His Bride For The Taking
Tessa Dare’s Spindle Cove series opened me up to the world of historical romance. I’ve read two of the novellas in that series and really enjoyed them. Dare told funny, emotional, and touching romances in less than 200 pages. So when I saw Dare had written a novella in this anthology I jumped.
I may have jumped too quickly because this one fell apart for me. I didn’t even think this was the Dare novella in the anthology because of how lukewarm I was on it.
In this novella our titular rushing rogue, Sebastian, promised his dead best friend that he would take care of his sister Mary. When Mary is left at the altar Sebastian (after some convincing) steps in to marry her.
The novella just follows them on their honeymoon at Sebastian’s country estate and it took me a while to realize the book was really just poking fun at modern-day newlyweds. They have a few domestic tiffs and at one point fight over how to put together a Swedish bed which I guess was supposed to be funny and meta but didn’t really work for me. I also didn’t love the way the lower class couple who tended to the estate were treated. They were portrayed as lazy and foppish in a way that felt unnecessary.
Justin Eyre’s narration got the job done but I found the quality on this audiobook was a little lacking.
I think Dare’s (slight spoiler) Lord Dashwood Missed Out novella does the dead best friend’s sister premise so much better. That one actually made me laugh out loud.
The standalone was released with a cartoon cover. I just…I don’t like it. it looks like clipart and the color palette is very 70’s. I’m legitimately curious if this cover sells more.
His Duchess For A Day
I started the second book in the duet, His Duchess For A Day but it seemed like it was going to be about a duke coming to claim his runaway wife. He literally carries her out while she’s in the middle of her job. That just wasn’t my jam so I DNF’d it.
