Thoughts: A Week to be Wicked

A Week to be Wicked

by Tessa Dare
Book 2 of Spindle Cove

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  4.5 Stars

When a devilish lord and a bluestocking set off on the road to ruin... time is not on their side.

Minerva Highwood, one of Spindle Cove's confirmed spinsters, needs to be in Scotland.

Colin Sandhurst, Lord Payne, a rake of the first order, needs to be... anywhere but Spindle Cove.

These unlikely partners have one week to
• fake an elopement
• convince family and friends they're in "love"
• outrun armed robbers
• survive their worst nightmares
• travel four hundred miles without killing each other
All while sharing a very small carriage by day and an even smaller bed by night.

What they don't have time for is their growing attraction.  Much less wild passion.  And heaven forbid they spend precious hours baring their hearts and souls.

Suddenly one week seems like exactly enough time to find a world of trouble.  And maybe... just maybe... love.

I'm going to be completely honest with everyone.  I simply loved this book!  And I have no idea what else to say about it.  I know that there are reasons not to like this book--the story line itself tends to drag on for some time.

But we've got a nerdy girl, a rake with a heart of gold, a fun adventure traveling cross-country, and lots of steaminess to top it all off.  Minerva and Colin are great together!  Their relationship is both sweet and hot and fun at the same time, and I can't help smiling big and feeling giddy about their conversations.  As Colin has pointed out, the two of them have some of the strangest conversations surrounding the lewdness of mathematical terms, a plaster footprint named Francine, and a lot of made up adventure story stuff to remember for the rest of their lives.

I also have this love for how Minerva, the little quiet lamb breaks out with her bloodthirsty side when Colin is in danger.

To be honest, it really IS Minerva who steals the book for me.  She has a love for rocks and wants to make discoveries that can change the world.  She's not afraid of ruining her reputation for the sake of science, and has a great sense of self that I love, even as she continues to discover herself through her travels with Colin.

Colin, on the other hand, is a fairly typical rake and playboy with no ambitions or directions in his life other than waiting to inherit his estate and money.  It's nice to see him grow and develop as he and Minerva learn from each other.  But at the same time, his growth, his development, his entire being in this book doesn't seem unique from many other historical fiction heroes.  I will give him that he's humorous and NOT an alpha broody type... though his neanderthal DOES start to show every so often when it comes to Minerva.

Anyway, I just absolutely loved, loved, LOVED this book.  There are certainly many things about it that I probably shouldn't like.  But what does it matter?  I enjoyed myself.  I loved Minerva.  I loved Minerva and Colin as a couple.  I even loved the side excursions back to Spindle Cove to show us what's going on while our couple are off creating their adventures.

If there's one thing I DO want to complain about though, it's that I would have preferred for Minerva to not have started the story off already infatuated with Colin.  Colin is the typical rich, suave, playboy rake that all women fall for already.  One of the things that Minerva disliked about him in the first book was that he's loved by everyone just for being who he is, even if he acted the despicable womanizer.  But then we enter A Week to be Wicked and Minerva admits that she finds him attractive, and that her hostile behavior towards him was wrought from the fact that she's envious that he pays sweet attentions on all the girls but her.

I would have rather had both sides of the coupling NOT be smitten with each other at the outset.  Then we could very well watch as they developed their relationship from bickering enemies, to friends, to lovers.

Otherwise, that's it.  I loved this book.  I loved this couple.  I loved this adventure.  I loved this relationship.

And I definitely look forward to the next book in this series with Kate Taylor and Corporal Thorne--this couple looks like it will be lots of fun.  Kate is already a nice spunky female character who's just waiting to give the world a piece of her mind.

***

I am reading this book for Romance Bingo 2017 for the Rogue square.

Other possible squares:

• New Adult -- Both Colin and Minerva are in their mid- to late twenties.  Minerva is mentioned as 'four and twenty' years, I think, while Colin is said to be only a couple years older than her, still waiting to become old enough to inherit his estates.
• Regency Romance
• Virgin & Best First Time
• Historical Romance
• Secret Billionaire -- This one might be a stretch.  Colin is mentioned as being a lord of his own estates, but we never really get to see how much land he owns until the end of the book, and it seems like quite a bit.
• Key to My Heart -- It seems that both Minerva and Colin are the 'meant for each other' type, and even Minerva helps Colin get over the repercussions from his dark, tragic past.
• Love (Free Space)