The Devil in Disguise by Stefanie Sloane

June 13, 2011

Spal Chek, Sple Cheek, Spill Cka, Spell Check!
http://www.stefaniesloane.com/

I’m going to make this quick and hopefully painless – authors turn your spell check on! Pay attention to those red squiggly lines under the words…they will find thing! Things such as: welcom which is welcome, soo which is soon, Groin which is groin and Lday Northrophad which is Lady Northrup. Authors, if your publisher company does not seem to know what an editor or copy editor is, take it upon yourself to get one! It is always a shame when a promising author’s book, that book that they poured their blood, sweat, and tears into should have numerous typos in it that will prove to be a distraction to the story itself.

Now, on to the book

There were parts of The Devil in Disguise that I enjoyed a lot and other parts – not so much. The main characters were introduced and there was some strong character development, at least in the beginning. The heroine, Lucinda, was strong, witty and comfortable with herself. The hero, William is part of a secret spy group, the Young Corinthian’s…he’s a big guy, with a troubled childhood and he is a rake…or at least he’s pretending to be one. Although, I’m not sure how you pretend when you do all the things rakes do, like drink, fight, sleep with tons of women. So, I was happy when the story started, the characters were interesting, the plot line exciting and the writing strong. However, somewhere along the way the character development stopped and the people that inhabited the book became flat.

In the second part of the book, the couple looses the chemistry that was present in the beginning…also lacking was any sexual chemistry in their more intimate moments. I also felt the eventually deflowering was rushed. I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see more of what the Young Corinthian’s were all about and since I’m pretty sure some of those men are going to have their own book, it would have been nice to get some kind of a feel for what those guys were all about. I had a problem figuring out whether the villain was going to kidnap or kill Lucinda and wondered why he was going to kidnap her in the first place. Also, why was William called the “Iron Will?” There also is a point in this book when Williams deception is discovered by Lucinda, and in my opinion her reaction is just a tad bit over the top.

This was a pleasant read, nothing earth shattering with part of it lacking depth. I was looking forward to this read, it was the first one of my new books that I grabbed – love reading new exciting authors, but for me this first in the series didn’t quite work. I am however, looking forward to the next one in the series, The Angels in My Arms …because I do see talent in Ms. Sloanes writing.

Time/Place: Regency England
Rating:
Sensuality Rating: Warm/Hot