Devil Takes A Bride
Gaelen Foley
ISBN# 0-8041-1975-9
Ballentine Books, 2004, 469 pages
Historical Romance, circa 1817
England
$6.99 (US) $10.99 (CDN)
Reviewed by Laurel
May 2004
Oh have I waited for this to book to appear in my hot little hands. After the author decided to rewrite her story for Elizabeth Carlisle, companion to Jacinda Knight, I have been anxious and eager to see the man that she thought was so much better for Lizzie than Alec Knight. Being that he was Lizzie's childhood sweetheart, she did harbour illusions that they were going to marry. Alec in turn shattered her dreams and broke her heart. We meet up with Lizzie again as the companion to Lady Strathmore. She has vowed to remain a spinster and her only concern was Lady Strathmore, and then her books. After all she was going to "never hand her heart over for it to be broken again."
Viscount Devlin Strathmore, has seen the world, he has frolicked in the Indies, and fought along side the savages in the America's. He was trying to come to grips with his parent’s tragic accident. He felt guilty for their death, they died on route to retrieving him from the school he found himself expelled from 12 years ago. He has come back to London seeking vengeance, seems he learned in his travels that his parents accident was no accident at all but a murder. Instigating himself among the men he thought were responsible for his parent’s death, he racked up enormous bills that were sent to his Aunt Lady Strathmore.
One day he receives a note from Lizzie Carlisle that his aunt is not doing well and it would best to come now before it was too late. There was nothing wrong with his aunt, except that Lizzie was outraged at this errant behaviour from Lady Strathmore's nephew and the outrageous bills and was planning on taking him to task over abusing her generosity and wealth.
Lady Strathmore a matchmaker at heart sees the sparks flying between her nephew and Lizzie, she cunningly makes a last minute change to her will, leaving her vast fortune to be spilt between them provided they marry or else the entire fortune goes to the charity she outlined. Sadly Lady Strathmore passes away shortly after that.
This book ran the emotional gamut for me, I cried when Devlin relived his inner horror to Lizzie. However I also laughed a fair bit when Alec Knight got his dander in duff and decided that Lizzie was his. In a funny sport of rivalry between Devlin and Alec, it was amusing to watch Lizzie transform from the wallflower she labelled herself to the charming and witty woman who had attracted the two most desirable rakes in London.
In tense filled moments in the book, the danger was an ever-present reality and when two worlds Devlin was fighting to keep separated collided. Devlin and Lizzie overcame the odds and cemented the reason for me why the author chose this man over Alec for Lizzie. Having the hurts of the past solved, they forged together new life being reunited with someone from Devlin's past.
DEVIL TAKES A BRIDE was a delightful read, I recommend it to any Gaelen Foley fan that had reservations like myself of this man that would take Lizzie away from Alec. By the end though you'll be saying the same thing I am...Alec who?