The Devil's Love [Mass Market Paperback]

Michael Ingram, Marquis of Darfield, had sailed the seas at the age of nineteen, upon Captain Carrington's ship as a member of the crew. Also sailing on that ship was the captain's young daughter, Abigail (Abbey), known to all aboard as a wild, undisciplined yet charming child. Abbey had not seen Michael since that voyage twelve years ago. But she had held, in her heart and mind, dear memories of Michael and had eagerly awaited their future marriage.

Abbey's father, taking advantage of the young future marquis's financial problems, had loaned Michael, at that vulnerable age of nineteen, a large sum of money to repay his father's creditors. Michael's father was gambling away all the family's ancestral fortune and lands - thus Michael was desperate for the Captain's financial aid. Included in this financial contract was a betrothal agreement between Michael and the captain's daughter. This betrothal clause would be evoked only if Michael had failed to repay the Captain in full at some future specified date. Since the signing of that agreement, at least ten years ago, Michael had amassed a fortune himself and had repaid all of his father's debts. Michael, now Marquis of Darfield, had essentially forgotten the old agreement since all debt had been paid off. However, Captain Carrington had not been totally upfront with the young man all those years ago. The captain had hidden a large portion of Michael's father's debts from him and, prior to the his death, had evoked the betrothal portion of the agreement. No matter what Michael attempted to do, he discovered he was truly bound by the contract and - most unhappily - was forced to marry the captain?s daughter, Abbey.

Abbey, blissfully unaware of Michael's hostility and hatred of the marriage agreement, sailed from America to England believing herself totally in love with her future husband. Her father had told her, through the years, how much Michael wanted the forthcoming marriage and the love he held for her. Abbey discovered, much to her horror, that Michael was not the willing bridegroom. Not only was he unwilling - he treated her terribly - hoping that she would break the agreement. However, idyllic in her belief that Michael would someday love her, she refused to break the betrothal and they married.

All of the above happenings occur within the first 57 pages of the book. Immediately after the rushed wedding, Michael leaves Abbey at one of his country estates and travels to another for an indefinite period of time. He is determined to make Abbey suffer tremendously for the enforced marriage. During this period of the book, Michael is a really mean guy. He treats Abbey with contempt, suspicion, hatred, and is out for revenge. Abbey, conversely, is an extremely naive young woman and seeks happiness despite Michael's attempt to make her life a misery. Not only is she naive, she is also sweet - a little too sweet. One of my two complaints about The Devil's Love is her character is too sugary. She is seen as such an innocent and draws everyone to her with her never-ending optimism and enjoyment of life. It makes her character appear as unrealistic - she is too super-sweet with too many talents for one person.

The interaction between the leads is excellent although they are at odds a lot of the time. Just when we think Michael can get no meaner, Abbey begins to stand up for herself and he begins to reluctantly respect her and more reluctantly finds he is strongly drawn to her. Yes, love develops even in this big mess of an enforced marriage. However, I began to get uncomfortable about halfway through the book. I saw all of the signs of The Big Misunderstanding lining up and dreaded it. This was the second complaint that I mentioned earlier. The Big Misunderstanding was very, very big and it took a lot of the pages for it to be resolved. However, this book does deserve it's five star rating because London does a wonderful job of writing this portion of the book. I was caught by surprise, more than once, as the events unfolded. Although I was able to sense the upcoming misunderstanding, I was not able at all to guess how it would eventually be solved. The story is vastly entertaining. I eagerly consumed each page and every time I had to put it down - I enthusiastically resumed reading.

You will find this love story at times heartbreaking and at other times exciting and fresh. You will want Michael to get his comeuppance more than once as well. The chemistry between the leads certainly is vibrant and warms the pages. The actual sensual scenes, although fairly frequent, are somewhat tame and rate about a 3.0 to a 3.5 out of 5.0 (see More About Me for rating guidelines).

The Devil's Love is the first in a series followed by Wicked Angel. I read Wicked Angel first and although I probably would have preferred only slightly to read them in order, they are truly stand-alone books. I loved each book on it's own merits although I could have picked up on a few situations a little more quickly in Wicked Angel if I had read The Devil's Love first. However, in order or not, this is a great two book series that I wholeheartedly recommend.

The author's style of writing is similar to that of Judith McNaught except that London lacks the polish and wit that McNaught brings to her stories. The heroine is an insipid,constantly cheerful, over-achieving twit. In short, she is a poor caricature of McNaught's early heroines.The fact that this girl is in love with a man she has not seen since childhood stretched plausability a little bit but since this is a romance novel I was able to overlook that. Then again didn't she find it peculiar that her father was the recipient of all the gifts and communication between her and her supposed suitor? Also, her eternal smile and constant chirpiness even when the hero was being a jerk was extremely irritating, I kept thinking her cheeks must hurt like hell from smiling all the darn time. The hero is one of those by the numbers rakes who is tortured because of god knows what, and of course he is a rake and completely opposed to marrying the twit or anyone else because, well, just because that is how one writes a by the numbers historical... Needless to say, I never even got halfway through the book before I threw it into a donation box. If you have read McNaught before you will be familiar with the story and characters which is fine since I love McNaught's historicals but this author lacks the skill and imagination to make the characters or the plot interesting. I don't mind that this particular girl meets boy and they are forced into marriage plot has been done a million times as long as the author makes it interesting or brings something new to a tired plot device and this author does not. A side note for nit pickers: a duke would never introduce himself by his first name to a total stranger. This author obviously did not conduct her research. Not recommended at all.

This is my first Julia London read, and I also believe Julia's first novel: this was an entertaining read!

My only niggling objection to this story is that in the last 1/4 of the book Abbey loses her characteristics that were abundent in the first 3/4 of the book (and made up the main portion of Abbey's character) ... changes from been a spunky wee heroine to a pathetic piece of fluff. I feel that the introduction of the issue from Galen could have been handled slightly differently: that is that the heroine could have said "dammitt" Michael and I are married, used her spunk to join forces with Michael and ended the last 1/4 of the book on a happier note (not so down in the dungeons kind of style).

I personally found the last 1/4 of the book tiresome and just too choppy: suddenly a number of obstacles are shoved between our hero and heroine, just when you felt that things should have been sorting themselves out.

Despite my comments above, this was a lovely story and great romance to read. With a few changes to the end of this book I would have rated it a 5 star, so one can conclude that Julia London will hopefully be a force to reckon with in the future. My comment on the book in three words: a good start