A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare | Audio Review

Series: Spindle Cove, #1
Traits & Tropes: enemies to lovers; grumpy/sunshine; soldier; sick comfort
Publication Date: 08.30.11
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; Sussex, England, Summer 1813
Heat Level: 4
Rating: 5 stars
Narration Rating: 5/5

Spindle Cove has become known as a haven for young ladies from well-to-do families who happen to be too shy to take on the marriage mart, wives who have found marriage wasn’t what they were expecting, ladies who found themselves pining after the wrong men, basically any misfit young lady.

Victor Bramwell, newly named Earl of Rycliff, can tell he’s not wanted in Spindle Cove, but he must. He has orders to recruit and train a militia though all he seems to see in the area are spinsters and sheep. This should be an easy assignment for such a decorated soldier as he, but Susanna Finch complicates everything with her determination to preserve the cove from Bram’s men.

Susanna has no need of a man and Bram has always seen himself as not the marrying kind. It’s an epic battle of wills between these two, but there may be more to the tension brewing between them than simply animosity.

I cannot believe it took so long for me to get around to reading this book, but I loved it. Susanna and Bram were so fun to read with all their tension-fused banter. They really wanted to be enemies but the chemistry between them made that all but impossible. Bram readily admitted it when he couldn’t stop thinking about Susanna and I loved that. These two wound up being exactly what the other needed but didn’t want to admit to wanting. Susanna was so used to doing things for herself that it was very difficult for her to admit that she really would love to marry someone she loved. Bram had spent his life trying to live up to his father’s legacy and prove himself, but really, he was starved for affection and a place to truly call home. It was so endearing to see these two find that together. For how straitlaced and proper he was, Bram whipped out the dirty talk with shocking frequency. He was far from the stuffy, proper man he presented to the world, and I was here for it. I adored the blunt, open communication between Bram and Susanna and how they each provided the other with a safe space to express the feelings they’d been suppressing. This was such a cute book and it had everything I really love in a romance. I’ll definitely be continuing the series and hunting for a physical copy of this one for my shelves.

https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/1110545477

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2648076015