"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."
I've obviously been reading this series a bit out of order, but -- in the case of this particular mini-book, at least -- I don't think my comprehension was lessened. I didn't feel lost even though the happenings of this story were mentioned in a later book.
Overall, it was a cute mini-story. As a reader, I did notice a detachment from the main characters that I had experienced in some of Dare's other books. I think (in this case) it can at least partially be attributed to the restrictive length of the story. It might sound a bit harsh, but I did catch myself wondering if the story was even necessary to the series. I'm stuck between wondering if the author couldn't develop enough story to make a full-length novel, or if she had a little idea and wanted to squeeze it in. I thought aspects of the story were cute (*Mini-spoiler* - like how the characters used to play a game with languages when they would run their dogs together - *End of spoiler*), but, overall, I don't think this short story necessarily added to the otherwise sweet and rich series. It was not my favorite of this series, but I wouldn't let that deter you from reading the rest of the series. The Spindle Cove series is filled with interesting characters and fun plots. Would I recommend this short story? Yes, but with the footnote that it is rather unnecessary to the overall series and not the best showcase of the rest of what Dare has to offer.
*Side note: I've been SO extremely bad at keeping up with my book reviews that it's not even comical... I began penning this review in December of 2014 and I'm only NOW (in October 2016!) getting around to publishing it! I feel like such a failure! I've been keeping track of the books I've been able to read in between my grad school work and - now that this term is about to be done and over with - I'm going to try to sit down and review all of my books that I've been dying to review, but have not been able to get around to. Obviously, I won't be able to use my RAIR method, but I know I have good enough (excellent, actually) recall when it comes to books, so - rest assured - my reviews will still be accurate and relevant.*
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