Customer Reviews

The Devil's Love

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After reading all the books from authors like Judith McNaught and Julie Garwood in this genre, I thought I wouldn't find another author that could write like them. But oh, oh, oh, to my surprise Julia London is just as good!

This is the first book of Julia London that I've read and Devil's Love is totally scrumptious! The story of Michael and Abby is so delightful, so romantic, so heartbreaking and sooooo good. Abby is sunny, cheerful and adorable and Michael was quite the opposite in the beginning. But later Michael *sigh* turned out to be a wonderful, sexy and a totally fantastic hero!

The story line and build up was good and wonderfully written that YOU JUST WOULD NOT WANT TO PUT IT DOWN!

If you want to read romance you MUST read this 'coz this book will make you feel like you are the main characters! This book will take you back in time. This book will make you laugh out loud. This book will make you fall in love (again)!

This is my second Julia London book. Both have been great stories and have each received a 5 star rating from me. London has a particularly charming ability when it comes to writing alpha males that are forced to reign in their strong personalities, grow up, and give of themselves. Her heroines are pleasant, innocent, and naive although a little too sweet for believability.

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.

Sometimes you get into reading romance novels, and it gets tedious and monotonous. You get jaded and wonder where all the good authors have gone. You know...where's that FEELING you used to get? Well, thank goodness for Julia London. This is one of those books that makes you remember why you still read romance novels. I read Wicked Angel just to make sure that it wasn't a fluke. And that was great, too! Ms. London, I eagerly await your next book.

I truly enjoyed this story. If you like Julie Garwood, I think you will enjoy reading this author's work also. Abbey a child when she met Michael, goes to him to become his bride. She, excited about marrying the man she has loved all of her life has to deal with a man who doesn't want to marry her even though her father told her that he has been waiting for her all those years. She is a sweetheart and unfortunately learns her father's lies but that's what makes this story good... I love it how Abbey slowly melts that heart of his. I cannot wait to read her next book, Wicked Angel which I think is the sequel to this one. I understand this is the first book written by Julia London, wow, what a talented lady!

Abbey is sunny and adorable, Michael is handsome but gloomy. The story'll tug at your heart like a wide-eyed puppy. U need to read this book to know what love and perseverance mean. I bought "Wicked Angel" first, but I like this one much better. The ending is also romantic enough to make U crave for more from the author.

I was quite disappointed in Michael actually having an affair and it turned me off from him right off, however her heroine was great and the story was really good, if she ever rewrites it and leaves out the affair it would rate five stars hands down. Maybe Abby was forgiving but I am not. This I understand however was Ms Londons first book and it was really good. I enjoyed it!

Being a new author I was reluctant to buy the book but when I started reading it, it was difficult to put down. Julia London is a VERY promising new author. I can compare her to my 2 favorites, Julie Garwood and Johanna Lindsey. Their books cannot be put down once you have picked them up either. I very much look forward to her next novels. I enjoy learning history facts when I am reading which shows that Julia London is doing her research before she puts the information into her novels. A must read if you like romance, comedy and history all rolled into one book. She has great characters and was I happy to see that she carried them through into her 2nd book. It's more like reading a continuation instead of a completely new book. But, if you read the 2nd book first, you were not lost and didn't realize that there was another book previous with some of the same characters. A must read!

This is my second Julia London book and I like this much better than Wicked Angel. There were too tormet in that one for my taste. This book is very well written and I love the relationship development between Abbey and Michael after their stubborness leading to their immeidate marriage. It was a little unrealistic and sad the way Abbey felt about Michael in the beginning, but she was a quick study and realized the lies. Their time togehter were beautifully written and full of love. Although I didn't enjoy reading about his one visit to his lover, I suppose it was unrealistic of me to assume that he would stop his activities just because Abbey showed up. My one issue with Abbey is that for being smart with people and talented in many ways, she was terriblly stupid with Galen which lead to the great one rift between the two lovers. I really did not like that fact that she resisted his love for so many weeks after her accident and insisted that he was totally at fault without taking any responsibility for her part in the deception. Although Michael was horrible in the beginning with his rude reactions to being forced into marriage, I did grow to love his character. I can not say the same thing about Abbey. Overall, it was a great love story with a huge misunderstanding. I love all her aunt/cousins. It was well-written and not as heart twisting as the Wicked Angel.

My first try of this author, and probably my last.

I don't mind recycled/formula romance plots, provided that the author can breathe new life into them. But that didn't happen here. Granted, this is the author's first novel, and I recognize that the first usually isn't the best. But even though I was trying to cut the writer some slack, I still wasn't able to force myself to finish this book.

I just couldn't like either the hero or the heroine. He was really mean to her. Maybe there was an explanation later as to why he was so tortured, but I never got to it, and found him just awful. There's an alpha male hero, and then there's just a domineering jerk. I found the hero to be the latter.

And the heroine! She was so immature. She can never see the truth, even when it's right in front of her. Even if you're able to swallow that she believed that the hero was in love with her, even though all his supposed gifts and letters came through her father (and that she hadn't spoken to him directly, even through a letter in 12 years), why did it take her so long to figure it out after they finally came face to face? And why did she not stop the wedding when it became clear that the hero was not just "bluffing"? I hated that she was constantly smiling, even when he was being so mean to her. It made her seem weak and a little dim-witted.

And I got really, really sick of reading about people spinning on their heels before walking away. Why do so many writers overuse this phrase? And does anyone actually do that? (I tried, and almost fell on my backside!) I've spun around to stalk away from someone before, and it was never on my heel. Yes, I know I'm nitpicking here, but every time I read this phrase I ended up rolling my eyes.

This book also needed some better proofreading. There were cases of missing words (missing the word "the" can totally botch a sentence), or misused words (for example, using two intead of too). I don't blame the writer for this one, since it's an editor's/publisher's job to catch these things, but it was still annoying, as it jars the reader out of the story.

I would only try this author again if I find her books at the library. Likeable characters are essential for an absorbing romance, and that just didn't happen here. I know I'm in the minority, but THE DEVIL'S LOVE is not recommended by this reader.

I read Wicked Angel first and thought I finally found another Judith McNaught. Just to be sure, I read her first book Devil's Love. It wasn't as good as Wicked Angel, but it is still fantastic! J. London really reminds me of Judith McNaught (my favorite), and I am dancing on the ceiling since I found these books! I can't wait for the next one! Julia, please WRITE FASTER!