Series: Spindle Cove

Review: Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare

Posted September 20, 2016 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa DareReviewer: Rowena
Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare
Series: Spindle Cove #5
Also in this series: Lord Dashwood Missed Out
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: September 27th 2016
Pages: 272
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

On the night of the Parkhurst ball, someone had a scandalous tryst in the library.•Was it Lord Canby, with the maid, on the divan?•Or Miss Fairchild, with a rake, against the wall?•Perhaps the butler did it.

All Charlotte Highwood knows is this: it wasn’t her. But rumors to the contrary are buzzing. Unless she can discover the lovers’ true identity, she’ll be forced to marry Piers Brandon, Lord Granville—the coldest, most arrogantly handsome gentleman she’s ever had the misfortune to embrace. When it comes to emotion, the man hasn’t got a clue.

But as they set about finding the mystery lovers, Piers reveals a few secrets of his own. The oh-so-proper marquess can pick locks, land punches, tease with sly wit … and melt a woman’s knees with a single kiss. The only thing he guards more fiercely than Charlotte’s safety is the truth about his dark past.

Their passion is intense. The danger is real. Soon Charlotte’s feeling torn. Will she risk all to prove her innocence? Or surrender it to a man who’s sworn to never love?

Tessa Dare delivers another fabulous historical romance that had me captivated from the very first page. She writes such wonderful romances that really grab at readers and she did it with ease here. Every word moved the story along and I felt every emotion that both main characters felt throughout the course of this book. So good!

Charlotte Highwood is the youngest Highwood sister and she had plans. Plans that did not include getting caught with Lord Granville and being forced into a marriage neither of them wanted. She just wanted to talk to Lord Granville, let him know that she had no plans to trap him into marriage and to also warn him about her Mother and how he was to stay far away from her. She’s pissed to high heaven that her plans went up in flames by a scandal that wasn’t even hers. Well, wasn’t entirely hers. She’s not going to give in without a fight and if she can just figure out who was getting down in that room, she can clear her and Piers name and they won’t have to get married. She can save him from being forced to marry her and she can save herself to find and fall in love with the man she was meant to marry.

Charlotte was just as awesome as I was hoping she’d be. I’ve always like her from the early Spindle Cove books and was super excited when I found out she was finally old enough to get her own book. She was so nosy and yet so funny and she was all that and then some in Do You Want to Start a Scandal. Her personality shined so brightly and honestly, she was everything in this book. She made me happy, she made me sad but oh man in the end, I felt like Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire.

Piers was great too. I loved watching him fall in love with Charlotte, completely confused while it was all happening. When he said:

“What are you doing to me?” he murmured.

He was so confused about her and everything he was feeling about her. I loved it all. I loved seeing him crumble to pieces toward her. I loved how deeply and how fast he fell for her. I mean, sure he pissed me off a bit when he tried to manage her, manipulate her into seeing things his way but he more than made up for that when all was said and done. His love for Charlotte was as deep and her love for him was. The epilogue made me happy sigh because gah. I loved these two.

Tessa Dare always serves up great characters and witty dialogue with spicy scenes that I love each and every single time. She doesn’t disappoint with this latest book in the Spindle Cove series. This was a good one. I definitely recommend it.

Grade: 4.25 out of 5

four-stars


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Review: Lord Dashwood Missed Out by Tessa Dare

Posted January 11, 2016 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Review: Lord Dashwood Missed Out by Tessa DareReviewer: Rowena
Lord Dashwood Missed Out by Tessa Dare
Series: Spindle Cove #4.5
Also in this series: Do You Want to Start a Scandal
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: December 8, 2015
Pages: 144
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

A snowstorm hath no fury like a spinster scorned!

Miss Elinora Browning grew up yearning for the handsome, intelligent lord-next-door…but he left England without a word of farewell. One night, inspired by a bit too much sherry, Nora poured out her heartbreak on paper. Lord Dashwood Missed Out was a love letter to every young lady who’d been overlooked by gentlemen—and an instant bestseller. Now she’s on her way to speak in Spindle Cove when snowy weather delays her coach. She’s forced to wait out the storm with the worst possible companion: Lord Dashwood himself.

And he finally seems to have noticed her.

George Travers, Lord Dashwood, has traveled the globe as a cartographer. He returned to England with the goal of marrying and creating an heir--only to find his reputation shredded by an audacious, vexingly attractive bluestocking and her poison pen. Lord Dashwood Missed Out, his arse. Since Nora Browning seems to believe he overlooked the passion of a lifetime, Dash challenges her to prove it.

She has one night.

I heart Tessa Dare. I also heart her Spindle Cove series and I didn’t know much I missed her characters from that series until I read this novella.

The women of Spindle Cove are preparing for an author’s reading at the library and they’re all excited. You see, the author is a young woman named Miss Elinora Browning who wrote a book called Lord Ashwood Missed Out. It’s a story about a young lady who fell in love with the dashing Lord Ashwood and he left without farewell and broke her heart. Her story became quite popular and now she’s got speaking engagements and is traveling around, making quite a living as a young authoress.

She’s on her way to Spindle Cove when the weather takes a turn for the worse and the only coach available is a private coach with someone already on board…and that person is none other than Lord Ashwood, I mean Lord Dashwood. The villain in her story. Haha. It’s like karma is out for blood because not only is she stuck on a coach with a very pissed of man, they fall into a ditch and the wheel breaks and so they have to find some place to hide out TOGETHER until the morning and the weather clears, so they can fix the wheel and continue on to Spindle Cove. To say that things got real interesting, real fast is an understatement.

As entertaining as the main romance was, I’ve got to be honest and say that I was much more interested in what the old characters were doing, namely – the men. Holy cow, I didn’t realize how much I missed Colin Sandhurst until he started talking in this book. I laughed like a crazy person every time the men came onto the scene. When they go out in the bad weather to track down the author and escort her to Spindle Cove, I could not stop laughing. The name they came up with for themselves? Holy cow, I laughed so much.

I’d definitely recommend this book to fans of the series and to fans of Tessa Dare in general. She’s a fantastic writer and though this isn’t my favorite book by her, it’s still a treat. Colin’s book is on my to be re-read this year list. I can’t wait!

4 out of 5

three-stars


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