NOTHING IS MORE INTOXICATING—

Reynaud St. Aubyn has spent the last seven years in hellish captivity. Now half mad with fever he bursts into his ancestral home and demands his due. Can this wild-looking man truly be the last earl’s heir, thought murdered by Indians years ago?

OR DANGEROUS—

Beatrice Corning, the niece of the present earl, is a proper English miss. But she has a secret: No real man has ever excited her more than the handsome youth in the portrait in her uncle’s home. Suddenly, that very man is here, in the flesh—and luring her into his bed.

THAN SURRENDERING TO A DEVIL.

Only Beatrice can see past Reynaud’s savagery to the noble man inside. For his part, Reynaud is drawn to this lovely lady, even as he is suspicious of her loyalty to her uncle. But can Beatrice’s love tame a man who will stop at nothing to regain his title—even if it means sacrificing her innocence?

To Desire a Devil by Elizabeth Hoyt (Legend of Four Solider #4)
Historical Romance
November 1, 2009
Paperpack, 384 pages
Vision

Today, Lou from the wonderful Book Pusher’s Blog is reviewing!

Thank you to Mandi for having me here at Smexy Books as a guest reviewer today. :D

To Desire a Devil is the fourth and final book in the Legend of The Four Solider series, and I was originally planning on reading the previous books, but I decided not to. After reading To Desire a Devil, I don’t think reading the previous books was needed as the story itself centered largely on the relationship of the hero and heroine.

To Desire a Devil starts off with a clatter, literally, when a demented looking man — with a long scraggly beard, and vivid savage eyes — barges into the room and falls into a table and brings an all mighty clash down with him. All in front of the heroine, Beatrice Corning.  The scraggly beard man is the hero, Reynaud St. Aubyn, who was presumed dead. Not anymore!

I’m sorry to say it took me a while to get into the book. The characters themselves didn’t grab my attention, and the accompanying side characters I thought were weak.

In my opinion, there was no real characteristics that made the hero and heroine stand out. And for a while, I found Beatrice to be a little bit annoying. Reynaud was taken prisoner by Indians for seven years, where he was subjected to brutal treatment and torture. He arrives back in England to find out his father is dead, to find his home and title being used by strangers, and all the heroine does at first is nag him about what happened to him while he was in captivity. For real?! I felt like poking her in the eye and saying: Lady! Give the man a bloody break.

For me, there didn’t seem to be a believable connection between Reynaud and Beatrice. I felt that there needed to be an emotional intensity outside of the hero and heroine’s sexual attraction, especially after what the hero endured at the hands of his captives, and finding out his father died. And even then, I didn’t see him grieve, which I thought to be unusual.

I did start to get engaged into the book when it got to the halfway mark, where Beatrice became more fleshed out for me. I started to see an emotional intensity between Beatrice and Reynaud when a tragic circumstance effects Beatrice dearly.

The loves scenes between the two are very sensual, and very raw, and the hero is a total alpha that steams testosterone out of his ears. And Beatrice doesn’t shy away, but embraces his sensual love making. But there was one word used in a scene that made me giggle, and totally threw me off:

"He growled deep in his throat, and felt his balls draw tight as he released himself within her. Even then he didn’t stop, but kept humping her as he filled her with his seed."

I’m sorry, but I don’t think the word ‘humping’ should EVER be used in a romance novel. I don’t find the word sexy, and I’m more than likely to giggle like a school girl. But, nonetheless, the love scenes were very well written, and I thought they were the strongest parts of the book.

Overall, I found To Desire a Devil to be a a pleasant read, but I found myself too disconnected from the hero and heroine.

Rating: 2.5/5

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