Author: Kerrigan Byrne
Series: Devil You Know (Book 1)
Publication: St. Martin's Paperbacks (August 27, 2019)
Description: These men are dark, bold, and brave. And there is only one woman who can bring them to their knees...
Famed and brilliant, Lady Alexandra Lane has always known how to look out for to herself. But nobody would ever expect that she has darkness in her past―one that she pays a blackmailer to keep buried. Now, with her family nearing bankruptcy, Alexandra strikes upon a solution: Get married to one of the empire’s most wealthy eligible bachelors. Even if he does have the reputation of a devil.
LOVE TAKES NO PRISONERS
Piers Gedrick Atherton, the Duke of Redmayne, is seeking revenge and the first step is securing a bride. Winning a lady’s hand is not so easy, however, for a man known as the Terror of Torcliff. Then, Alexandra enters his life like a bolt of lightning. When she proposes marriage, Piers knows that, like him, trouble haunts her footsteps. But her gentleness, sharp wit, independent nature, and incredible beauty awakens every fierce desire within him. He will do whatever it takes to keep her safe in his arms.
My Thoughts: This story begins with a Prologue in which we meet Lady Alexandra Lane who is a student at an elite private school in Switzerland. She is a young lady with two good friends. Both are red heads as she is. The have formed their own club and a very strong friendship.
When the headmaster calls her to his study late in the evening and rapes her, she manages to kill him with a razor lying on his desk. She and her friends along with a gardener who is close to one of her friends manage to bury him in the garden.
The other two - Cecilia and Francesca - also share secrets about their lives and promise to keep her secret forever.
Ten years later, Lady Alexandra has obtained a degree in history from the Sorbonne and works as an archaeologist. She is very wary and sometimes terrified by men. She is also being blackmailed over those long past events. Also, her father is going bankrupt which she fears mostly because she won't have funds to continue to pay off her blackmailer.
When she receives a note from Francesca asking for her help and telling her that she is to be married to the Duke of Redmayne, Alexandra catches a train - second class - and heads off to help her friend. There she meets the Duke of Redmayne who is also known as the Terror of Torcliff. Piers Atherton, Duke of Redmayne, has been a world traveler and explorer and is scarred from an encounter with a jungle cat in South America. Piers almost died and his fiance threw him over for his cousin while he was ill. Piers is determined to marry and have children to block his cousin from ever inheriting the dukedom.
Alexandra decides that she should be the one who marries the duke because Francesca doesn't want to and Alexandra needs his money. Of course, she is also fascinated by him though terrified of being intimate with him.
Someone, however, doesn't want them to marry. There are multiple attempts on both their lives. Both think that they are the intended target and neither is willing to confide in the other.
This was an entertaining romance with just enough suspense to add the spice of danger to their courtship.
Favorite Quote:
"Very well." Alexandra stepped out from behind the barrier of the chair feeling somewhat akin to Joan of Arc or Ann Boleyn. Brave. Unsure. And...something else A little curious?I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.
Better to face the gallows now than to dread them for a month. Best to get this over with.
Exciting!
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