A Lady by Midnight: Tessa Dare (Spindle Cove, Book Three)

"A temporary engagement, a lifetime in the making...

"After years of fending for herself, Kate Taylor found friendship and acceptance in Spindle Cove -- but she never stopped yearning for love.  The very last place she'd look for it is in the arms of Corporal Thorne.  The militia commander is as stone cold as he is brutally handsome.  But when mysterious strangers come searching for Kate, Thorne steps forward as her fiance.  He claims to have only Kate's safety in mind.  So why is there smoldering passion in his kiss?

"Long ago, Samuel Thorne devoted his life to guarding Kate's happiness.  He wants what's best for her, and he knows it's not marriage to a man like him.  To outlast their temporary engagement, he must keep his hands off of her tempting body and lock her warm smiles out of his withered heart.  It's the toughest battle of this hardened warrior's life...and the first he seems destined to lose."

I've said this in other reviews of Tessa Dare's books in this series, but I really do think her name choices are cute.  In this case, "Thorne" for a rough and prickly man is a good one.  Dare's writing is lively and witty.  This book also did a good job of making me care about both of her leading characters.  I feel like a couple of her other books fell a little bit short on their development of the male leads; but that was not the case with Thorne in this book.  He was brooding and complex.  The plot was fun and interesting; it fit in well with the rest of the series.  It was nice to learn more about these characters who had played supporting roles in other books in this series.  Contrary to some other authors I've encountered, Dare did one of the most difficult things to do when bringing forth formerly supporting characters into a story of their own:  she stayed true to them.  This is something I find highly impressive whenever an author manages to do this.

I loved the layers to this story; all of the interesting background and plots made this book a definite page-turner.  This is easily one of my favorite stories in this entire series.  I read it relatively quickly, so that's always a good sign.  The pacing was done quite well - it had a good blend of lightheartedness and moving moments that made me want to keep reading.

Would I recommend this book?  Definitely; however, I do think this book is best appreciated when coupled with the others in this series - only then can the reader appreciate how Dare developed her characters.