1st read: September 2021
2nd read: July 2023

I loved this just as much the second time around.

********************
Original review:
This is so good. Minerva and Colin are great together. ( )

*3.5 ( )

I really really really can't stand the trope of brilliant girl who can't figure out basic social cues. Just because a woman likes to read doesn't mean she also can't dance or make small talk. In an attempt to be feminist, this trope just comes off as even more sexist than if the heroine was a ditzy airhead falling in love every time she blinked. This trope makes it seem like women can't be both intelligent and socially adept. The exception to this is the Mary Sue character who can not only read and talk like a normal human but can usually play an instrument, doctor a wound, throw a punch, is a great athlete, and whatever else she puts her mind to. It's a frustrating and a tired, old trope that needs to die.

In this book Minerva Highwood is modeled after Mary Anning, a female palentologist, but she is far less interesting to read about. Minerva can't tell the difference between a consensual make-out session and rape. She is denser than the rocks she studies, and also has the stupidest plans. She runs out in the middle of the night to tell Colin not to marry her sister... could this not have waited till morning? When it would be more socially acceptable? She can't lie to save her life. Literally. If she had just lied once or twice in the novel, their journey to Scotland would've been a lot smoother.

But if you liked this character, then you would be so disappointed to know that she is completly different about halfway through. After her first orgasm, Minerva is suddenly capable of play-acting as a French mistress, giving blowjobs like she was born to do it, and her desire to be known as the person who discovered dinosaurs evaporates when Colin wins her wrinkled fruit at a country fair.

While I understood that Minerva needed to learn that knowledge wasn't everything and that a plaster footprint wasn't more important than a human life and lifelong love, the fact that she literally walks away from her dreams made it very disappointing. This book proved definitively that women cannot have it all, and while that can be true, it's not fun to read about in a romance novel.

There's some good dialogue and layering of the characters' personalities and trauma, but they are only just enough to save this book from being a total waste of time. ( )

Really funny. Engaging characters. Pacing of the book was nice. Thoroughly enjoyed.

always good. adding to favorites ( )

Minerva Highwood, una de las solteras de Cala Espinada, necesita ir a Escocia. Colin Sandhurst, lord Payne, necesita… salir de Cala Espinada. Tienen solo siete días para planear una fuga, convencer a sus familiares y amigos de que, a pesar de sus conocidas diferencias, se han enamorado locamente. Una semana que será su ruina.
En estos siete días de locura deberán recorrer con éxito 650 kilómetros, esquivando a los salteadores de caminos. Un viaje en el que se verán obligados a superar sus miedos más profundos sin cometer un asesinato. Pero tal proeza les parecerá imposible pues no les quedará más remedio que compartir un pequeño carruaje por el día y una cama, aún más pequeña, por las noches.
¿Será la atracción que de forma inesperada empieza a surgir entre ellos, una salvaje pasión que late en sus corazones, la encargada de conseguirlo? ¿Lograrán recorrer la distancia y cumplir todas las promesas que se han hecho? O por el contrario, ¿recorrerán únicamente el camino hacia lo más profundo de sus almas? Aunque quizá…, solo quizá…, este sea su viaje hacia el amor.