and it is rather clumsily written! But, let’s be honest. In this one, we have a disturbed assassin. I am now recognising a familiar formula to these books where at least one of the lovers (but ideally both, at different times) will face some form of mortal peril that the other will sacrifice to rescue them from. I would say that most of the plot remains comfortably predictable as a romance, but it does go little nuts towards the end. And we are both equally desperate, which leads me to believe that you will agree to my pr-proposition. It isn’t f-fair … but I can’t afford to go tilting at windmills. It is an insane plan – after he kidnapped and threatened to rape her friend – but she has no other options.Īn unmarried woman has little recourse, socially or legally. They are both desperate – she needs the protection marriage will offer her from her abusive family, and he needs the money she’ll inherit when her father dies.

It picks up right from the final scene of the previous book, as Evie proposed to St Vincent that they get married. This one is a real departure from the previous two books which I have to say felt very welcome, as I was getting very fatigued by the forced kisses and ‘bullish’ men after two books. So, if I do reread something in a short time after finishing it that means I really loved it (also see Bunny!), and this I equally loved on my second read-through. I am not a person that re-reads books unless it has been about a decade and I’ve entirely forgotten it. Partly because crammed it into my brain within 48 hours the first time around, and then sped onto the final book, and consequently my memory was a little faded by the time I came to write the review up and really wanted to make sure I did Sebastian justice. I enjoy this so bloody much that I have read it twice in 3 months.

I had also really enjoyed St Vincent in It Happened One Autumn until he took his bewildering turn into pantomime villainy ( what were you thinking Kleypas?). The Devil in Winter is the book I first came across in this series, and its one of the most highly rated books in the historical romance genre, plus it focuses on Evie – the only true Wallflower in the group – so I was super excited to get stuck into this one. I absolutely bloody loved this – emotional growth, foot warmers, back massages… this is my love language! 😍

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas