Review: Worth reading if you're a Tessa Dare fan.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 11 28, 2011
I downloaded this because I'd read Dare'sA Night to Surrenderand this is the continuation of the Spindle Cove series, to be followed by the full-length novelA Week to Be Wicked, coming out in March 2012.  Spindle Cove, as you may or may not know, is a refuge for women who are running from or trying to resolve certain issues in their lives.  Susanna Finch, now Lady Rycliff (she found her Lord Rycliff in the first book), is more or less in charge of their empowerment lessons, with outdoor exercises such as hiking, sea bathing, archery, guns, and whatever else may be needed to give these women the opportunity to return to their former lives more confident and in full command of themselves.  Few men live in Spindle Cove, except for the militia headed by Susanna's husband.In this novella the heroine is Violet Winterbottom.  It's December 1813 and an officers' ball is being held at Spindle Cove.  Violet is somewhat lacking in self-confidence and prefers to be a wallflower.  She is also nursing a heart broken in the past by her handsome next-door neighbor (aka The Disappointment) who loved her and left her. The ball is disturbed by the abrupt entrance of a wounded, wet, muddy man speaking a language no one understands.  Violet, being versed in many languages, is asked to find out what's going on, especially since the military men at the ball are suspicious that this guy may be a spy.There you are.  The rest is to read.  I'm reluctant to say this, but I did not find the experience enjoyable.  Too much goes on, the characters aren't well developed and the plot is almost a farce, but I do not believe that that was the intention.  Violet's character is inconsistent.  The timid wallflower develops quite the fierce independent streak in such a short time.  We're supposed to think it's personal growth but the change is too radical to happen in just a few hours.  And the wounded hero here has nothing heroic about him.  He's pretty much ineffectual at everything except sex.  I didn't see him do one useful thing in the whole novella.The story itself is overly busy, disjointed and a bit silly.  For me, Tessa Dare's writing is not improving.  I enjoyed her first trilogy released a couple years ago but nothing since then has impressed me as being an improvement on her debut work.