Review: A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare.

Posted August 29, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Rowena’s review of A Night to Surrender (Spindle Cove Series, Book 1) by Tessa Dare.

Hero: Victor “Bram” Bramwell

Heroine: Susanna Finch

A peaceful resort by the sea, Spindle Cove is a retreat for Regency ladies—offering intelligent, often unconventional women a temporary escape from men and their madness. Unfortunately for Miss Susanna Finch, the seaside safe haven she has so painstakingly nurtured is no longer quite so safe. The Cove’s been invaded—not by Napoleon’s forces, but by battle-weary, barely civilized, dangerously handsome men.

Victor Bramwell, the new Earl of Rycliff, knows he doesn’t belong in Spindle Cove. So far as he can tell, there’s nothing in this godforsaken place but spinsters… and sheep. But he’s stuck here—with orders to gather a local militia. It’s a simple mission, made complicated by the spirited, exquisite Susanna. Not only has she driven all red-blooded men from the place with her “modern” notions, but her lively wit and tempting beauty are distractions Bram doesn’t need.

Bram fears he may have met his match, for Susanna won’t easily surrender.

The scene is set for an epic battle … but who can be named the winner, when both have so much to lose?

Before picking up this book, I was trying to remember if I’d read anything by Tessa Dare before but I can’t for the life of me remember. I don’t think so, though I did get all of her books when she came out for a So Cal Blogger Meet Up and for some reason, I never followed through on that.

Shame on me because I enjoyed this one.

This book follows Susanna Finch and Victor Bramwell toward their happy ending. Bramwell is a soldier in the British military who was injured on the battle field and is now trying to make his way back to fight in the war. He’s got instructions to come to Spindle Cove and make an army out of the men in the village and he needs the good word of the only gentleman in residence, who just happens to be the heroines father so that he can go back to the war. He won’t be able to go back to the war without Mr. Finch’s help so he agrees to gather a militia in Spindle Cove. He doesn’t know what he’s in for until he gets into town and finds women, men catering to those women and a whole bunch of sheep.

Susanna Finch lives in the resort town of Spindle Cove and has turned the whole town into a resort that caters to women. She’s created an environment that gives women a place where they can just be themselves without worrying about fitting in. Everyone fits in in Spindle Cove, Susanna has seen to that. Everything was going swimmingly until Bram brought his manly men over and started ruining the women’s fun.

Bram wasn’t prepared for what awaited him in Spindle Cove and when he gets a title just for taking over the militia gathering, it makes things even more complicated because he just inherited a crumbling castle as well but he’s gonna stick it out because he needs to. If only he wasn’t so attracted to Mr. Finch’s daughter. She’s got fire in her that he can’t stay away from and despite his intentions, he can’t help but want her and kiss her and well, you get the idea.

Watching Susanna and Bram together made for a fabulous read. They’re relationship blossomed with lots of laughs, lots of sighs and I enjoyed it all. There are interesting characters aside from the main characters and I’m looking forward to seeing more from the others in this series. I’m very curious to see what happens with Bram’s cousin Colin, Thorne and their women as well. Dare introduces a cast of characters that have much to offer readers for entertainment and lovers of historical romances and of Dare’s work will definitely get a kick out of this book.

I definitely recommend this book and cannot wait for the next book!

Grade: 4 out of 5

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.