Review: The Scandalous, Dissolute, No-Good Mr. Wright by Tessa Dare

Tessa Dare has unbelievably beautiful prose, and she showcased it here once again in THE SCANDALOUS, DISSOLUTE, NO-GOOD MR. WRIGHT. It made for delicious reading, as we are swept away into an engaging romance with a delightful heroine and her equally delightful, yet roguish, hero.

Miss Eliza Cade isn’t allowed to come out until her three older sisters are all wed. In the meantime, she keeps bumping into Mr. Wright, who seems to recognize in her a kindred spirit.

I like Eliza, who is a spirited girl, lively and full of sass, which more often than not gets her into trouble. While her family doesn’t understand her, Mr. J. Harrison Wright does, becoming a (sort of) friend as they encountered each other over the years. He teases her, provokes her, and in the end, he couldn’t resist her. And though he may be a rogue and a scoundel, Harry is in fact, quite kind and patient, and has his own brand of honor.

Review: Once Upon a Winter’s Eve by Tessa Dare

Another keeper from Tessa Dare! She crafts characters that worm their way into your hearts, hook their nails in and stay for a long visit.

Violet Winterbottom suffered The Disappointment, which was why she was in Spindle Cove, a place for spinsters. After a year in hiding, her family was exasperated with her and was calling her back to London in order to marry her off. On the eve of her departure, at a Christmas ball, an injured stranger crashed the ball and collapsed at her feet. He was speaking a strange language, and only Violet, who knew at least 6 languages, could decipher what he said. Also, he looked strangely familiar. Could he be…?

I read with bated breath as I strove to find out the answers together with Violet. Could he be The Disappointment? But how had this happened when he was in the West Indies, half a world away?

Review: A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare

A WEEK TO BE WICKED is simply magical! This is what romance should be! Tessa Dare has outdone herself with this delightful and thrilling romance between two unlikely souls who complemented each other to perfection.

Bookish Minerva Highwood can’t compare to her lovely, refined, elegant sister, so she focused her attention to the study of rocks. She’d just found the footprint of a giant lizard that she was sure would change the way the world view its history, and she needed to give her presentation at the symposium, where she hoped to make a name for herself as a serious geologist and gain the accolades of her peers. For this, she needs someone to protect her on her travels and who better than Colin Sandhurst, the man with whom she’d bickered during their entire time in Spindle Cove?

Review: The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare

It’s always a great pleasure to read any one of Tessa Dare’s books, not the least of which is the witty banter between her main characters, and her prose, which is also witty, refreshing and almost poetic.

“I’ll take you home. My carriage is just outside.”
“Thank you, I prefer to walk.”
“More convenient still. My feet are even closer than the carriage.”

*****

He’d gone beyond anger, sailed straight past rage, and crashed into a place of primal fury, where blood ran in colors he hadn’t known to exist.

*****

They found themselves alone, the three of them. Emma, the duke, and a thick, uncomfortable silence.

And there are lots more peppered throughout the entire story.

THE DUCHESS DEAL is a reimagining of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast in historical England, where the Beast is not a prince, but a duke (Ash) who got his scars in the war. Beauty is Emma, a vicar’s daughter turned seamstress, who was exactly what the lonely duke needs. But THE DUCHESS DEAL is more than the fairy tale; it goes much deeper to plumb at the hurt and insecurity on Ash’s side, and how, underneath his beastly appearance, he is very much a man in need of love.

Review: Lord Dashwood Missed Out by Tessa Dare

Tessa Dare is back with another fun, funny, romantic novella in the Spindle Cove series.

Elinora Browning is on her way to Spindle Cove to give a talk (she’s an authoress) when the coach left without her. Forced to share a ride with Lord Dashwood, her friend who’d left her so precipitously years before and who “unknowingly” inspired “Lord Ashwood Missed Out”, the pamphlet she wrote that made her famous, she hoped just to get to her destination unscathed. Alas, Dash was determined that she prove to him what he missed out on…

I’m not sure what it is about the Spindle Cove series, but it seems to inspire Ms. Dare to write the kind of stories I love–light, funny, with artful turn of phrases and tongue-in-cheek humor that made me breeze through this novella in one sitting and wishing for more. (And yes, there’ll be more with a Spindle Cove book #5 in 2016! Yay!)

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

And she’s back! DO YOU WANT TO START A SCANDAL is vintage Tessa Dare–with heartwarming romance and cheeky laugh-out-loud banter.

I haven’t read the 3rd book in the Castles Ever After series, but for the first two books, I thought the theme of having the heroines inherit a castle and for the story to revolve there sounded a bit forced. And well, rather limiting. And well, some rather ridiculous stuff happened in the books. I’m glad to see the author had abandoned it in this book and decided to have the heroine get the castle in the usual way–by marrying the man who already owned it.

Though this book is the 4th book in the Castles Ever After series, the heroine is Charlotte Highwood, sister of Diana and Minerva Highwood from the Spindle Cove series.