Devil's Daughter by Lisa Kleypas

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After my contemporary binge this past weekend, I needed to get back to my planned tbr. I have the last two books in my Ravenels reread before getting to Devil in Disguise for the Rake Appreciation Society hosted by Crystal and Jen. I put off my reread a little bit since I was getting slumpy, but I am back and ready to go. Plus I have the Dark Romance Readathon this weekend, so my normal weekend time is going to be allocated to that. So book 5 of the Ravenels series by Lisa Kleypas is Devil's Daughter. As I've mentioned in my previous reviews, any title with Devil in it is related to Sebastian. He's the popular Kleypas hero from Devil in Winter, in case you didn't know. Update: I applied this to the prompt of set outside the USA for the 3rd board of Summer of Swoon.

Here is a couple where we've previously met both. West is the younger brother to Devon (from Cold-Hearted Rake) and has been in the background working on restoring the Ravenel estate. Even over the first four books we've seen him grow and change as person peripherally. Our heroine is Phoebe, the widowed daughter of St. Vincent and older sister of Gabriel (from Devil in Spring). West was a bully to Phoebe's late husband in school. She has hatred towards him because of this and when they meet at Gabriel and Pandora's wedding, they are thrust together. West of course doesn't quite recognize who Phoebe is.

I forgot how much I loved this book. We get so much of Sebastian and Evie. I also love how Phoebe and her boys are portrayed. I've been reading a lot of single parent romances lately, so this was perfect to bridge the gap back into historical romance for me. There's so much good about this book. The only thing I would gripe about is the 3rd act conflict. It happens so late that I wish they would've discussed what their issues was and we got to see a little bit more of them happy in the end. There's not even an epilogue. We also get a few parallels between West and Sebastian and to Devil in Winter. I've mentioned this before, but my favorite wallflower book was It Happened One Autumn and my favorite Lisa Kleypas hero (so far) is Marcus Westcliff. I don't know, he just does it for me. We do get to see him a little bit in passing, and also learn that his older daughter Merritt is best friends with Phoebe.

When Lisa Kleypas announced there was going to be a book 7, everyone was intrigued on who the couple would be. When the blurb was finally announced, I was super happy to see the heroine would be Merritt, although that also means she became a widow between this book and hers. But back to Devil's Daughter. One thing that I've been really noticing lately and featured in this book was reaching out for help. When Phoebe went back to Essex and the Clare estate she could've not asked for help with the ledgers and just struggled. In so many books I've read, it would've happened that way so she could prove how strong and independent she was. Then the hero would hear through the grapevine or randomly show up to help out. Not here. Phoebe takes one look, realizes she's in over her head and immediately asks West for help. I loved that choice so much, and I feel like it really hit me more now than when I first read this book a couple years ago. I also loved how West was with Justin and Stephen and naturally had those father instincts that warmed my heart. Plus we get a cute kitty. I just love this book so much. I had previously rated this 4-stars, but upon reread this is a 5-star book. If I really want to split hairs, maybe like 4.90-stars, but let's not do that.

I can't wait to get to the last two books in the series and continue on. I feel like moving forward I need to have a Lisa Kleypas book in my tbr every month; at least one. Her books just give me the swoony, feel-good vibes that I love. If you haven't tried Lisa Kleypas yet, I couldn't recommend her more. She's widely considered one of the queens of historical romance and such a great place to start!

Have you read Devil's Daughter?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Devil's Daughter, Lisa Kleypas, 5-stars, 0 days, paperback, 375 pages, published in 2019