After innumerable suggestions, I read my first Tessa Dare book in March. Immediately after the first one I binged on her Spindle Cove series.
I loved the premise of this series. Spindle Cove is a small community that has become known as a place to send unusual women to get them out of society. As the series starts, an injured soldier has been given the title to the area. He is expected to set up a militia to defend this part of the coast. The last thing the women of Spindle Cove want is a bunch of soldiers messing up their happy settlement.
In the first book, A Night to Surrender, Susanna is the woman who has nurtured Spindle Cove to the haven it is now. She is the daughter of an eccentric inventor of firearms. She is furious that her father has handed over a ruined castle above the village and the earldom to this soldier who needs to retire due to his injuries. The male lead character in this book was just on the brink of being too alpha-male bossy for my tastes. Dare does a good job of having Susanna stand up for herself and her ladies. That’s not an easy job because it can be seen as falling back into the patriarchal society that they are trying to avoid or being forced against their will into relationships with these men. That could easily have been very off putting. 
The second book, A Week to Be Wicked, is probably my favorite. It is the first to feature one of the Highwood family. Mrs. Highwood and her three daughters came to Spindle Cove in book one. Mrs. Highwood plans for her daughters to marry very well, especially her oldest, Diana. The pressure was getting to her and they came to Spindle Cove to rest. The second daughter, Minerva, is a scientist. She’s been submitting papers under her initials and now has been invited to speak in Scotland. She needs to find a way to get there. She decides to fake an elopement with one of the less scrupulous friends of the Earl as a way to travel to Scotland.
Kate Taylor is the music teacher in Spindle Cove. She has no plans to marry because she was raised in an orphanage with no idea where she came from and she has a large port wine birthmark on her face. In book three, A Lady by Midnight, an eccentric noble family shows up in Spindle Cove looking for her. They claim to have found out that she is related to them. At the same time the very grumpy Corporal Thorne of the local militia starts to pay attention to her. He seems suspicious of her new family. Is it possible that he knows something about her past that he isn’t sharing?
Any Dutchess Will Do is book four. A duke’s mother tricks him into accompanying her to Spindle Cove. She tells him to pick a woman, any woman sitting in the tea room, and marry her. To spite her he chooses the serving girl. Pauline has no time for this nonsense. She is trying to save up money to get herself and her developmentally disabled sister out of their abusive father’s house. Her goal is to open a small store and lending library. The duke’s mother says she can pass her off as a lady in one week. The duke promises to pay her enough money to start her store if she goes along with his mother’s plan and fails miserably.
One of the things that annoys me most about historical romances is the concept of women being ruined by being alone with a man. I know the books didn’t invent that but I hate the idea. People were so worried about what other people thought about a woman’s sexual experience that if there was even the possibility that she had had time and opportunity to have a sexual experience then she was “ruined”. It also presumes that no one has any self control at all and will fall all over a person of the opposite sex if given a chance. It makes me mad on behalf all humankind every time it is brought up. Do You Want to Start a Scandal‘s story is all about this. The youngest Highwood daughter, Charlotte, explains to the latest noble dude to show up in Spindle Cove that her mother will be trying to marry her off to him. She wants him to know that it isn’t coming from her and she is just as embarrassed about it as he will be. They are found alone in a room as a result of this discussion. To make it worse, they had been hiding from an unknown amorous couple whose sounds where overheard and commented upon loudly by a child. Now it is “known” that they had sex and have to get married. Now Charlotte is determined to get the real couple to confess and save her from this marriage.
I did enjoy all four novels. There was enough humor and sweetness for me to be able to not be totally annoyed by the sex. Â
There are three novellas that go along with this series.
I didn’t really care for these as much. I didn’t think the shorter format gave her enough time to develop the characters and their relationships before the story was over and they were married. The events of the novellas are referred to in the novels but you can get an idea what happened without reading them all in order.
I’m actually someone that had someone take on a savior/protector role when interacting with me growing up. She was another autistic little girl. I just had a lot more going on than her. I was frequently bullied really badly by her. Even the way she ‘helped’ out was most likely her needing power back after being infantilized. So that’s the way it plays out in real life.
I generally stay away from anyone who wants to ‘take over’ for me in any facet of my life, socially, for example… I actually run into people who want to ‘help out’ with my finances. I’m a little too open and trusting about my struggles and I’m frequently misunderstood.
The relationship just doesn’t sit right with me.
Still not over it. I’m sorry I’m being like this but the disabled character is actually autistic:
“But her sister wouldn’t want to hear more talk of change. She needed routine, comfort. Familiar tasks to see her through the week.”
Why? Why take such a sensitive subject and just toss it in? It’s a really complicated issue. It’s a syndrome that’s widely misunderstood. There’s a lot of debate over every single aspect of it. You aren’t where you should be if you’re take it for granted you’re a ‘good person’ and there’s nothing more needed from you than to follow along with the script you’ve known since childhood. A lot of the attitudes that surround you relating to disability are really, really toxic. They really do a lot of harm to autistic people and people with other disabilities. And it’s going to affect autistic people’s education, their chances for employment, their suicide rates, the quality of medical care they’re provided.
You need to understand. It’s not enough to be nice. The way that the protagonist interacts with the disabled character sets a really bad example. It sets you up to have no expectations regarding autistic people’s ability to connect, to express their thoughts and needs, to show you that they’re capable.
I found this book googling something like ‘poor heroine’. It might seem immature but I was feeling badly about my financial situation and wanted to see it play out in a fairy tale setting. Instead I found that every good ‘poor girl’ trait I just wanted to see romanticized is set up to be a contrast to another part of myself.
It could have been a child. There could have been an age difference. Instead they used a disabled adult and gave her the status of a child. I can’t ignore it, it’s an integral part of the story. It’s the protagonist’s heart. It’s her motivation.
In real life this would be such a toxic, unhealthy relationship. Imagine being a grown adult and having someone lift themselves up through taking away your dignity.
I kept reading, it looks like the protagonist is written as the disabled character’s savior. They use the disabled character to show what a hero the protagonist is (Pauline):
“Next time, keep the fool thing at home.â€
Her hands balled into tight fists at her side. Of course she wouldn’t lash out at an old woman the way she’d once fought
the teasing boys at school, but the motion was instinctive. “Daniela is not a thing. She is a person.—
Say she deserves to be out and about like anyone else! Or that what she’s saying reads like a slur.
They write her to give the poor, low status protagonist power.
I couldn’t get through Any Duchess Will Do. This is where I stopped reading:
“Pauline’s heart broke for her sister. They were only a year apart in age, but so many more in understanding. Of all the things that came a bit more difficult for Daniela than other people—pronouncing words that ended in consonants, subtracting from numbers greater than ten—cruelty seemed the hardest concept for her to grasp.”
I’m developmentally disabled. I’m autistic. I feel like I have a certain ‘sunniness’ I share with people with many other types of disabilities that in reality, is hard won and comes and goes depending on how I’m faring. If you see this trait on anyone, consider it a sign of wisdom, please, of resilience and emotional intelligence.
This book unwittingly showcases a disabled person showing strength in the face of ableist abuse. The part I quoted above comes after the main character’s disabled sister is berated after making a mistake in a task she’s working on.
I understand that the ‘nice’ protagonist is expected to be loving, compassionate and patient toward the disabled character. Although I will not finish the book, I bet this attitude can be found. It’s not enough and it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t display really toxic attitudes that harm disabled people.
Any disabled person can understand the concept ‘cruelty’. They’re far more likely to be on the receiving end of it than the average person. The book itself opens with a chapter with the quote above where the disabled person is subjected to mistreatment. If they then develop resilience, don’t subtract it from who they are as a person, don’t see a blessing.
The intellectually disabled character is written to be a contrast to the intelligent, capable main character. It’s also is written to give her a child, a responsibility. Classic. As a plot device, the character actually erases disabled people. Even if she gets buckets of love in subsequent chapters, as a plot device, she’s a child. No one, not women, not people of color, not any group of people save actual children deserve to be given the status of a child. Disabled people need understanding, focused attention on their actual difficulties, not pity, not patience, not sacrifices.
[…] kick out of the book The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage. Heater reviewed a series of historical romance novels by Tessa Dare. Tina reviewed Waiting for Wednesday, third in a mystery series by Nicci French. […]
The discussion about scandal and unmarried women reminds me of a current story line in the radio drama Homefront set during WWI.
Women who find themselves pregnant before marriage have one sort of trouble, but they can’t accept living with a pregnant prostitute who is a whole other level of trouble. They need to retain whatever respectability they have, even if it’s that their soldier lover died before they could marry. Another character, who was pregnant before marriage but married before the birth, can’t associate with any of these other characters, in order to hold her respectability.
It’s all an infuriating way to keep women apart from each other when they are clearly in positions where they would benefit from greater interaction and shared resources.
Everybody needs to have someone to look down on it seems.
I love finding a series that I can binge on. I haven’t read Tessa Dare — looks like I should check her out!