This was hard to rate, because my feelings for it went all over the place. I can't think of a better line to describe it. Besides that, as another reader (=Verity) said in her review, this book was like a shrinking balloon: started full of potential but continued to loose air until it deflated completely in the end. I was glad to see all heroes and heroines from previous books in the end and find out who the traitor was. They were just erotic and not love scenes and I skimmed through most of them. When the attraction between the main characters is missing, the erotic scenes suffer as well. And in his case, it hardly moves beyond physical attraction.

More or less, any other english lady would do as well. The only thing that seems to attract him in the heroine is that she smells of english flowers and thus home, and she's soft and tender. As for the hero, he spends most of the book looking after his own needs. It's hard to believe that suddenly she loves him for his intensity and inner strength. The real man however, coming from a war, is dark, brooding and the complete opposite of what she fell in love with. She loved the portrait because the man in it was so full of life and beautiful. The heroine never really moves from her adolescent crush.

Secondly, I couldn't feel the love between them. Cold, manipulative, selfish and self-absorbed he has litle to recommend him besides his good looks. So, when the real man comes crushing through her front door, it doesn't take long for her to fall in love with him. Having met no other man who's as interesting as him, she's spent many hours in front of his portrait, fantasizing about him. It's the portrait of a vibrant, happy, mischevious young man. The heroine has admired Reynaud's full-size portrait for years. Reynaud, coming home after seven long years, most of which he spent in captivity, has only one thing in his mind: to get his money, houses and title back and resume his previous life. The heroine's uncle is the current Earl of Blanchard, the title that would normally belong to the hero. However, this book starts with his sudden appearence at the heroine's political party. The hero, Reynaud St Aubyn, was considered dead. Other than that, there is little to recommend this book.

Readers who've read the previous books in the series, would want to read this one that conludes the search for the traitor of Spinners Falls and brings all the previous couples together.

To Desire a Devil by Elizabeth Hoyt