Title: A Week to be Wicked (Spindle Cove #2)
Author: Tessa Dare
Genre: Historical, Regency
When a devilish lord and a bluestocking set off on the road to ruin… Time is not on their side.
Minerva Highwood, one of Spindle Cove’s confirmed spinsters, needs to be in Scotland. Colin Sandhurst, Lord Payne, a rake of the first order, needs to be…anywhere but Spindle Cove.
These unlikely partners have one week to
• fake an elopement
• convince family and friends they’re in “love”
• outrun armed robbers
• survive their worst nightmares
• travel four hundred miles without killing each other
All while sharing a very small carriage by day and an even smaller bed by night.
What they don’t have time for is their growing attraction. Much less wild passion. And heaven forbid they spend precious hours baring their hearts and souls.
Suddenly one week seems like exactly enough time to find a world of trouble. And maybe . . . just maybe . . . love.
A WEEK TO BE WICKED by Tessa Dare is, to me, pretty darn perfect. Enter your rakish hero, Colin Sandhurst. Enter your bluestocking heroine, Minerva Highwood. Enter a road trip romance where two opposites/enemies become friends and lovers and ultimately soulmates?
Darn. Near. Perfect.
In fact, I only say “near perfect” because there were just a few instances when I felt that a particular phrase or dialogue exchange sounded too modern for me, but that’s being very, very picky. This book is definitely on my Top Books of 2012 list, and I can’t imagine there will be very many books to either equal or beat its position there.
The basic plot is that Minerva needs to get to an academic meeting in order to prove herself and her discovery of a dinosaur fossil to her contemporaries (who, at the moment, believe she’s a man). She proposes for Colin to go with her because she wants to get him away from her sister (she thinks he’s interested in her, and believes he is a very unworthy match), and tries to convince him by offering the money she’s sure to get for her findings. Colin, who is in desperate financial straits, is not desperate enough to agree at first (and I know it’s just a little thing, but I really appreciated this part of the plot; I like that it was his choice, ultimately, to go, and not something he was forced to do under circumstances). But he does later agree because he finds himself interested in/attracted to Minerva…and yes, there is the money to consider.
What follows is a wonderful series of amusing and touching events as they set off on their road trip and fall in love. What I love about Tessa Dare’s writing is that she has it all–the humor, the sexiness, and the emotion–that I love to read in Regencies like this. In fact, when it comes to Regency authors, she’s probably #1 on my list.
A WEEK TO BE WICKED was a fabulous, un-put-down-able romance, and I *very* strongly encourage you to read it if you haven’t yet.
Grade: A
