Swing by tomorrow for a fun guest post from the lady of the hour, er week, I guess it is 😉 Ms. Tessa Dare has a few words to say about Spindle Cove, and there’s a teeny tiny little giveaway of, oh nothing much, just ALL THREE SPINDLE COVE BOOKS!!! signed by none other than, yep, you guessed it, Tess Dare!
A Lady by Midnight by Tessa Dare
My rating: 5 of 5 flames
This is Kate and Thorne’s story, and I was so excited after reading A Week to Be Wicked, that I had to find a way to read this one. I was lucky enough to be approved for a review copy and can I just say I devoured this book.
Kate was orphaned at a young age, but she has a port wine birthmark on her temple. Some have told her (to her face!) that it’s the mark of the devil. With the outside world acting as if she’s somehow less of a person because of a birthmark, Spindle Cove has been a haven to Kate. There, she can teach music and live in peace with her few friends.
But something shakes up her peace.
When the regiment was stationed in Spindle Cove (back inA Night to Surrender) one man stood out to Kate, but he seems to hate her so much. He’s actually left the room when she’s walked in. What did she ever do to this man to make him dislike her so intensely?
This book opens with Kate having a horrible day. She’s looking for information on her parents, anything will help, and she’s meeting dead ends and being stonewalled. She’s nearly run over by a carriage, she hasn’t enough money to spend the night in an inn, and it’s growing late. And then Thorne appears. He is put in the awkward position of taking her home. And you know what? He doesn’t hate her.
Unfortunately for Thorne’s tight control, he slips up and kisses Kate. From that point on, it’s a daily struggle not to seek her out. His iron-clad will is nothing but mush and no matter how hard he clings to its remnants, Kate pushes and pushes until he lets her in.
But in the meantime, she has a batch of visitors waiting for her, ready to give her a fortune, a family, and most importantly, acceptance. This wild and slightly eccentric family claims Kate is one of theirs and they want her. Thorne steps up as a pretend fiance to protect Kate from the newcomers. He knows much more than he has ever let on, and he wants to know what these too-friendly strangers “really” want from Kate.
But what does he know about her past? With a new family descending en masse, will she want someone as base and coarse as Thorne? Or will she take her future into her own hands?
***ARC courtesy of Avon and Edelweiss
great review, I’m curious about Thorne attitude toward Kate and why he acted like that.