A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare

source: purchased
title: A Week to Be Wicked Book 2 of 5 in the Spindle Cove Series
author: Tessa Dare
genre: regency romance
pages: 322
published: March 27, 2012
rated: 4 out of 5 stars

first line: When a girl trudged through the rain at midnight to knock at the Devil’s door, the Devil should at least have the depravity-if not the decency-to answer.

Blurb:
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… anywhere but Spindle Cove.

These unlikely partners have one week
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 while sharing a very small carriage by day and an 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…love.

My thoughts:
A Week to Be Wicked is book two in Tessa Dare’s Spindle Cove series. Having read and enjoyed book three, A Lady by Midnight a few years ago, I happily dove into this one when I was in the mood for a nice regency romance. I know I’ve been reading this series backwards but they are standalone reads so it hasn’t made much difference.

In this installment we have Minerva Highwood from Spindle Cove who wants to stop  Colin Sandhurst aka Lord Payne from marrying her sister. Minerva thinks the notorious ladies man Payne is not the right match for her sister. She thinks that Payne is looking to marry so that he can get his inheritance so Minerva makes him an offer he cannot refuse.

Isabella’s Heiress by N.P. Griffiths

source: free review copy courtesy of the publicist
title: Isabella’s Heiress
author: N.P. Griffiths
published: Clink Street Publishing (February 25, 2015)
pages: 354
first line: The sun rose early that morning in Dresden.
rated: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

blurb:
Newly dead and struggling to cope with her new reality, Emma Elliott is thrust into a dark and desperate vision of London. In her fight to survive she meets friends, both old and new, and uncovers a world inhabited by two warring clans of angels, one bent on the ultimate destruction of mankind, the other committed to our salvation. A way out presents itself but with the forces arrayed against her Emma starts to wonder why, of all the people who have found themselves in this position; she is being singled out for such special attention. As time passes more questions arise for Emma. Who is Isabella, the woman she is constantly mistaken for? Who are the mysterious Cado Angelus who cast a shadow over Emma’s every move? And what part does Emma have to play in the events that will soon unfold in her world and ours.

my thoughts:
Isabella’s Heiress opens on a battlefield in 1648 in Dresden. Isabella Calabria is leading the ranks and fighting when she disappears.
Fast forward to modern-day London, and to Emma Elliott who finds herself in a strange situation.

She is near London Bridge where she works, yet something is off. The priest father Eamon is with Emma and he explains to her that she has been in an accident has passed away and is now in purgatory. She has to stay here until it is decided where her soul will go next because she has unfinished business and because she also died too soon.