A couple of weekends ago some friends and I had a girl’s weekend at a hotel and I spent the morning reading at the pool. My friends all made fun of me when I busted this out, but I don’t even care. It was really cute. (None of them read romance novels, so I’m really not sure what they thought when they saw this sucker. Probably lots of things that were mostly wrong.)*
*Oh my God. I just had the weirdest urge to interview all my friends about their preconceptions about romance novels and then write about it. Why does this sound like so much fun.
Also, I followed this up with Bad Feminist, so, you know. I’m awesome.
This is a short and sweet little novella about a young girl named Eliza Cade who has been forced by her parents to delay her coming out due to some indiscretion or another that she had as a young girl. Basically, they don’t want her fucking up her other three sister’s chances of catching good husbands with her out of the box behavior, so she has to wait until they are all married.
Eliza is of course very bothered by this arrangement, particularly because the longer she has to wait, the more it feels like she’s being kept in a cage.
She meets the titular Mr. Wright at eldest sister’s engagement party. They meet-cute with lots of banter. She is annoyed by him immediately, and he is drawn to her lively spirit. The novella follows them over the course of five years, jumping forward in time every thirty pages or so to show us the next evolution of their relationship. It’s pretty much adorable, and there is a pretty great sex scene as well.
It pretty much had everything you could possibly want in a romance: banter, three-dimensional characters, sexiness, fun, humor. It even had historical verisimilitude. I don’t think I’ve ever read a romance novel before where you actually realize all the men folk being soldiers means they’re at war. Those uniforms aren’t just set dressing!
I read a library copy, but I will definitely be downloading my own copy sometime in the future so I have a short little pick-me up handy when I want it.
I really want you to interview your friends and then write about it. Also, I loved this little novella.
I really think I’m going to.
Same. I would totally read that!
This is one of my favourite things Tessa Dare has ever written. I just think it’s so sweet, and it’s pretty much the opposite of insta-lust/love, since the relationship builds slowly over time, getting a bit more secure with each new encounter.
You should TOTALLY interview your friends about their preconceptions about romance. It would be fascinating to read. Do they have good taste? If so, they’d probably all like quite a lot of Tessa Dare’s books. :)
YAY! I love this novella, it’s a perfect little story.
When you interview your friends, let me know if anyone says, “I wouldn’t have thought you were the type”. That was my favourite response as it engendered 234718 questions in me.