“She would always lead him back from the dark”

Confession: the first two Tessa Dare books I read didn’t excite me all that much, but I absolutely adored A Week to Be Wicked. The way it’s built — a journey where everything goes wrong, from robberies and kidnappings to chases and carriages stuck in the mud — turns out to be the path toward self-discovery for our pair of protagonists, in a way that’s engaging, funny, romantic and deeply sensual. I don’t consider myself someone who believes a good book needs a thousand and one plot twists (I’ll even confess to enjoying romances where almost nothing seems to happen on the outside, but a whole storm is brewing inside each character, fed by tiny events) — but this road trip isn’t just a way to fill chapters before the final happy ending. It’s the very path through which, by the end, all the puzzle pieces click into place, making complete sense of why these two wonderful characters end up together.

Because Colin and Minerva are two gems, without whom no journey would have made sense. On the surface, both fit the standard historical romance archetypes to the letter.

She’s a bespectacled wallflower who prefers sturdy boots to delicate shoes, passionate about geology, always looking down at the ground in search of rocks. He’s an inveterate rake, attractive to the point of nearly making women faint, who literally cannot spend a single night alone. She’s insecure about a beauty that doesn’t fit the fair, ethereal mould — unlike her older sister, Diana. He’s a natural-born seducer who lives by just two rules: never form attachments to any of these women, and never seduce virgins. Nothing we haven’t come across in dozens of other romances of this kind, right? Except appearances are deceiving…

Over the course of the journey to Scotland the two undertake for entirely different reasons, we start to see another Minerva. When circumstances force her to react, out she comes: brave, sharp, perceptive, and… wicked. As for Colin, he emerges from the rake persona and gains real depth as he shares his story, and we learn of an accident that marked his childhood and shaped the fears and insecurities he hides from the world behind rakish behaviour — always surrounded by people, because being alone means, for him, returning to the moment he watched his world collapse around him, trapped in the darkness of a night that still visits him in his dreams.

Colin sees the hidden Minerva — the woman she is and conceals, full of power, sensuality and courage, capable of facing the strangest challenges head-on, in ways that are original and unexpected. Minerva sees the man Colin truly is, beneath the fears and the mask: brave, good-hearted, with a gentleman’s honour. Across an adventure that begins in Spindle Cove — the town that gives the series its name — on a rainy night when Min knocks on Colin’s door and challenges him to accompany her to a geologists’ gathering in Edinburgh, which he reluctantly agrees to, they peel away layer after layer, through a dig in search of fossils and rare stones, until nothing is left but the realisation that they cannot live without each other.

There are truly memorable moments: when he kisses her in the cave, it’s one of the best episodes of discovery and exploration in the book — that instant when their mouths touch and she manages to let go of her self-consciousness and surrender to the moment. Another of my favourite scenes takes place in the Duke of Hastings’s den of debauchery, where Minerva plays the part of a mistress in a way that’s both playful and sexy.

One delightful detail is how he seems to constantly get her name wrong. Melissa, Miranda, Mariana. A quiet sweetness in the way he insists on mixing up her name, as if he’s only doing it to tease her.

Then there are the sex scenes, building in intensity through a slow discovery of sensuality that culminates in total surrender — one from which there’s no escape, because their bodies demand it and their hearts require it. When they reach climax separated by a sheet… it’s one of the best sex scenes in the genre. Their need for each other in that carriage stuck in the mud in the middle of a downpour (a callback to the wonderful earlier comparison Colin makes between Min’s beauty and the thousand ways to describe rain) is perfect in its intensity, surrender, and desperation — who hasn’t felt that particular desperation upon discovering they’ve fallen in love?

Everything in this book connects into a harmonious whole.

In the end, she gives up the proof of her discovery that would have made her shine in Edinburgh’s geological society, because she realises it’s the only way to save him. Minerva, with her wisdom, understands the other’s insecurities and fragilities, and knows that to overcome them, he needs only what we all need: the safety that unconditional love provides. But if her sacrifice seems like the greater gift, the way he pushes her — without ever forcing her — to reveal every nuance of herself and step out of her shell is just as unshakeable proof of love, as is his iron determination to overcome every obstacle standing between her and her dream.

Without a doubt, one of the best historical romances I’ve ever read, and one that left me genuinely sad to finish. I wanted to stay with those characters a little longer, but at least I know they lived happily ever after.

A Week To Be Wicked – Score

Category: Chemistry between the protagonists
Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
Built slowly across an entire journey — through a cave kiss, a mistress role-play at Hastings’s den, and a carriage stuck in the mud — the attraction between Colin and Minerva earns every step. The climax scene “separated by a sheet” is one of the best sex scenes in the genre.

Category: Characters
Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
Both protagonists subvert their own archetypes — the wallflower geologist who turns out to be brave and “wicked” under pressure, the inveterate rake whose compulsive need for company hides childhood trauma and a fear of the dark. Deeply layered and completely believable.

Category: Dialogue
Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
Wonderful, original, funny dialogue with real rhythm throughout. The recurring detail of Colin “getting her name wrong” (Melissa, Miranda, Mariana) is a lovely touch of teasing intimacy that captures the playful chemistry between them.

Category: Intimate scenes
Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
A slow-burning crescendo of sensuality, from the cave kiss to the mistress scene to the carriage in the storm. The climax “separated by a sheet” is called out explicitly as one of the best sex scenes in the historical romance genre.

Category: Prose/style
Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
The road trip structure itself becomes a narrative device rather than filler — every plot beat (robbery, kidnapping, mud, rain) interlocks meaningfully with the characters’ inner journeys. The rain/beauty comparison and the “second skin” imagery show real craft.

Category: Originality
Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4/5)
Starts from familiar tropes — the bespectacled wallflower, the incorrigible rake — but the reveal of what lies beneath each mask (Minerva’s hidden fire, Colin’s fear of solitude rooted in trauma) elevates it well past the standard formula.

Category: Overall score
Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
One of the best historical romances I’ve ever read — a book that left me with genuine sadness upon finishing, wanting more time with these characters. The road trip as a vehicle for mutual self-discovery, rather than mere plot padding, is what sets it apart.