To Desire A Devil
Elizabeth Hoyt
Grand Central, November 2009,
Series: Legend of Four Soldier – Book Four
ISBN-10: 0446406937
ISBN-13: 978-0446406932
$6.99 (US) 8.99 (CDN)
Reviewed by Mary Gramlich
November 2009
The final book in an amazing series opens with high drama and suspense as the soldier long thought dead is in fact very much alive and has just collapsed as Beatrice Corning’s tea party. Reynaud’s other friends and soldiers left the battlegrounds in the Colonies knowing they had been betrayed and believing that Reynaud St. Aubyn was dead. Reynaud is the Viscount of Hope, Earl of Blanchard and his return to his childhood home reveals to him that a distant relative has taken his title, monies and lands as his own. Reynaud has survived battles, capture and enslavement in the Colonies by Indians for seven years only to be told nothing is as it is supposed to be. But Reynaud is not going to let that happen – he is the true Earl and he will have his title and all that goes with it returned to him and nothing can stop that, not even Beatrice Corning the beautiful woman living in his home
Reynaud may be half-starved from his travels to get home but even he can see that there is something so special and unique within Beatrice that she glows. Beatrice nurses him back to health and is the voice of reason and calm when all else is chaos in his life. One by one all of his former friends come back into his life and the entire time Beatrice is pulling him toward living again instead of staying a wounded and emotionally troubled soul.
Since the day Beatrice came to live with her aunt and uncle she has longed to meet the man in the painting over the mantle. Even as unrealistic as it should be she had fallen in love with the face of the man who now is in the flesh and more handsome than she tough possible. He tells her the tales of his time as a prisoner with the Indians and as each story unfolds into another she finds herself more in love with him every day.
But Beatrice has been cared for by her uncle who assumed the title and now she feels a battle of wills is about to put her in a position of choosing one man over another and she is not sure what will happen. But Beatrice is in the way for whoever wants Reynaud to truly be dead and one too many attempts on his life cause her physical and emotional damage. But is Beatrice strong enough to heal Reynaud, bring him back from the shell of a man that he is and show him that love can warm your heart even without a title. Reynaud is fighting his demons but even he knows that with the love of Beatrice he can win over any battle and they can both have justice for their causes.
This last book in the series takes a very dramatic turn that the reader does not see coming. You never expected the final book to be about the soldier long discussed as dead nor find that his scars run so deep. Though the revelation of the traitor at Spinner’s Fall is important to the story it is not as critical and as understanding how Reynaud fought for his life and found salvation in the last place he would have looked his own home. While the other stories are a wonderful precursor to this book you do not have to have read them to follow the plot or fill in the missing pieces. Ms. Holt is an expert at storytelling and each book can stand alone but they are so wonderful together.