The Devil's Delilah is a hilarious and easy read. This is from the publisher's summary: Hot-tempered and unpredictable, Delilah Desmond was indeed the Devil's daughter. "Devil" Desmond, to be exact, society's most infamous rogue who had just completed his scandalous memoirs. A great many dreaded the tell-all publication, including his daughter, for it meant certain social ruin.
Delilah's parents are social outcasts, although their bloodlines can be traced back to the Conqueror. Their most recent history has made it virtually impossible to be part of the Great Society and they live in relative isolation- and peace- in Scotland. However, Delilah's father, in an attempt to secure a legacy and dowry for his daughter has come to England in the hopes of selling a manuscript of his memoirs. His rough and tumble heydays were full of exploits that a lot of members of the "Great Society" are not eager to have made public. He is traveling with his daughter Delilah with the hopes that she can secure an advantageous marriage. Delilah is is not well received due to her parent's history and so in order to avoid any further damage to the families reputations, Devil makes the decision to forgo the publication of the memoirs. The mere threat of the memoirs existence leads to the story's villain, Lord Streetham, stealing the memoirs.
Enter Jack Langdon. Jack is my favorite kind of hero-- Kind, bookish, but with real street smarts and a spine of steel. He is uncompromisingly honorable and loyal. When he meets Delilah (in a scene that really sets the stage for the madcap feel of the rest of the book), he is immediately drawn to her and spends the first part of the book trying to resist the pull he feels toward her. He is nursing a broken heart and the last thing he wants is to put himself in the position to be disappointed again. However, when he is inadvertently drawn in the drama over the manuscript, he finds himself going to extreme measure to protect Delilah and her family. While he and Delilah spend most of the book misunderstanding each other, a very sweet friendship grows and I was really excited about getting to their eventual HEA. But, that excitement didn't cause me to skip ahead. I read every single word. And towards the end as the drama reached a fevered pitch, I found myself laughing SO hard.
Loretta Chase is a fantastic writer. I typically like my books to be "hot" in terms of the sensuality and this was more like luke warm. But, it didn't make the romance any less exciting or satisfying. This is book two in the her Regency Noblemen series. Like her Scoundrels series , these books can be read as stand-alones. I also bought the audio book version ($1.99 after I bought the kindle version) and the narrator, Stevie Zimmerman, was excellent! Loretta Chase's audiobooks all have great narrators. Don't miss Kate Reading's narration of the Scoundrels, Dressmakers and Carsington series.
