“Or are they?
“Spindle Cove is the destination of choice for certain types of well-bred young ladies: the painfully shy, young wives disenchanted with matrimony, and young girls too enchanted with the wrong men. It is a haven for those who live there.
“Victor Bramwell, the new Earl of Rycliff, knows he doesn’t belong here. So far as he can tell, there’s nothing in this place but spinsters…and sheep. But he has no choice, he has orders to gather a militia. It’s a simple mission, made complicated by the spirited, exquisite Susanna Finch--a woman who is determined to save her personal utopia from the invasion of Bram’s makeshift army.
“Susana has no use for aggravating men; Bram has sworn off interfering women. The scene is set for an epic battle…but who can be named the winner when both have so much to lose?”
After enjoying the fourth book in this series so much I was really excited to read this installment (and get my proper introduction to Tessa Dare’s enchanting series). I am already about eight chapters into the book. I enjoy the characters already. I find Susanna very endearing. She is easy to relate to and I have a personal connection to her unwavering efforts to protect and care for her father. The setting--such a stark contrast to the rigid, disciplined Bram--provides for some comedy and lightheartedness which make the book enjoyable to read. Thus far, I feel like Susana is a much more developed character than Bram. I really hope that Bram is fleshed out more because, in the past, I have really enjoyed Dare’s ability to create extremely rich male leads.
…
I finished this book a couple of days ago (and have already begun reading the second in the series - forgive my delay), and I ended up enjoying it a great deal. This was perhaps why I finished reading it without doing anymore RAIR updates to this review. Let me begin by saying that, while I liked the book, I still liked the fourth one in this series (see the review HERE - I accidentally read it out of order). As I mentioned above, Bram began his life as a less developed character than Susanna; and it continued much along that same vein. This is not to say there was no empathy for him (which sometimes happens in less-developed characters). He was not underdeveloped, just slightly less-so than Susanna. I far prefer books where the male leads are very well-developed (no pun intended). I still enjoyed his character, but I wanted to see more depth from his point of view. He was a very in-the-moment character. Other than his injury in battle, his past was kept fairly superficial. I also felt like he would have had more scars (mental and physical) from having spent so much time in the military. He was an extremely devoted, honorable man--a born-and-bred soldier--but not once did he really describe the horrors of war or seem to be really bothered by them. It’s difficult to tell of the was a conscious decision on the part of the author (like she was trying to make him über-macho by making it seem like war and death and gore didn’t bother him nearly as much as his inability to jump right back into it all), but it was definitely something I noticed. I did enjoy his relationship with his cousin, Colin, Lord Payne. The name choice here is amusing, if a little bit obvious for a thorn in Bram’s side. (As I wrote that, I realized that I don’t think Susanna once calls Bram by his first name, Victor. He’s always “Bram.”) Simply from reading Colin’s parts in this book I can already tell that I’m really going to enjoy his story (contained in the second book of the series, of which I’m already a few chapters into).
As I mentioned, Susanna was a much more developed character. She was strong, intelligent, and brave. The beginning of the book seemed to emphasize her talents with herbs and natural remedies, but I felt like this died away about halfway through. I kind of wish it had been a bit more consistent since I was given the impression that it was such a large part of her life. Her back-story was well written and interesting.
The situations in the story remained fairly lighthearted (until the end, where there were a few twists and turns thrown in, but I won’t give those away!). It was a book that didn’t take itself too seriously and its characters were conscious enough of some of the oddities of the situation (like a town run by and filled with women) that it was made all the more believable. Had everything simply been accepted then I would have had a more difficult time losing myself in it.
As I mentioned earlier, there were a few twists near the end of the story. I realize these types of things are pretty widely accepted in this type of literature as a part of the structure. In order for the lead characters to truly be bonded together and their love made solid, there has to be some sort of tragedy, near-death experience, falling-out, or battle (or thereabouts). Some authors do this much better than others. Personally, I really liked how Dare downplayed this type of scene in her fourth book of this series. It was so much more believable than some of the other scenarios I’ve read and it was really refreshing. I was kind of hoping she’d do that in this book too, but that was not to be. Dare had a few of (not going to say which!) these types of scenes near the conclusion of this story and I felt like she could have done with just one or the other. It was a bit of overkill. This did not, however, detract too much from my enjoyment of the story.
Dare’s writing style is consistently eloquent and she provides readers with some of the best escapist reading I’ve ever enjoyed. She definitely ranks up there with some of my most-loved authors. As an English major, I can really relish her style, vocabulary, witty internal and external dialogues, brilliant use of repetition, and her unique characters. Having read two books by this author (and begun a third) I can say with certainty that Dare is talented for the fact that--not only are her characters diverse--she even makes them “sound” different. Their thought-processes all read differently and it’s like she jumped into each of their heads for their respective books. This is charming and endearing in characters in books such as these. It makes them seem so much more alive than a stereotype.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I’ve obviously decided to read more of Dare’s writing since I’m already onto the third one in this series! I highly recommend this book (and author) because of the eloquent writing and captivating characters.