Review: Devil's Daughter - Vilma Iris | Lifestyle Blogger

Although beautiful young widow Phoebe, Lady Clare, has never met West Ravenel, she knows one thing for certain: he’s a mean, rotten bully. Back in boarding school, he made her late husband’s life a misery, and she’ll never forgive him for it. But when Phoebe attends a family wedding, she encounters a dashing and impossibly charming stranger who sends a fire-and-ice jolt of attraction through her. And then he introduces himself…as none other than West Ravenel.

West is a man with a tarnished past. No apologies, no excuses. However, from the moment he meets Phoebe, West is consumed by irresistible desire…not to mention the bitter awareness that a woman like her is far out of his reach. What West doesn’t bargain on is that Phoebe is no straitlaced aristocratic lady. She’s the daughter of a strong-willed wallflower who long ago eloped with Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent—the most devilishly wicked rake in England.

Before long, Phoebe sets out to seduce the man who has awakened her fiery nature and shown her unimaginable pleasure. Will their overwhelming passion be enough to overcome the obstacles of the past?

Only the devil’s daughter knows…

Series:

The Ravenels

Book 5

Can be read as a standalone

Book Type:

Historical Romance

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Excerpt: Devil's Daughter
By Lisa Kleypas

Review: Devil’s Daughter

“A pleasant outdoors scent clung to him: sun and air, a dusty, sedgelike sweetness and a hint of smoke, as if he’d been standing near a peat fire. His eyes were the darkest blue she’d ever seen, the irises rimmed with black. It had been a long time since a man had looked at Phoebe like this, direct and interested, and the slightest bit flirty. The strangest feeling came over her, something that reminded her a little of the early days of her marriage to Henry… that shaky, embarrassing, inexplicable desire to press her body intimately against someone else’s. Until now, she’d never felt it for anyone but her husband, and never anything like this fire-and-ice jolt of awareness.”

A widow falls for her late husband’s tormentor in this Ravenels-Wallflowers mashup.

Phoebe, Lady Clare, is left to raise her two young sons after losing her husband (Henry) to wasting disease.  Thankfully, she has her late husband’s cousin, Edward Larson, to help manage the Clare estate.

But when Phoebe travels to Eversby Priory for her brother’s wedding, she runs into West Ravenel—the same man who had been a bully to the chronically ill Henry in boarding school.

West (Devon’s brother, COLD HEARTED RAKE) has a reputation that precedes him. He’s known for living a life of excess, a rake without a care in the world. But over the years, he’s turned his life around and has devoted his time to making Eversby Priory a success.

When West and Phoebe converse at the wedding, it’s nothing like Phoebe expected. Despite her best efforts to hate him, West Ravenel is charming, interesting and funny. An unbidden desire sparks between them, but West feels unworthy of someone of her stature, while Phoebe wars with an inner guilt.

Later, however, when Phoebe uncovers problems at her estate, it’s West’s help she seeks. By then, Phoebe knows she’s fallen for West—he’s nothing like the man she expected. And despite West’s profound feelings for Phoebe, his past transgressions make a future between them impossible… or do they?

Phoebe is of course daughter to fan favorite Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent (DEVIL IN WINTER), and the cameos of those we’ve come to love added a wonderful richness to the story. And while I enjoyed the book, it lacked an intangible something. Perhaps deeper, earlier plot complexities or more angst… I’m not sure. As a long-time Lisa Kleypas reader, my expectations were sky high and this one left me wanting more.

Avid fans like me will enjoy the book regardless, especially given the moments with our favorite devil himself (I seriously read through those scenes with the biggest smile on my face).

“Even before West had a good look at the newcomer’s face, he recognized the smooth, dry voice with its cut-crystal tones, so elegantly commanding it could have belonged to the devil himself.

And certainly the chemistry between Phoebe and West is palpable—their clever, witty, rapid-fire banter is a high point of the novel. So despite some hiccups, I remain a devoted fan and look forward to what’s next.

“If you have any misguided thoughts about taking me into your bed, you would find it a vastly mediocre experience. I’d be on you like a crazed rabbit, and half a minute later the whole thing would be over. I used to be a proficient lover, but now I’m a burnt-out libertine whose only remaining pleasure is breakfast food. Speaking of which—”

Phoebe reached for him, brought herself up hard against him, and interrupted him with her mouth. West flinched as if scalded and held very still in the manner of a man trying to withstand torture. Undeterred, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him as passionately as she could, touching her tongue to his stiff lips. The feel and taste of him was exhilarating. Suddenly he responded with a primitive grunt and his mouth clamped on hers, wringing sensation from her with demanding pressure. Forcing her lips apart, he searched her with his tongue the way she remembered, and it felt so good, she thought she might faint. A whimper rose from her throat, and he licked and bit gently at the sound and sealed their mouths together in a deep, insatiable kiss that involved his lips, breath, hands, body, soul.

Whatever it might be like to go to bed with this man . . . it would be anything but mediocre.

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