Review: The Devil You Know

Reviewed by Shelly
 

Telling the back story of Diana and Ludovic, The Devil You Know picks up after Vesta’s and Hew’s story [The Virgin Huntress – Book 2]. After reading the blurb, I got the impression that this one would deliver the goods and boy does it ever.

First, let me say that I had a bit of nervous excitement before reading this book because I wasn’t sure the direction that Vane would take after the first two books in the series. Those two were pretty tame in regards to the emotional baggage that the hero/heroines had. Although to be fair to Ned [A Wild Night’s Bride – Book 1], I think he had the potential for some pretty dark moments, but we didn’t get that and that’s okay because Ludovic had plenty to go around. This story is much grittier than its predecessors and answers my questions about Diana’s and Ludovic’s history separately and together.

Diana, Phoebe (Ned’s wife) and Vesta travel to Ludovic’s home in preparation for Vesta and Hew’s marriage. When the entourage gets to Ludovic’s home, Diana finds out that her husband, Reggie, is not in residence nor has he been seen in days. For Diana, this is the beginning of finding out more about her husband of ten years. Through some interesting shenanigans and chicanery, she comes to find out the fundamental reason her entire marriage has been lacking in passion and love. I really felt bad for her at that point because she had no recourse without severe repercussion. No matter which way the tide would go, she would come out the loser and as Ludovic mentions, ‘it’s a man’s world’ and her options are not only limited, but they could be self-destructive.

After tragedy, Diana gives into Ludovic and enters into an affair, but these two are met with opposition, namely in Ludovic’s lover Caroline. I enjoyed Caroline. She’s a wonderful character; completely manipulative, oversexed and provides a wonderful foil to Diana’s innate goodness. There were a few moments where I thought that for all the power that Ludovic wielded and it being a ‘man’s world’ – he allowed Caroline to have too much power in their relationship. I understood, though, that was just his way of denying his increasing feelings for Diana.

There were a lot of raw emotions (words too) and some really hot sex scenes between Diana and Ludovic. The yummy deliciousness that he is, Ludovic is very basic in his needs and can be sometimes downright crude in his dialogue towards Diana. But this works really well because I think that Diana just needed him to shock her out of her malaise - and did he ever! These two really did it for me; I was rooting for them all the way and can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

I really liked this one.

Happy Reading Folks!

Rating: B+

*ARC provided by author for review

Click to purchase: Amazon

The Devil You Know

by Victoria Vane

Release Date: July 27, 2012

Publisher: Breathless Press