Review: A Night to Surrender (Spindle Cove #1) – Tessa Dare

A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare
Series: Spindle Cove #1
Published by Avon on 30 August 2011
Genres: Adult, Historical Romance
Pages: 372
Source: Kindle Purchase
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Susanna Finch is sure there will never be a prince charming in her life, and is now content helping other young women hide from men in Spindle Cove. Being a bit tall, outspoken and extremely well read and intelligent has not helped Susanna during her debut, but she has vowed to help other women get ready for their staged debuts far from any possible scandal.

Victor Bramwell only wants one thing in life - get his life back, steer the army and be strong enough to help England win the war. When he arrives in Spindle Cove there is nothing but sheep and spinsters, plus the old man who might just be able to help him get back to the field. Little does he know the old man has his own plan - that does not in any way involve Bram falling in love with Susanna.

A Night to Surrender is a truly delightful story! I fell in love with Susanna from the very beginning, it was so refreshing to read about a regency era heroine who is intelligent, strong-minded and who won’t back down from a challenge. Disappointed with her own debut, she has decided to help young women in a safe environment, and Spindle Cove is the perfect place for it. Susanna grew up there, and now she brings shy, unconventional-looking or too brazen women to the same place, to help them all advance in some field. Susanna herself is quite unconventional, and she does not believe women should always be demure, obey men and not enlighten themselves in science or other matters usually not readily available to women.

Once Bram shows up with his soldiers, everything changes, though, especially Susanna! There is an instant chemistry between the two of them, but they are both trying their best to ignore it. It is quite futile for them to stay at arm’s length, though. And it is pretty funny how both Susanna and the other young ladies change little by little just because there are suddenly a group of men living in Spindle Cove with them. And the humorous situations that came because Susanna still wanted her charges to feel safe in an environment with very few men…

I enjoyed all of A Night to Surrender, the strong female main character was very well done, even if some things became a little anachronistic because all she knew how to do, and the assurance with which she did it all. Bram was a great character as well, once he realized how special Susanna was, he wanted to make her his – but of course, being as independent as she was, she made sure he realized just what that would mean. I did not care for Susanna’s father, he was a selfish old man who only used the other people around him to further his own agenda, and it ended pretty badly!

The romance was very hot in A Night to Surrender, and what started out quite innocent between Bram and Susanna became blazing hot once they truly admitted their feelings for each other. The writing is very good, with vivid descriptions where I could see the old castle, the cliffs and the water beneath it. Even the secondary characters were well fleshed out, and I hope at least some of them will make an appearance in other books in the series.

And the way he’d looked at her just before that kiss – as thought he would devour her, and she would enjoy it – was straight from the Dark Ages.

For him, listening to Miss Finch expound on the weakened state of Napoleon’s army had been like listening to a courtesan read aloud from her pillow book. Arousing beyond measure. And then he’d made the idiotic – thought inevitable – mistake of picturing her naked. All that luminous hair and milky skin, tumbled on crisp white sheets…

Of course, once she did sit next to him, he found his powers of concentration immediately diminished. The dwarfish size of the table forced them so close, her shoulder rubbed his arm. From there, it was all too easy to imagine sweeter sources for friction.

But now she saw his motives clear. Here it was, his secret. No childhood trauma, no ravages of war. Just a deep, unspoken desire for closeness. Oh, he’d rather die than admit it in such terms, but that low, yearning sound told it all.

But she was wrong. He didn’t like her this way. He thought he might love her this way.

 

 

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