Bonus: A Week to be Wicked

Avon Books

A Week to be Wicked
Tessa Dare
2012

The Summary
"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...anwhere but Spindle Cove.

"These unlikely partners have:

• to fake an elopement
• to convince family and friends they're "in love"
• to outrun armed robbers
• to survive their worst nightmares
• to travel four hundred miles without killing each other.

"All the while sharing a very small carriage by day and and 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...everlasting love."

The Good
A Week to be Wicked is a guilty pleasure, plain and simple.  It was a fun little novel that I read over a weekend and, honestly, I loved the growing adoration that Colin has for Minerva.  She's a bookish sort of girl who is tired of being overlooked; he is a dissolute rake with a conscience and a heart of gold.  Moreover, she has a goal, reach Edinburg to present for a geology symposium, and she has a plan, ond that involves a crazy adventure with a handsome man and a dinosaur.

Yes, dinosaur.  One named Francine.  (It will all be made clear if you read Dare's novel.)

Honestly, A Week to be Wicked was fun to read.  I enjoyed watching Colin and Minerva's relationship build and progress as they find themselves thrown into one mishap after another.  I laughed at some of the more bizarre moments:  an embarrassing moment with a Puritanical couple who believes they are brother and sister (and then discovers they are not); a terrifying incident with a band of highwaymen; an even more embarrassing moment when Minerva pretended to be a foreign-speaking assassin; and a funny little story involving a shooting competition.

Overall, it's a fine novel.  If you're looking for something fun to read (hinted with steamy moments of passionate romance), A Week to be Wicked isn't a bad way to pass the time.

The Bad
Sometimes, it was just a little too absurd for my taste.

The Ugly
It's explicit.  I guess I should have seen that coming, since the cover sports a half nude couple lying in bed.  I felt a little awkward with certain descriptions of the female anatomy.

I will never look at an apricot the same way again.