Review: The Devil's Temptress

Life is complicated for Lady Alienore. She had big dreams of running her family’s estate after her father’s death. But her brother had other plans. When he tried to marry her off to an old, nasty scoundrel, she ran for the royal court.  She took refuge with her godmother, the queen, and become her grace’s counsellor.  She hopes to gather royal favor to get her lands back and escape the claims of her would-be husband.

At court, she meets a dark man, known only as the Raven. He has a terrible reputation, especially compared to Alienore’s virtuous one.  But circumstances throw them together. And their attraction quickly proves too powerful to ignore.  Alienore has to navigate royal intrigue and work to regain her lands, while at the same time, try to figure out if Raven is really the dastardly blackheart his reputation suggests.

I had high hopes for this book. Whoever wrote the back cover summary needs a raise, because it sold me 100%.  Once I got to reading, it was ok.  There were a lot of characters to digest and for the first 1/3 of the book,  I struggled to keep all the men straight.  The sexual tension was pretty good between our lead characters but it took a long time before anything happened between them. And when it did, I felt like we scrimped a little on the details. (If I’m going to wait that long, I want a good payoff!)

The ending was happy, albeit a bit predictable. Overall, it was a fairly good historical romance that was a little light on the steam. 3 1/2 stars.

*ARC Provided by NetGalley