The Northern Devil
Rachel Davis would rather risk death than remain a prisoner of the ruthless man intent on gaining her inheritance. Trapped on a private train with the villain, she makes a desperate bid for escape and runs into the arms of an unlikely saviour. Aristocratic, arrogant, and deeply cynical about love, Lucas Grainger is her last choice for a husband – even a husband of convenience. But desperate times call for desperate measures: taking Lucas to bed and submitting to his tender, hungry desires may be her only hope…Lucas Grainger has sworn never to take a wife, but he’s not about to let anyone else marry Rachel. He has his own reasons for marrying the gentle, quick-witted widow, reasons she need not know. But holding Rachel night after night awakens deeper hungers than he has ever known, and a calculated marriage soon yields to a blissful, blinding – and dangerous – passion. For if Rachel knew who Lucas really was – of the dark secrets that haunt him – she’d never choose him as her protector…Theirs is a union both erotic and enduring, and any man who tries to part Lucas from the woman he loves will have the devil to pay…
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars A jolt of heat sweeping romance
A bondage-type sexual encounter, contradicting her multiple celebrations for her freedom. The storyline started slow, easing into the plot, gathering speed at each turn of the page.~Affaire de Coeur
5 Stars The Northern Devil-A Joyfully Recommended Title!!
After the death of her husband, Rachel Davis is held captive by Albert Collins; the principle trustee of her deceased husband’s estate. Collins plans to force Rachel to marry his despicable son in order to gain unfettered access to the Davis Trust. Rachel has only person to turn to, her fiend, Lucas Grainger.
In order to save Rachel, Lucas will have to break a vow he made to himself. A vow he swore he’d never break. Of all the women in the world, Rachel is the one woman that Lucas would consider breaking his vow for.
Oh la la! The Northern Devil is moan out loud hot! I love Diane Whiteside’s historical romances because she always manages to break my hot-o-meter. The Northern Devil is blazing inferno hot!
Thank you Diane Whiteside for giving me a historical romance that is full of wickedly heated passion!
Annmarie
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed
3 Stars Not As Good…
Quite honestly, I read the reviews for Diane Whiteside’s Devil series and found this was the second-highest rated book in the series. Thus, I decided to buy it and try. It wasn’t as good as I expected. Lucas’ and Rachel’s relationship seems so shallow. Lucas, while he seems hot, really has no personality or as good a characterization as William in The Irish Devil. He’s experienced two rather tragic relationships with women. First, he witnessed his sister’s drowning and then his mistress is attacked, her body mutilated, and killed. Yet these horrors aren’t expressed very well in his character. He’s chivalrous, hard-working, but he comes from a rich, well-bred Pennsylvania family and his current job is working, sometimes, with William. While he’s a nice man, he’s not very interesting and not as complex as other characters. His relationship with Rachel is based on mutual friendship (her late husband was his first commander). Rachel also is kind of shallow. She seems strong-willed and very smart, but it’s hard to get into her character because her desires and experiences aren’t very well articulated. She’s a student of the classics, but the only mention of this is a quote from Ovid, her desire to learn Latin and study at Mt. Holyoke, and how Lucas found her a classics study group in San Francisco. She’s a great nurse, but she never does any of this in the story. The story is also very uninteresting. It’s a race between Rachel and Lucas and the Collinses to get to the Bluebird mine to save William from being killed by the Collinses. They want to take all of Rachel’s late husband’s family’s money. Even they’re kind of lacking as far as villains are concerned. On top of all this, the sex is only so-so. If I had to read another description about her “pearl” and his “fat and tight” balls, I would have been even turned off. It was just such a disappointment after reading The Irish Devil. I’m not so sure if the others are better, but maybe one should just read the first book and not the others.
1 Star No Spark (D Grade)
Diane Whiteside can be a hit or miss author. She does have a talent for writing unusual, creative, and sensual love scenes and scenarios. That’s not the case with The Northern Devil, though – the love scenes are boring and overused. The book also misses the mark with over-the-top villains.
Rachel Davis is a widow about to come into quite a deal of money from her dead husband. She, along with her mother and sister, are being held captive by Albert Collins, her late husband’s principle trustee. Collins plans to force Rachel to wed his son and so produce the child necessary to collect the inheritance. Rachel feels she would not long survive after the marriage, and through some interesting maneuvering on her part, is able to escape, winding up in the arms of her friend and savior, Lucas Grainger.
Rachel’s husband was Lucas’s mentor and superior officer in the Union Army during the war. Lucas has always admired Rachel and kept in touch with her through letters as he ventured out west. When he finds out what has happened to Rachel, he comes to her rescue and offers to marry her for her protection. He is not at all averse to trying to get Rachel pregnant so she can get her money and believes that this may also be a way for him to find fulfillment in his own life. They quickly marry, consummate the marriage to the fullest and then go on the run as they try to find a way to outwit the greedy people who want them both dead.
I had a hard time warming up to Rachel and Lucas. Their personalities fell flat and their love scenes were cold, impersonal, and unoriginal. I found myself yawning as our two lovers boinked liked bunnies, ran from the bad guys, and then boinked some more. I also found myself cringing whenever the word “pearl” was invoked to describe a certain part of a woman’s anatomy – and it was used over and over and over again.
For an “on the run” story, there was very little action. Most of the action, when there was any, took place on trains, at train depots, or the surrounding area. The limited locations made this seem less of a road romance and more of a cabin romance – it certainly gave me cabin fever! The secondary plots were underdeveloped and made no sense to the overall story. It was like Whiteside became bored with her own story and began writing on automatic pilot – I know that I was bored.
I really wish I could express any enjoyment for The Northern Devil. I was very disappointed by the overall story and worry that the once original Whiteside seems to have lost her spark.
Katiebabs
5 Stars Another hit
I love how these stories have such bad guys, that are truely evil.
I love how the story goes so fast, you do not realize how much you read ubtil it is akmost over, it is that good.
It is an rasy trad and the suspense is pratically unbearable and the love sceans are great.
I also like how the cgaracters are all human, not super anything, just regular people dealing with evilness in people.
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