A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare

When Colin Sandhurst, Lord Payne, is forced to answer his door one rainy night he does not expect the proper Minerva Highwood to be there.  When the decidedly quiet, bookish Minerva then asks for his assistance to travel to Scotland...to attend a gathering about rocks no less...he is a bit stunned.  After all, Minerva and himself do not exactly see eye to eye on any matters.  So he decides to thrown in a few conditions that will be sure to scare her off but when they don't, Colin finds himself helping Minerva achieve her lifelong dream.  He just can't understand how she is ok with being ruined, because nothing but that will come from their unchaperoned, fake elopement even if nothing were to happen and she has no desire to marry him.  But when the nights force them to be together and Minerva's inquisitive scientific mind full of curious questions, passion quickly arises and true feelings are discovered.

Minerva is determined to attend the Royal Geological Society of Scotland to show her discovery of a unique footprint set in stone.  Obviously her flightly mother is not going to take her so she decides to go to a man she dislikes, a man supposedly set to propose to her sister.  Her sister is much to good for Colin so she must convince him to go with her and the prize winning money should be enough to hook the broke lord.  However, she does not expect to encounter his morals (who knew he had any?) or in the process, discover a caring, gentle, sexy as all get out man underneath a rakish persona.

Oh, sigh.  This book.  I sighed, laughed, cheered, and wanted to hug my Kindle.  Such a wonderful, lovely romance!  I adored Colin.  He is always calling Minerva by some other name starting with 'M' making her believe that he can not remember her true name and there is a scene later in the book that is just going to make you sigh with happiness!  The banter between these two is just delicious and hilarious at the same time!  Minerva takes Colin to show him why it is so important for her to attend the geology gathering and her way of doing it takes Colin quite unawares and it literally had me dying of laughter at his reaction!  But then it also showed a much deeper side to Colin that he has tried to keep hidden from the world and as time passes, he learns that Minerva is the one person who can finally complete him.  And we can not forget the sizzle factor between these two!  Being forced to share a bed--naturally--leads to some smoking hot 'exploration' lessons that will leave little doubt as to these two compatibility together.  Overall, I adored this book.  It is a wonderful blend of romance, heat, laughter and proof that opposites can be absolutely perfect for each other.   I just skimmed the preview chapter for the next book and I can not wait for it!  Tessa Dare is a new auto-buy author for me following this book!  A delicious 5 stars

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via edelweiss.com

Spindle Cove series
(This one can be read as a standalone)

A Lady by Midnight August 28, 2012