Wallflower in Bloom: A Novel by Claire Cook

From the acclaimed bestselling author of Must Love Dogs comes a winning and witty new novel about a woman who emerges from the shadow of her overbearing family and finds herself “dancing with the stars.”

Deirdre Griffin has a great life; it’s just not her own. She’s the around-the-clock personal assistant to her charismatic, high-maintenance, New Age guru brother, Tag. As the family wallflower, her only worth seems to be as gatekeeper to Tag at his New England seaside compound.

Then Deirdre’s sometime boyfriend informs her that he is marrying another woman, who just happens to be having the baby he told Deirdre he never wanted. While drowning her sorrows in Tag’s expensive vodka, Deirdre decides to use his massive online following to get herself voted on as a last-minute Dancing with the Stars replacement. It’ll get her back in shape, mentally and physically. It might even get her a life of her own. Deirdre’s fifteen minutes of fame have begun.

Irresistible and offbeat, Wallflower in Bloom is an original and deeply satisfying story of having the courage to take a leap into the spotlight, no matter where you land.


Claire Cook wrote her first novel in her minivan when she was forty-five. At fifty, she walked the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of the adaptation her second novel, Must Love Dogs, starring Diane Lane and John Cusack. She is the bestselling author of eight other novels and divides her time between the suburbs of Atlanta and Boston. Visit her website at ClaireCook.com.



My Review:
While it took me a little bit to get into this book, I found it to be a compelling page turner. I had a love/hate relationship with the main character Deirdre, well hate is not quite right more like "sorry". Deirdre is the do it all girl/personal assistant for her motivational speaker/musician guru. She is extremely bright girl with very little self esteem.
The book will give you some really good chuckles, and you will be cheering her on in some of her antics! At other times you will be in tears for her. I loved how she went about getting herself on DWTS!! Once we start our journey there we find Deirdre starting to bloom.
Don't miss this great summer read, and have a box of tissues handy for your tears from joy and sadness!

I received this book from the Publisher Simon & Schuster, and was not required to give a positive review.