Mini-Review: Once Upon A Winter’s Eve by Tessa Dare

Some wallflowers bloom at night…

Violet Winterbottom is a quiet girl. She speaks six languages, but seldom raises her voice. She endured bitter heartbreak in perfect silence. The gentlemen aren’t beating down her door.

Until the night of the Spindle Cove Christmas ball, when a mysterious stranger crashes into the ballroom and collapses at Violet’s feet. His coarse attire and near-criminal good looks would put any sensible young lady on her guard. He’s wet, chilled, bleeding, and speaking in an unfamiliar tongue.

Only Violet understands him. And she knows he’s not what he seems.

She has one night to draw forth the secrets of this dangerously handsome rogue. Is he a smuggler? A fugitive? An enemy spy? She needs answers by sunrise, but her captive would rather seduce than confess. To learn his secrets, Violet must reveal hers—and open herself to adventure, passion, and the unthinkable… Love.

Violet took herself off to Spindle Cove in order to hide from her family. She had been indiscreet and wanted to be away from them to see if she was pregnant. It’s been a year now and she has learned so many things about herself. She’s stronger than she thought, she’s certainly not the wallflower she believed herself to be and she’s still in love with the man who took her virginity.

Christian Piece risks his life and his career making his way to Violet to let her know what she means to him. Violet certainly doesn’t believe him at first but Christian is terribly convincing. Throughout a harrowing night of hiding in Spindle Cove the pair figure out what happened between them all those months ago and where their relationship, if any, could possibly go from there.

It’s no secret that I really like Tessa Dare’s writing. I’ve not read one of her books that I didn’t enjoy thoroughly. Saying that I do have to admit that while I have the first book in the Spindle Cove series on my shelf I haven’t actually read it yet. I guess it’s just a case of too many books, too little time. I did have time, however to pick up and read this wonderful novella that is the second installment in the series and it was wonderful!

While our hero’s character was a bit shady at first I loved the passion he showed for Violet, his family and his work. He was a man who had made a change in his life to try and assuage guilt and grief and ended up becoming a better man for it. The way he went about it wasn’t all that honorable but he had realized his mistakes and was trying to make up for them. I believe he did a fabulous job doing it!

Violet’s character was so great. I loved that she questioned things and was such a strong heroine. She didn’t take things at face value – she questioned actions and words – as she should. She certainly didn’t just take a pronouncement of love and go all gooey. I loved her strength and her cleverness.

The romance in this book is very different but I appreciated the inventive way Dare went about it. This is definitely not your typical boy meets girl with a bit of courtship – it was so much better. For such a short story this book had a lot of punch and I loved it.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Tessa Dare
Samhain Publishing

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