Kisses Like A Devil (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: railroad blockhouse, cannon designer, summer maneuvers, Diane Whiteside, Grand Duke Rudolph, Miss Duncan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Meredith Duncan is an unconventional young lady. It is 1900, and while alliances throughout Europe are forged during these turbulent times, Meredith lives in the tiny Alpine country of Eisengau. Its claim to fame is the guns it creates and sells to the highest bidder. Their excellence is unsurpassed, and their creation is a closely guarded secret. Meredith is indispensable as a draftsman, able to re-create sketches from memory. She is employed by the government but also involved in an anarchist group trying to sell plans for a radically designed new cannon so they can help the downtrodden workers of their country. Brian Donovan is on a mission from the president to purchase the cannons from Eisengau when he finds himself embroiled in Meredith’s intrigue. Each has a private agenda—his to save his country and missing brother, hers to help her oppressed countrymen—but they find a common purpose that will eventually unite them in Whiteside’s absorbing, sexily scintillating adventure. --Maria Hatton

Product Description

Strikingly handsome, wealthy, and accomplished, Brian Donovan has succeeded in everything he puts his mind to - except marriage. Now, as a favour to his former military commander Teddy Roosevelt, Brian is investigating a powerful new weapon invented in the small European country of Eisengau. The task carries prestige, danger, and an enticing complication in the lithe form of Meredith Duncan. With her deliciously candid approach to all things sensual, Meredith is unlike any woman Brian has known. In fact, she wants him to ruin her reputation - and Brian eagerly obliges, initiating a passionate, playful, and wildly erotic affair...A feminist who believes in free love, Meredith has always battled convention. When her parents urge her toward an odious marriage, Meredith turns to the dashing, thoroughly masculine American who could be her only hope of escape. But nothing is as simple as it seems, and as competition to acquire the new weapon turns deadly, two lovers are drawn into a treacherous game where the stakes run as high as their raw, mutual desire, and the greatest risk of all may lie within an untested and all-consuming love...

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Brava (February 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758225156
• ISBN-13: 978-0758225153
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #601,484 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fascinating late Victorian romantic suspense, January 30, 2009

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In 1900 Vice President Teddy Roosevelt meets with a former subordinate soldier from the Cuban operation Brian Donovan to ask for his help. Teddy knows the influential Donovan family is gathering in Europe to make efforts to rescue Brian's brother trapped in Peeling. Teddy wants Brian to attend the annual Grand Duchy of Eisengau armor sale to buy a gigantic cannon for the American army.

It has been four years since Meredith Duncan began working for Colonel Zorndoff, head of the Foundry and Cannon Sales sector of the government. She has stolen the plans for a gigantic cannon because she will use them to obtain freedom for the working class. She attends a meeting of her working class party but is shocked to see Russian agent Sazanov as a guest. She does not trust the Russian and tells everyone she has not stolen the plans yet.

At a beerhouse, Meredith and her friends hold a rally. The cops break it up and Brian who was there helps Meredith escape. He escorts her to the Grand Hotel where to her regret her parents catch her. They are unhappy to see her with an American though they somewhat hide their feelings as he is a weapons buyer. The next day her parents inform Meredith that they are aware of her seditious activity and have accepted a marriage proposal from Zorndoff, whose first wife was beaten to death by him. Meredith asks Brian to ruin her by making her his mistress. Shocked he agrees. As they fall in love, they remain divided over her belief that his father exploits the workers.

The weapons competition is fascinating as countries compete for the best armor. Readers will admire the heroine, a courageous idealist who risks her life for her beliefs, and her dog Morro who is always protecting her. The actions of the good guys lead to the deaths of many innocent people adding realism, however, their remorse never comes across as more than an afterthought. Still this is a fascinating late Victorian era romantic suspense.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Where's the sizzle?, February 23, 2009

By	Verbmb "verbmb" (Michigan) - See all my reviews

Each new "Devil" book gets further and further away from the original super hot "The Irish Devil (TID)". I keep buying the "Devil" books hoping that they will be as captivating as TID and they're not.
This recent "Devil" book was more of a history/geography lesson than a wildly hot romantic read.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A fake setting and a fizzled-out romance turned me off, April 25, 2009

By	Rebecca Baumann "www.DirtySexyBooks.com" - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Plot Summary: It's 1900 and Teddy Roosevelt sends one of his former Rough Rider majors to Eisengau to check on a deadly new cannon being offered to the highest bidder. American Brian Donovan travels to this tiny European country, and stumbles into a worker's rights rally orchestrated by a college student named Meredith Duncan. He rescues her from the riot police, and when her parents try to force her into marriage with an abusive pig, Meredith asks Brian to ruin her so thoroughly, that no man would want her for a wife.

There was too much history in this historical romance. I realize that's like saying there are too many pecans in a pecan pie, but truly, I was choking on details about cannons, world politics, and Eisengau. Then it got me thinking, is Eisengau even a real country? Nope, after trying to find Eisengau on a circa 1900 map, I found a blog by the author confirming that this is a make-believe place. You mean I've been trying to absorb fake history?! ARRRGH! I always assumed a historical novel inserted fictional characters into a factually accurate time and place. It reminds me of one of my favorite movie quotes from a dreadful Steven Segal flick: "Assumption is the mother of all [insert four-letter word] ups!" It's so true. Never again will I assume that a historical romance has any basis in fact.

Before I discovered all of this, I gladly read through the first half of the book, wading through pages of mundane conversations, waiting for the romance to set the pages on fire and make my patience pay off. Brian and Meredith meet, he rescues her, the danger ignites some promising sparks, and then darn it, they start having sex right away. All that delicious tension is scattered to the wind, like blowing on a puffy white dandelion. From that point on I was bored, until Brian proposed marriage, and then I was bored and incredulous. Meredith's inability to see the big picture, in which she could avert a global war by helping Brian instead of clinging to her own social dream, just had me frustrated. If it's a choice between thousands dying, or thousands getting an extra day off work, I'd say most people wouldn't have to scratch their head for too long. Since the romance was shot to smithereens, and I lost respect for the heroine, I didn't see any reason to solider on anymore.