Customer Reviews

Devil in Spurs

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

 

 

This is the first Norah Hess book that I've read, so I'm not sure if this is her typical style. After reading The Devil in Spurs, I can say that I will definitely be finding out!

I have to admit that I picked up this book for a quarter at a local yard sale because the title struck a funny bone. Ok, so maybe that's not the best reason to pick up a book, but I figured for a quarter, I couldn't go wrong! I'm glad I did.

The Devil in Spurs is a western and has a somewhat typical plot for a western romance (cowboy romance). The characters are strong, well developed and most are interesting in their own right. Others are downright despicable which is exactly the emotion for which Hess was striving.

Jonty Rand is a woman disguised as a boy (something that she's had to do all her life to not be noticed by cowboys who visit the "bawdy house" in which she is raised. On her grandmother's deathbed, she asks Cord McBain to make sure Jonty is taken care of.

Cord McBain takes that promise seriously and brings Jonty along as he goes out west on a wagon train to set up the ranch of which he's always dreamed. He figures Jonty is a skinny teenaged boy who needs to be toughened up and doesn't let up on him at all during the wagon trip.

Jonty's secret is out when she's attacked by a mountain lion and her shirt it torn open. Cord at first feels duped and then realizes it's too late to do anything about it. And so begins the love story of Cord and Jonty...

This book would have been mediocre at best if not for the strong subplots and support cast. I wondered about LaTour the owner of a saloon, and who's relationship with Jonty gives Cord many sleepless nights and many days filled with jealousy. I found myself laughing at the antics of Tillie, the retired prostitute turned cook who keeps LaTour in line. I found myself grimacing whenever Paunch would enter the plot again - he was such a disgusting character that each time his name was mentioned my skin would crawl. Then there was Johnny the Indian who is always there to protect Jonty.

Even with the typical plot and outcome, there were a few surprises along the way, which kept my attention. There were a few subplots that I found difficult to believe, but those were few and far between.

Overall, this was enjoyable and whetted my interest enough to pick up another Norah Hess novel.

great story. Lots of fun and romantic tension like any Lindsey and "Anything,My love" by Cynthia Simmons. Devil in Spurs is a wonderful read. .

This was a great romance story. I don't normally go for westerns but on the advice of a friend, I read this one....read it in one day! It was great. The tension between the main characters is intense. Waiting till he found out her "secret" was almost unbearable. I highly recommend "Devil in Spurs".

I don't usually take the time to review books, but this novel (in my opinion) was incredibly unenjoyable. The only reason I even gave a two was because the heroine finally revealed some intelligence by leaving the hero. The plot was okay, the sex was decent, and now that all the good points have been said, I'll move on to what incensed me the most.

The hero in the story was unforgivable. Even if we ignore his torture of the heroine when he thought she was male and his total lack of morals and manners in the first half of the story, he shows terrible character when he finally catches the heroine after she ran away. His attitude towards her child was so caustic until he found out that the child was his. Suddenly everything's fine and she's not the whore he vehemently accused her of being. Really? I wonder why the heroine ran away from him...His character never really changes until the very, very end of the book when he suddenly becomes enlightened after the man he accused the heroine of sleeping with since the beginning of the book (yes, even when he thought she was male) is in fact her father.

The only reason I kept reading was to see whether the hero would get some sort of payback for the way he treated the heroine, but alas, to no avail. The heroine forgave him way too easily and I choked at the last line "Thank you, Granny, for being so wise about this man." I would rather have been sent to a convent than be with the hero.

I liked this book more or less. The banter between Cord and Jonty was entertaining; I just wish there were more love scenes.

The characters are flat, the plot is trite and the sex scenes are blah. What's left in a romance novel? The plot can be summed up as follows: for completely ridiculous reasons, Jonty has to pretend she's a boy until her guardian dies and she's left (for no good reasons) to the care of Cord McBain who thinks she's an effeminate boy and wants to cure her of her "sissified" and "queer" ways. Then she gets injured and he finds out she's a girl, making his thought process essentially, "Boobies!" Then he lusts after her, decides that having sex with her is the best way to make her not fear a thunderstorm, and spends the rest of the meandering novel the same as the first half-- as a jerk. The author just expects us to accept that the two have fallen in love despite the fact that she never actually shows any of this. Lust? Sure, but not love from either character.

On top of that, her negative references to homosexuality are just offensive. I'm sure that the author could defend herself by saying that it was just the way that people in the 1880s felt about homosexuality, but frankly why include some of the nasty comments at all?

I'm willing to overlook ridiculous plots in the quest for well-written characters who have chemistry together and this book's concept had promise. But it was blandly written and a huge disappointment.

Ms Hess captures my attention in this book very well although I
think it took too long for Cord to find out Jonty was actually a woman. Although that revelation was finally revealed after a lenghthy amount of time, I still found myself attached to this book. I like the fact that the men in her books always has some kind of flavor...Not too good or too bad. As always the love scenes are hot and make you want to holler sometimes. Over all well done and I always look forward to buying her fabulous books.

Norah Hess's characters are sometimes shallow and her plots weak, but there is one thing in her novels that annoys me to no end. That's when she names the heroine's horse (all together now)... BEAUTY!!!

Every freakin' horse can't be named Beauty. I was actually be getting into this book until it came to the scene concerning the horse. I found myself holding my breath, praying that she had given Jonty's horse a different name. I know this sounds pretty petty, but this repetitive equine name is driving me crazy.

Also, I find it hard to believe that Cord got on Jonty's case for being effiminate, yet he allowed Paunch (a solid gold pervert) continue to chase and harass a supposedly teenaged "male".

One of Hess's better books, I liked the way the storyline flowed and the hero and heroine.