Waiting on Wednesday (302) The Bride Bet (Girl Meets Duke #4) by Tessa Dare

 

 

 

 

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, created by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week I'm waiting on:

The Bride Bet (Girl Meets Duke #4) by Tessa Dare

How to lose a duke in ten years…without losing your heart.

Once upon a time, two sworn enemies—the bookish daughter of a scholar and the devilish heir to a duke—made a pact: If they were both still single in ten years, they would marry each other.

It was a joke, Nicola thought. A duchess? Her?

But when the Duke of Westleigh returns a decade later, he’s serious. He needs an heir, so he’s holding her to their marriage bargain—diamond ring, lavish gown, engagement ball, and more. Nothing Nicola says can dissuade him. When she calls him arrogant, he praises her honesty. When she makes social stumbles, he catches her fall. And when she gets exasperated, the duke can’t seem to get enough. For reasons she can’t fathom, he claims that no other woman will do.

He’s betting he can change her mind, with logic and passion.

She’s betting she can change his mind, just by being herself.

And as the clock ticks down to a wedding day, neither is counting on losing their heart. (Blurb via Goodreads)

Release Date: February 9, 2021

What are you waiting on?

Teaser Tuesday (266) Surrender of a Siren by Tessa Dare

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read(s)
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) -- or less or more -- “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

“You are mine,” he whispered into her. “And the world is ours. There is nowhere beneath this sky that we do not belong together.”

Surrender of a Siren by Tessa Dare

Teaser Tuesday (263) Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read(s)
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) -- or less or more -- “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

“I hadn’t simply taken a fancy to you.” “No?” He shook his head slowly. His thumb traced the shape of her lips. “Fancy doesn’t begin to describe it. This is closer to . . . an obsession. An enchantment, or perhaps a curse. You’re like a little fair-haired witch who cast a spell on me, and I can’t concentrate. I can’t sleep. I can’t think of anything but hearing you laugh and holding you close and imagining what you’ll look like naked in my bed.”

Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare

Waiting on Wednesday (265) The Wallflower Wager (Girl Meets Duke #3) by Tessa Dare

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, created by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week I'm waiting on:

The Wallflower Wager (Girl Meets Duke #3) by Tessa Dare

 

They call him the Duke of Ruin.

To an undaunted wallflower, he's just the beast next door.

Wealthy and ruthless, Gabriel Duke clawed his way from the lowliest slums to the pinnacle of high society—and now he wants to get even.

Loyal and passionate, Lady Penelope Campion never met a lost or wounded creature she wouldn’t take into her home and her heart.

When her imposing—and attractive—new neighbor demands she clear out the rescued animals, Penny sets him a challenge. She will part with her precious charges, if he can find them loving homes.

Done, Gabriel says. How hard can it be to find homes for a few kittens?

And a two-legged dog.

And a foul-mouthed parrot.

And a goat, an otter, a hedgehog . . .

Easier said than done, for a cold-blooded bastard who wouldn’t know a loving home from a workhouse. Soon he’s covered in cat hair, knee-deep in adorable, and bewitched by a shyly pretty spinster who defies his every attempt to resist. Now she’s set her mind and heart on saving him.

Not if he ruins her first. (Blurb via Goodreads)

Expected publication: August 27, 2019

What are you waiting on?

Teaser Tuesday (173) The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read(s)
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) -- or less or more -- “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

“Yes, I am certain it’s infatuation. I’ve felt it before.”
Now Ash was the one who became a maelstrom of irrational emotion. That emotion being jealous anger. “Toward whom?”
“Why should it matter?”
“Because,” he said, “I like to know the names of the people I despise. I keep them in a little book and pore over it from time to time, whilst sipping brandy and indulging in throaty, ominous laughter.”

The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare

Teaser Tuesday (110) When A Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare + Unless You Can Be A Unicorn by Delphina Henley + Fifth Grave Past the Light by Darynda Jones

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read(s)
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) -- or less or more -- “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

“I think you underestimate my capacity for taking normal human interaction and making it awkward.”

When A Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare

“It was almost surreal. Who has rational conversation, with graphs, on if and how to kill people? Unicorns, apparently.”

location 3586, Unless You Can Be A Unicorn by Delphina Henley

““A guy in an SUV tried to kill me.”
“That’s strange.”
“Why?”
“Because the guy I hired doesn’t drive an SUV.”
“That is strange.”

Fifth Grave Past the Light by Darynda Jones

Waiting on Wednesday (77) Say Yes to the Marquess (Castles Ever After #2) by Tessa Dare

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, created by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week I'm waiting on: 

Say Yes to the Marquess (Castles Ever After #2) by Tessa Dare

Your presence is requested at romantic Twill Castle for the wedding of Miss Clio Whitmore and . . . and . . . ?

After eight years of waiting for Piers Brandon, the wandering Marquess of Granville, to set a wedding date, Clio Whitmore has had enough. She's inherited a castle, scraped together some pride, and made plans to break her engagement.

Not if Rafe Brandon can help it. A ruthless prizefighter and notorious rake, Rafe is determined that Clio will marry his brother—even if he has to plan the dratted wedding himself.

So how does a hardened fighter cure a reluctant bride's cold feet?

● He starts with flowers. A wedding can't have too many flowers. Or harps. Or cakes.

● He lets her know she'll make a beautiful, desirable bride—and tries not to picture her as his.

● He doesn't kiss her.

● If he kisses her, he definitely doesn't kiss her again.

● When all else fails, he puts her in a stunning gown. And vows not to be nearby when the gown comes off.

● And no matter what—he doesn't fall in disastrous, hopeless love with the one woman he can never call his own. (Blurb via Goodreads)

Expected publication: December 30, 2014

What are you waiting on?

Teaser Tuesday (47) Romancing the Duke + The Hunt

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read(s)
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) -- or less or more -- “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

"He wanted her. He wanted her.
And she wanted to do a little dance."

page 100, Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare

"Tears welled hot and fast, pouring down my cheeks and dripping off my chin. I wanted to crawl in behind him and curl up as tightly as possible, like maybe if I could get close enough we'd disappear into each other and the rest of the world would just fall away."

Location 474, The Hunt (Paper Doll Project #2) by Stacey Kade

Teaser Tuesday (45) Goddess of the Hunt + Running Back

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read(s)
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) -- or less or more -- “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

"And words tumbled through his mind, so many words he longed to say. Beautiful and lovely and dear and heart and please. And we and us and ours. And help me and hold me and take me in. And don't let me go and never and never and never ever leave."

page 248, Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare

"You are not broken. You are not too much work. And I believe that we will be together until I die. I believe it enough for both of us."

location 4155, Running Back by Allison Parr

{Historical Romance Review} Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare

What’s a duke to do, when the girl who’s perfectly wrong becomes the woman he can’t live without?

Griffin York, the Duke of Halford, has no desire to wed this season—or any season—but his diabolical mother abducts him to “Spinster Cove” and insists he select a bride from the ladies in residence. Griff decides to teach her a lesson that will end the marriage debate forever. He chooses the serving girl.

Overworked and struggling, Pauline Simms doesn’t dream about dukes. All she wants is to hang up her barmaid apron and open a bookshop. That dream becomes a possibility when an arrogant, sinfully attractive duke offers her a small fortune for a week’s employment. Her duties are simple: submit to his mother’s “duchess training”… and fail miserably.

But in London, Pauline isn’t a miserable failure. She’s a brave, quick-witted, beguiling failure—a woman who ignites Griff’s desire and soothes the darkness in his soul. Keeping Pauline by his side won’t be easy. Even if Society could accept a serving girl duchess—can a roguish duke convince a serving girl to trust him with her heart? (Blurb via Goodreads)

{Details} Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages. Published May 28th 2013 by Avon. Source: library

{Rating} 4/5 - I really liked it!

{Review}

"Griff cracked open a single eyelid." (line 1, page 1)

Confession: I love Tessa Dare's books. I love her heroines, her heroes, how she can write both heart touching and heart wrenching scenes. She's a fabulous writer. Any Duchess Will Do is book four in the Spindle Cove series - and we do see glimpses of established characters - but it can definitely stand alone.

Pauline is spunky, determined, obstinate, kind, loyal and caring. She is such a likable character. Beneath his gruff exterior - and there's a reason for it, he's haunted by something that Dare is slow to reveal - Griff is a good guy. He's also a charmer with prejudices and a tendency to speak before he thinks, but he is loving and protective of his family and willing to do what he must to make things right. The chemistry between Pauline and Griff is undeniable from the start but as Pauline points out repeatedly she's the hired help and there are thirty three orders of precedence between them. It seems hopeless but as is true throughout the book, nothing is as it seems.

And there is knitting... deformed, full of love knitting, you've got to read the book to find out about that. Go read all of the other books in the Spindle Cove series and all of Dare's other books. You won't be sorry.

"Waiting On" Wednesday 5/8/13

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, created by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week I'm waiting on:  

Any Duchess Will Do (Spindle Cove) by Tessa Dare

Release date: May 28, 2013

Goodreads &  Amazon

What’s a duke to do, when the girl who’s perfectly wrong becomes the woman he can’t live without?

Griffin York, the Duke of Halford, has no desire to wed this season—or any season—but his diabolical mother abducts him to “Spinster Cove” and insists he select a bride from the ladies in residence. Griff decides to teach her a lesson that will end the marriage debate forever. He chooses the serving girl.

Overworked and struggling, Pauline Simms doesn’t dream about dukes. All she wants is to hang up her barmaid apron and open a bookshop. That dream becomes a possibility when an arrogant, sinfully attractive duke offers her a small fortune for a week’s employment. Her duties are simple: submit to his mother’s “duchess training”… and fail miserably.

But in London, Pauline isn’t a miserable failure. She’s a brave, quick-witted, beguiling failure—a woman who ignites Griff’s desire and soothes the darkness in his soul. Keeping Pauline by his side won’t be easy. Even if Society could accept a serving girl duchess—can a roguish duke convince a serving girl to trust him with her heart?

What are you waiting on?