Devil in Disguise by Lisa Kleypas

🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

It's time for one the biggest historical romance releases of the year, Devil in Disguise by Lisa Kleypas. This is the 7th, and I think final, book in her Ravenels series. Not only was this one of my most anticipated releases of the year, it is also the August book for the Rake Appreciation Society. The club is hosted by Crystal and Jen and the live show [Link is now up!] is this Thursday. Update: I applied this to the prompt of plants on cover for the 3rd board of Summer of Swoon.

I've mentioned this before, but my favorite hero of Lisa Kleypas (so far) is Marcus, Lord Westcliff. His books is It Happened One Autumn and both him and his estate Stony Cross Park are seen in so many of Lisa's books. This heroine is Merritt, his eldest daughter. She is now widowed and running her late husband's shipping company. She meets Scottish whiskey maker Keir and there's an immediate attraction. Things happen and soon Merritt and Keir are sequestered away while he recovers from some injuries.

I absolutely adored this book and it's one of my top reads of the year, and most likely will stay near the top of the list at the end of the year. This was such a good book and I loved almost every moment. Even though this felt a little more insta-love than usual from Lisa, the way the story progresses and they way that they are able to naturally open up to each other and connect in multiple ways was so beautiful. I could rant and rave about this, but if you enjoy Lisa Kleypas or historical romance, you need to read this book. Even more so with a good chunk of the newer historicals just quite not doing it for me. Also, there is a connection to Sebastian so the devil in the title does match the previous books. I don't want to spoil it, but the way Lisa Kleypas handles the situation and how both Sebastian and Evie react to who Keir is is just so heartwarming.

The only downside I would say for this book is that it's not really a Ravenels. Yes we see characters that we've met in the previous books, the we mostly just interact with Phoebe and a little bit of Garrett and Ransom. Now, here's my crazy take on where this fits. After Chasing Cassandra it would've been fun to have a holiday novella. There we can learn about Merritt becoming a widow. Since the St. Vincents and Marsdens are known to be close and the kids raised as if cousins, we could've have a huge family holiday celebration. That would then lead into a new series, of which this would be book 1, and focusing on either just the Marsden kids, or the wallflower 2nd generation. That's the only thing I would change. This just doesn't fit in with Ravenels to me. That's it, the only thing I didn't like about the book. Well, that and there could've been more Marcus and Lillian, but they are my favorite couple from the wallflowers.

This was such a great read and really made me feel good and had everything that I love in a Lisa Kleypas and just historical romance in general. After my contemporary binge a couple weekends ago, I've been able to come out of a book slump and this book really helped me climb more out of the grips of the slump. I can't wait to gush about the book with everyone else on Thursday at the Rake Appreciation live show!

Have you read Devil in Disguise?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Devil in Disguise, Lisa Kleypas, 5-stars, 1 day, paperback, 384 pages, published in 2021