Tessa Dare’s 2011 A Night to Surrender won a Romance Writers of America RITA Award in the best regency historical novel category. Spinster protagonist Susanna Finch has dedicated her life to making the rural seaside community of Spindle Cove a utopia for women of Regency-era England who feel like they don’t fit in. But when the Earl of Rycliff, Victor Bramwell, arrives in town with orders to recruit the local men for a militia, Finch finds herself in a turf war with the nobleman as she tries to protect the town’s way of life. Dare, a best-selling historical romance author, relishes in writing about women like Susanna who engage in behavior that would be deemed improper, per the standards of their time period.
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