If you’ll recall from my previous review of Tessa Dare’s A Week to Be Wicked, I mentioned that I would probably be going on a Tessa Dare binge pretty quickly. This is the beginning of that. This one came in from the library yesterday, and I bought two others at Bookmans three hours ago. So this is happening. Dammit.
I didn’t like this one as much as A Week to Be Wicked, which is the second book in the Spindle Cove series. A Night to Surrender is the first. The series is set in Spindle’s Cove (dur), a small village on the coast of England known for being a place where women can go to recover, to get away, to take refuge. It has the not very nice nickname of ‘Spinster’s Cove’ as a result. Our main character Susanna Finch took up residence in the Cove ten years previously and is largely responsible for its reputation as a haven for odd or damaged or different women. She loves her little haven and will do anything to keep it a safe place for women to be free from what she sees as society’s damaging expectations (at least, as free as a hypothetical woman could be in the year 1812).
Her romantic opposite is the newly minted Earl of Rycliff, Victor “Bram” Bramwell, who is given the long extinct title (and the ruin of a castle it comes with) after earning distinction on the battlefield. He pops into town, literally knocking Susanna off her feet, and introduces himself by planting one on her. Right from that moment, I was hooked on the book. It was silly, funny, and sexy. All things I enjoy very much. The rest of the book also proved to have a little bit of kick to it as well, with both of them struggling with issues of gender identity and pride. It was very well done, if you like that kind of solid fluff, which I do. Also, verrrry good sex scenes. A plus.
Will be lapping up books three and four (and the two other novellas in the series) shortly.
