Customer Reviews

The Blue Devil (Zebra Regency Romance)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A captivating tale of protecting family, uncovering confidential information, and secret identities. Kathryn St. David is on a mission to save her beloved aunt, and Nigel Moorhaven is investigating an elusive spy. Throughout the tale, these two are deliciously at odds with one another as they try their best to ignore the attraction that sizzles between them on every page.

Kathryn St. David arrived in London for a season under Aunt Ophelia's patronage. The night she arrived, Ophelia was having a masked ball in her honor. Kathryn got upstairs unnoticed and interrupted what sounded like the Marquis, Nigel Moorhaven, seducing an innocent named Lydia. Neither saw Kathryn, but they did know that someone had seen them! Disguised as a fairy queen, Kathryn went to the ball to help poor Lydia escape ruin. She succeeded and was able to keep her identity from Nigel.

Ophelia was positive she left her personal journal on the sofa while "visiting" her rival, Lady Agnes Marchman, at the Baroness Marchman's School for Young Ladies. The entries would ruin Ophelia, so Kathryn went undercover as Kitty Davidson. Her one friend at the school was Lady Jane, her roommate. Unfortunately, Nigel was Jane's guardian. So he was around often.

At the same time, Nigel (known by the code name of Blue Devil) was frequently at the school in search of a French spy.

***** This book is excellent! I was stunned to learn it to be Skinner's debut novel! She already has an avid fan in myself! Well written with a delicious touch of mystery! *****

The Blue Devil is an enjoyable read sure to be a hit with Regency fans. I found the wit and humor to be reminiscient of Johanna Lindsey or Julie Garwood's Regency set historicals. Undercover agent Nigel Moorhaven has a mystery to solve: who is the spy passing top secret military information to France? He tries not to be distracted by the other, more personal mystery: who is the Fairy Queen he met at a masked ball? That elusive, spirited lady who used her magic wand on him in a most interesting fashion!

Brava, Ms Skinner, on a great first book!

Full of unexpected and fun surprises. I thought that the intrigue was great. The book moved. It didn't get stale. The description was vivid. I liked the characters. All of them. They seemed genuine for the era. You can relate to them. It was very romantic but not overdone. I liked the epilogue very much. It didn't leave it dangling. Looking forward to the next book.

You'll love this first novel by the wonderfully talented Melynda Beth Skinner. The heroine is feisty and charming; the hero is strong and romantic; and the plot adds a little mystery and humor.

I look forward to many more novels from Ms. Skinner.

I LOVED this book! I am not the type to read silly little romances, and this was anything but! I would highly recommend it to anyone, and I do mean ANYONE, since after I read this book I read a Newberry Award Winner, and then Camus' The Stranger. My only problem was the cover. I don't know about you, but I like to look at the cover so I can "see" in my mind what is happening in the book. But Kathryn looks like a puppet from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood!

I feel like I've been reading a different book. MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! The H & H are shallow characters and when the author tries to give them depth she fails miserably.The leads constantly jump to the wrong conclusions about each other (especially the heroine) and then out of the blue they are in love( when 5 pages before the hero is proposing marriage to a lady who, to his knowledge, has shared a grand total of 10 minutes with him). The mystery makes no sense and the whole books feels like the "filler scenes" in good romances. I would wait for this author to mature.

While this book is not actually badly written, and is filled to the brim with those devices that bring us back to Regency romances time and time again, the authors are careful to never allow a speck of originality, logic, sense or history to mar the pages of their story. The writing is such that I will buy the next in the series ("Miss Grantham's One True Sin" - due out as an ebook in September) but I would recommend giving this one a pass.