Review: Devil in Disguise by Lisa Kleypas (#7 The Ravenels)

I love Lisa Kleypas's historical romances. They are perfect escapism. This is number 7 in The Ravenels series but it can easily be read as a standalone. When characters from earlier books pop up, it is fully explained who they are.

Devil in Disguise is about Lady Merritt Sterling, a strong-willed widow who is running her late husband's shipping company. London Society has been dying to catch her in a scandal but so far she has been too clever to provide them with one. Then she meets Keir MacRae, a whisky distiller from a remote Scottish island, and all her plans disappear like smoke. 

Devil in Disguise is definitely going on my favourites pile, right up there with Love in the Afternoon (#5 The Hathaways) and Devil in Winter (#3 The Wallflowers). I loved that Merritt is such a strong, independent character, running her own business (would we have accepted anything less from Lillian's daughter?) I absolutely adored Keir, who is not an aristocrat but a working class Scot trying to get his head around the strange customs (and language) of the upper class English. It makes for some very funny moments. As well as a scorching (literally) romance there is also a mystery - someone wants Keir dead, the sooner the better.

It took me a chunk of the book to realise that Merritt's mother is Lillian from It Happened One Autumn (#2 in The Wallflowers series). Despite being a Ravenel book, other characters from The Wallflower series also appear, including Marcus and Sebastian. While it was lovely to see how these characters were getting on, I felt that too much time was given to Sebastian. There were even scenes and chapters written from his viewpoint. Now, I do love Sebastian. He's one of my favourite Lisa Kleypas characters, but he is also a very strong character and this was supposed to be Kier's story.  

Despite that, Devil in Disguise is utterly fabulous and I am sure the author's fans will love it, along with anyone who loves escapist historical romance and authors such as Julia Quinn and Tessa Dare.

Thank you to Lisa Kleypas and Piatkus for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Related posts:

Review: Hello Stranger (The Ravenels #4) by Lisa Kleypas

Review: The Devil in Spring (The Ravenels #3) by Lisa Kleypas

Review: Beyond Scandal and Desire (Sins for All Seasons #1) by Lorraine Heath

I downloaded this one because it was on offer at 99p and I've enjoyed some of Lorraine Heath's novels in the past. Unfortunately, I read it too soon after Sarah MacLean's Wicked and the Wallflower, which has the same revenge trope, and I couldn't help comparing the two.

Mick Trewlove is now a successful businessmen but was abandoned at birth by his aristocratic father. In revenge, he targets his father's legitimate son, intending to bankrupt him and seduce his betrothed.

The characters were likeable enough but there wasn't enough of an original twist on the trope for me.

Review: Hello Stranger (The Ravenels #4) by Lisa Kleypas

I'm a huge fan of Lisa Kleypas, especially her Hathaways series, but when I started this story I had mixed feelings about it. 

The heroine of Hello Stranger is Dr Garrett Gibson, the only female physician in Britain. I had been so looking forward to reading about her struggle in the entirely male-dominated world of Victorian medicine - but found it ironic that the main part of the plot should revolve around Ethan, a government spy, and his problems. It didn't help that I usually love both historical romance and romantic suspense, but I'm not so keen when they're mixed together.

I did like the banter between the characters, the sweet way they kept bumping into each other around London, and the part when Ethan offers to teach Garrett how to defend herself in a rather less ladylike way than she has been doing up until now.

However, the story really picked up when one of the main characters becomes seriously ill. Garrett goes against all advice, including that of her mentor, to try and save this person. The heartrending scene where Garrett has to switch off her emotions to perform surgery was very authentic and put me through the emotional wringer too.

So despite my initial negative feelings, I ended up really enjoying the book and it is probably my favourite of the series so far.

Related post:

Review: The Devil in Spring (The Ravenels #3) by Lisa Kleypas