Customer Reviews

Kisses Like A Devil

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3 star:		(1)
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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

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.

Vice President Teddy Roosevelt sends Brian Donovan to the Grand Duchy of Eisengau to buy a special cannon for the American army, but once he arrives there he becomes embroiled in an intrigues of a young woman.

Meredith has stolen the plans for the cannon and wants to use it to free the working class. Suddenly during a meeting of her radical anarchist group she meets Brian who saves her from the police. Her parents discover her activities and plan to marry her of to a man she can't stand, so she asks Brian to ruin her in every possible way. Will they find a way to follow their growing feelings and stay fast to their beliefs and duties or will that destroy their budding relationship?

KISSED LIKE A DEVIL tells the story of Brian, the son of William and Viola Donovan from THE IRISH DEVIL, but it can be read as a stand-alone.

Mrs. Whiteside really knows how to write an enjoyable story full of passion and emotions. Her books are a guaranteed interesting story, with fascinating characters in unusual settings. KISSED LIKE A DEVIL is no exception to the rule, because the book has a very unusual theme and is with the early 20th century European setting not set in a typical time and place, that you would normally have.

If you like book with a story that combines history, politics, love and passion, KISSED LIKE A DEVIL will be a good book for you and you really should give it a try!

Courtesy of Loveromances and More!

This was a difficult book to ever get into; in fact, I'm not sure that I did. The setting, in 1900 in a small Germanic state called Eisengau could have been interesting but sadly never felt entirely convincing, its inhabitants largely Germanic stereotypes. The plot involved stolen blueprints for a special new gun and various nations' machinations to buy the guns or, failing that, to come by the blueprints. Our heroine, Meredith Duncan, is the copyist who created the blueprints and who has them in hiding, wanting to use them only to improve the lot of the workers at the foundry and their families. Unfortunately there isn't really anyone she can trust, not even her mother and stepfather.

When Meredith meets the American who has come for talks about the gun she finds him rather interesting, her idea of Americans having been shaped by some of the magazines she's read. However Brian Donovon has a mission, to prevent the Russians from invading Alaska, and he knows the guns would help. Are his mission and Meredith's mutually incompatible?

There were rather a lot of unlikely events in this story. I wasn't convinced by the relationships between Meredith and her parents or her friends and other characters appeared to behave in rather strange and naïve ways. The whole events surrounding displaying the guns to bump up their price for sale read unconvincingly. Finally I found little interest in either Brian or Meredith, nor in Brian's rather over-perfect family. The romance side of this book was fairly minimal, without any true exploration of the feelings of the central characters. Overall this was a rather emotionless and in places rather dull book.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2009

Meredith Duncan has learned that staying in school will keep her from having to suffer through an arranged marriage. This works for a while but no matter what Meredith does or how she acts, her stepfather still wants her to be out of sight. He finally gives in and allows her to go to school in Eisengau when she hints that being the assistant to an important man will more often than not put her in close quarters with many men, diplomats and service men alike, who might need a wife. Meredith's ability to duplicate plans from memory proves invaluable to her employer as well as a man named Brian Donovan, an American who has been sent to Europe on a mission for Teddy Roosevelt.

KISSES LIKE A DEVIL is the story of William and Viola's son who readers met in Diane Whiteside's first DEVIL installment, THE IRISH DEVIL. Brian has been chosen by Teddy Roosevelt, a friend as well as former Rough Rider, to go to Europe to ferret out plans for a new highly powerful and destructive weapon. Brian doesn't count on meeting Meredith, a very smart yet innocent girl who doesn't believe in love. Vowing to make her change her mind regarding men and marriage in general, Brian proceeds to show her exactly how close of a partnership a man and woman can have when love is involved. Add in the suspense dealing with pre-World War I Europe and my reading experience was complete.

KISSES LIKE A DEVIL by Diane Whiteside is remarkable. I blushed more than once but sighed in happy glee at how these two young people learned about life, love and happiness. Meredith's insecurities and trepidation towards marriage made for an interesting turn of events and a lot of emotional and passionate attempts by Brian to change her mind. Truly a tremendous book!

***Natalie S. for Wild on Books***

Meredith Duncan has learned that staying in school will keep her from having to suffer through an arranged marriage. This works for a while but no matter what Meredith does or how she acts, her stepfather still wants her to be out of sight. He finally gives in and allows her to go to school in Eisengau when she hints that being the assistant to an important man will more often than not put her in close quarters with many men, diplomats and service men alike, who might need a wife. Meredith's ability to duplicate plans from memory proves invaluable to her employer as well as a man named Brian Donovan, an American who has been sent to Europe on a mission for Teddy Roosevelt.

KISSES LIKE A DEVIL is the story of William and Viola's son who readers met in Diane Whiteside's first DEVIL installment, THE IRISH DEVIL. Brian has been chosen by Teddy Roosevelt, a friend as well former Rough Rider, to go to Europe to ferret out plans for a new highly powerful and destructive weapon. Brian doesn't count on meeting Meredith, a very smart yet innocent girl who doesn't believe in love. Vowing to make her change her mind regarding men and marriage in general, Brian proceeds to show her exactly how close of a partnership a man and woman can have when love is involved. Add in the suspense dealing with pre-World War I Europe and my reading experience was complete.

KISSES LIKE A DEVIL by Diane Whiteside is remarkable. I blushed more than once but sighed in happy glee at how these two young people learned about life, love and happiness. Meredith's insecurities and trepidation towards marriage made for an interesting turn of events and a lot of emotional and passionate attempts by Brian to change her mind. Truly a tremendous book!

***Natalie S. for Wild on Books***

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.