The Devil in Disguise by Stefanie Sloane
Historical Romance
May 24, 2011
Paperback
Ballantine Books
Reviewed by Mandi
Lord William Randall works for the Young Corinthians, a British spy organization. He has cultivated his reputation into that of a rake, in the eyes of the ton, and uses that as his cover as he goes on dangerous spy missions. His latest mission however, is going to be a tricky one. They have learned that a very dangerous, and wanted man, Garenne wants to kidnap the extremely wealthy Lady Lucinda Grey. In order to protect Lucinda and capture Garenne once and for all, Will is told by his boss that he is to court Lucinda. Now, Lucinda has refused more proposals than anyone can count, so courting her is not going to be easy. But, Will has something Lucinda wants dearly – a horse. This horse was beloved by Lucinda before being lost in a card game by a family member – to Will. So Will proposes this to Lucinda – let him court her for three months (under the guise that his mother wants him to do his duty and marry) and after those three months, if she still refuses him, she can have the horse.
The Devil in Disguise is the debut book by Stefanie Sloane and is very much a lighter historical with some cute moments. But overall, I had some problems with it. I think it is a combination of too much telling and not enough showing in the love department, along with certain areas of the book not fleshed out enough.
The conflict starts with Will, having to pretend to court Lucinda, all while keeping the threat on her life a secret. And Lucinda is very well known for not dallying with any men. But they come together and fall for each other so quickly. I think by page 100 or soon after the “L” word creeps into both of their thoughts. For Will, who is this supposed hardened spy who has killed, maimed and worked hard to get where he is, to swoon over a woman he barely knows and contemplate not performing his job anymore seemed rushed. And Lucinda has never fallen for anyone, and she falls for Will by the early part of the book? Then the conflict becomes, they each love each other but don’t want to tell the other one. It all seemed to happen too quickly and made me lose interest.
Their very first love scene, also gets cut off and I feel like we missed out on some big information. During their first physical encounter, lust overcomes them in a field and Will pushes her to the ground, undoing her buttons and then all of a sudden the chapter ends and Lucinda is shopping. We never find out how the encounter ends. Are they both happy with this step? Embarrassed? Regretful?
Towards the end, when the eventual secret comes out that Will is a spy, Lucinda feels betrayed and pushes Will away. But I question this. Their romance starts with a bargain. Lucinda under the impression that Will needs a wife for duty. With the ruse that if she doesn’t marry him, she gets his horse. It is not like the relationship started out with romance. It starts out with a silly wager, so I felt her hurtful reaction was too over the top.
There are some cute moments in the book. Lucinda’s three aunts, “The Furies” are meddlesome and adorable and were a nice addition to the book. I actually like each character separately – just didn’t quite buy into the romance in this one.
Rating: C
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I’m currently reading it and while I enjoy it I do have the same problem about everything going too fast, about them falling in love so quickly and all that. We’ll see how it’ll go, it’s still intersting.
Her aunts are funny though. =)
Her aunts are cute :) And I did find it interesting, just didn’t like the romance.
Have I ever read a spy book..perhaps not. Dunno if I enjoy them. but then I really should try one first ;)
I think spy books can be tricky. The actual spy part in this one didn’t work great for me – I didn’t quite understand why he couldn’t come out and tell her about her life being endangered to begin with.
Great review Mandi. Hmmm the aunts sound good but the double standards here would put me off.
I just won this book at another blog, so I am very curious about it.
Eek…great review Mandi but I must say I just removed this book from my TBR list! It stinks that you felt that some parts weren’t wrapped up when you felt they should be and it stinks that it was choppy in areas. Plus, if you’re ganna have some random love scene in the field with buttons being undone, you better finish it with some hot crazyness and some emotions! LMAO. Just saying. :-P