“The book was falling… I was reaching for it, and …. your lips were in the way” – I loved this line, it made me laugh so much.

Ah the joy of buying random books from Amazon for my Kindle. I saw this book initially on Goodreads and thought ah well, give it a go. I downloaded the sample chapter and had to download the rest of the book immediately. Now when I say I had to download immediately it was more to do with me being intrigued as to what was actually going on.

We have Phoebe, a young widow who is re-joining society after being in mourning for her late husband, Henry, they were a love match but he had been sickly since childhood and eventually passed from his ailments leaving Phoebe to raise their two young children and run the estate. Phoebe is no damsel in distress of needing saving. Yes, she has relied on her husband’s cousin, Edward, but she was caring for Henry, their children and the house who could blame her for letting him manage the estate. However, her mourning period is over and she is ready to protect her kids inheritance. Then we have West, a former rake and wastrel who, no longer being welcomed in society, is running his older brothers estate in the country. Here he has found his true calling, he has out aside his wild ways and increased the profitability of the estate and earnt the respect of the tenant farmers by working alongside them. Oh, he also happened to bully Phoebes late husband when they were at boarding school together and Phoebe loathes him as soon as she becomes aware of his name. They meet at the wedding of her brother to his cousin and soon hit it off ,though Phoebe tries to resist him for the sake of her late husband’s memory. But by being charming he wins over Phoebe’s son, her Parents, even her kids Nanny and then Phoebe herself when he apologies for his past sins towards her husband and how that he still owns the book that he stole from Henry.

Of course they get together and enjoy an illicit affair, during this time West helps Phoebe with her estate and they uncover a secret hidden in the accounting books. I am sure we could all see it coming, Edward turns out to be the real cad by having a mistress and secret child hidden away, paid for none the less by money he has embezzled from Phoebe’s estate, Phoebe shows sympathy towards the mistress and child but has no sympathy for Edward when he tried to justify his actions, some rubbish about this woman being beneath him and not suitable to be his wife ( what a load of hogwash).

Obviously, Phoebe and West end up together with some encouragement from her Dad in an amusing ending. But for a book that I was initially mocking as some of it is so cheesy, I did really enjoy it and wouldn’t rule out reading some of the other books in this series when I am in need of pick me up. I managed to start with book five in this series which explains why I felt as though I was missing bits at time but as I had no prior knowledge of the story or this universe this stood well as a standalone story.

Now a quick word about the cover, The image on the left above in the image from Goodreads, but the one on the right is image on my Amazon Kindle. The Goodreads image is completely right for this book, but the Kindle one tells me a whole other story, I imagine this one is for a book where the Devil’s Daughter actually refers to the illegitimate daughter of a legendary Pirate or highway man, she is raised in a school for girls and when she is of age she becomes a governess and then its basically the rest of Jane Eyre in my imagination. Isn’t it funny how the image on the front of the book makes you imagine what the whole story could be?

Is there a book that you have read where the cover was totally different to the actual story inside?

Happy Reading

Kate xoxoxo