being a fashion designer.
Written in first person, dual POV. No real ow drama (H's ex makes a brief appearance that didn't completely make sense to me, just to add drama of being mean to h), no om drama (though H gets jealous over h), and both are experienced (H is more experienced but didn't seem like a manwhore and he's newly out of a year long relationship; h had a lackluster college boyfriend).
Chord and Violet have many sweet moments together bonding and digging into each other's vulnerabilities, which Violet definitely has more of. She was a bit too awkward and constantly blushing for my taste, but I liked that Chord was always telling her to keep her head up. Chord is quick to do whatever he thinks will make Violet happy and he pulls off some big gestures. Violet has some nice moments of showing Chord how she cares for him too. I liked both of them, yet I still wish there had been more on page growth.
The steam was well-written and plentiful, beginning around the halfway mark. The whole assistant/boss dynamic gets talked about and is a point of some light drama, mainly for how others perceive their relationship. A third act breakup does happen (for other reasons) and I just couldn't get behind it. It felt like a setup to force growth and ended up leaving me confused why it went down the way it did and feeling like that whole part was unnecessary. I don't love third act breakups though y'all.
The side character cast is plentiful with Chord's siblings, Violet's dad, key members of the hockey team, and a few others. Chord's sibling and Violet's dad have good side plot lines. I was left wanting more regarding the other hockey players. They step up and show they have Chord's back and he goes from being reserved with them to feeling kind of buddy buddy without the on page support. Some more team bonding on page wouldn't have been amiss here.
Each chapter has a nice detail of the countdown for how much time is left in their summer arrangement and was an effective way to show the progression of time. The book's pacing felt a tad slow, even as I appreciated how it allowed Violet and Chord to come to care for each other. I did find myself being able to put the book down pretty easily to do other things though, which worked for me with the last couple of days I've had, it just also made me feel like I could have felt more engaged.
The last part of the book deals with the third act breakup, the resolution, addressing the family dynamics, and then moving into their HEA with an epilogue almost a year later and some last bits of sweetness between the couple. I had to suspend some disbelief on the epilogue for what Violet was doing, it seemed unrealistic and I wish the epilogue was further out or maybe she was just working towards her dream moreso than where we see her. I'm very curious about the other members of Chord's family though and I think some of them may be future main characters or perhaps some of Chord's hockey teammates. I would definitely read more by this author.