Auntee's Reviews > Devil in Winter

What a truly beautiful, romantic book, with so many sigh-worthy moments, so many humorous moments, lots of wickedly sexy dialogue...and featuring some very satisfying emotional growth from both the hero and heroine. I've always loved the stammering, shy, yet beautiful red-headed 'Wallflower' character of Evie Jenner, and could hardly wait to read her story. But when the hero of this book, 32-year-old Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent was introduced in It Happened One Autumn, I had my doubts about him. Sure, he was wickedly handsome (and he knew it!) with his blond, 'fallen angel' looks, and he was funny and charming, but he seemed to have no ambition in life except to go about seducing anything in a skirt. ****spoiler ahead*** And then when he betrayed his best (and only) friend, Marcus, by abducting his fiancee Lillian, I was so pissed at him!***end of spoiler*** Now how was Lisa Kleypas going to redeem this devilish rake and make me fall in love with him? And how was he ever going to find love with shy, timid Evie?

Well, after reading It Happened One Autumn and seeing how she transformed Marcus, Lord Westcliff from a stuffy, uptight arrogant know-it-all, into a sexy, to-die-for-hero, I should've had a little faith--I totally fell for St. Vincent! I knew after his sad past was revealed that all he needed was a little lovin', a little 'mothering' a little encouragement, and a whole lot of expectations from the right woman to be all the man that he could be. And the formerly shy, timid Evie was just the right woman to turn this bad boy around! Sure the transformation at times seemed slow, and painful, but fascinating to witness. Sebastian went from uttering lines like ...I rarely like to bed a woman more than once. A crashing bore, after the novelty is gone..." to saying after a few month's time My God. I love you so much that I'm drowning in it. I can't defend against it... Now that's progress!

A little plot summary here: Evie (23) is the shyest of the four looking-for-a-husband wallflowers (Annabelle, Lillian, Evie, Daisy) and is about to inherit the gambling hall owned by her infamous (but on-his-deathbed sickly) father, Ivo Jenner (Dreaming of You). But Evie's dastardly relatives want the inheritance for themselves, and have been doing everything in their power (even keeping her locked up) to keep her under their thumb and away from her father. They have plans to marry her off to her corpulent (and repulsive) cousin just so they can keep the money 'in the family'. Evie is desperate to break free from her abusive relatives, and figures if she marries a man who is powerful yet in dire need of her money, she would stand a chance. That's when she thinks of Lord St. Vincent--he's so desperate for money (his father has squandered their fortune) that he may agree to marry her. She doesn't care about his reputation as a skirt chaser (she wants nothing to do with him once they're married)--she just needs his protection from her greedy relatives. So she propositions him, he accepts, and then we the reader get to see whether this will be a marriage of convenience only, or maybe something will happen...and these two lost, lonely souls will find the greatest happiness in their lives.

Some of my favorite moments in the book:***possible spoilers***
**the interesting story behind Gretna Green, Scotland, and why so many English marriages occurred there
**the Scottish marriage ceremony, with the joining of the wrists/hands
**when we get a glimpse of Sebastian's compassion--carrying Evie over the threshhold; bringing the warming brick on the coach for her cold feet
**the inscription on the wedding ring--you know we'll see that again
**Sebastian's treatment of Evie on their wedding night (*sigh*)
**the care he shows towards her dying father
**the jealousy over her relationship with her friend Cam
**his protectiveness of Evie
**Evie coming into her own, showing tremendous strength of character
**Evie getting St. Vincent to agree to a 3 month period of celibacy--how did she ever manage that?
**Sebastian finally getting off his duff and working at something other than bedding oh-so-willing women
**the sexual entendres throughout the book (the pool cue stick, etc.)
**Evie's utter devotion when Sebastian needs her the most
**the renewing of the friendship with Marcus
**the bedroom scenes (steamy), especially when Evie takes the initiative
**seeing St. Vincent totally fall under Evie's spell
**Evie's refusal to take no for an answer, forcing Sebastian to face his feelings for her

And finally, some of my favorite lines:
**No one could fail to observe that whenever Evie entered the room St. Vincent practically vibrated like a tuning fork.
**Evie, putting her cold feet on the hot brick that St. Vincent provided: "Oh...n-nothing has ever felt so good..." St. Vincent: "Women say that to me all the time."
**Evie's declaration to St. Vincent: "You can s-send me away, but you can't stop me from running back to you. I want to spend every day with you. I want to watch you shave in the morning. I want to drink champagne and dance with you. I want to mend the holes in your stockings. I want to share a bed with you every night, and to have your children."
**Sebastian: "My love is upon you..." (*sniff*)

To sum up...romance lovers everywhere, do yourselves a favor and read this book--no--read this series! The writing, the plot, the little tidbits and factoids about 1840s England (the food, the dress, etc.) the wonderful characters, the smokin' hot love scenes...so far I've enjoyed each book of this wonderful series! What makes me sad is that there's only two more to go.:( This one rates another 5 big stars!


St. Vincent...