To Desire a Devil by Elizabeth Hoyt

After escaping a seven-year long captivity, Reynaud St. Aubyn has finally made it back to England, only to find out that his title, lands and money has been given away to a distant relative due to the fact that everyone thinks he died during the battle at Spinner's Falls.

Sick with fever and more than a little angry, he stumbled into his family home, talking in French and collapsed right in front of Beatrice Corning, the present earl's niece .

And so the story begins, with Reynauld trying to regain what was taken from him, trying to finally find out who was the traitor that gave them away at Spinner's Falls and with him laying his claim on Beatrice because in a world where everything doesn't make much sense to him anymore, she seems like home.

To Desire a Devil is the forth and final book in Elizabeth Hoyt's Legend of the Four Soldiers' series and I'm sad to say that I didn't love it. Oh, there were parts that were very good and I loved the trademark fairy tale told in the epigraphs of each chapter, but I just never grew to like Reynaud. He was a very selfish hero during most of the book and it was hard to even sympathize with him. I liked Beatrice and her friends Lottie and Jeremy, and I liked catching up with the couples of the previous books in the series but Beatrice and Reynauld just never convinced me as a couple.

Maybe it's just because I've loved all of Mrs. Hoyt's other books and I had high expectations but this one was only so so for me. Still, the writing is quite good and I did enjoy most aspects of it.

Grade:
2/3

To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt

After spending the last fourteen years as the mistress of the Duke of Lister, Helen Fitzwilliam made the decision to leave the duke for the sake of her children Abigail and Jamie, since she doesn't want them to grow up under the Duke's bad influence. But Helen also knows that the Duke will not be inclined to let her and the children go, not because he loves them but because he thinks of them as things that belong to him. So, with the help of Lady Vale (From To Seduce a Sinner), Helen runs off to Scotland, to the very much neglected Castle Greaves where she plans to work as a housekeeper and keep a low profile.

The only problem is that the owner of Castle Greaves, Sir Alistair Munroe, does not want a housekeeper - even though everyone would agree that he NEEDS one - he doesn't like having people around, let alone a beautiful woman and her children. Still, their presence help him realize just how lonely he has been since returning from the colonies - where he lost an eye, two fingers and a big part of his pride - and he reluctantly allows them to stay.

Now, Helen doesn't know much about housekeeping but she's quite good at making lists and with the help of a newly hired staff, she slowly begins to restore the castle while she and her children begin to steal into Alistair's heart.

To Beguile a Beast is the third book of the Legend of Four Soldiers series by Elizabeth Hoyt and, as with the two previous books, the on going theme of the betrayal of the regiment the four heroes belonged to while in the colonies which was slaughtered at Spinner's Falls, continues but in a much more subdued way than in To Taste Temptation or To Seduce a Sinner. Alistair does care about what happened and he does care that they were betrayed but he doesn't let the thought consume him the way it did to Lord Vale in the previous book.

Alistair does make a wonderful hero, in my opinion, he is flawed and he wears many of his scars on his face, but he's also very gentle and in his gruff way he tries to protect the people around him and the way he is with Helen's daughter Abigail was just heartwarming. Also, he gets the kids a puppy to cheer them up! and that just gives him major points in my book.

Helen is a very worthy heroine too, she made bad choices in her life but she wants to do better for her children and in that way she's awesome.

Also, another trademark from Hoyt, the fairy tale at the beginning of each chapter is a very cleaver retelling of Beauty and the Beast - one I had personally never heard before and trust me that's hard because I'm a B&B nut - and I adored it.

For these and other things (including Puddles the puppy) I loved this book.

Grade:

Book Gossip (#8)

Another Cover

Recently Elizabeth Hoyt re-did her site (it's looking great) and also posted the cover for her Fall release To Desire a Devil - which also confirmed the rumors that Reynaud St. Aubyn will be the hero of the last book of the Legend of the Four Soldiers series.

Summary:

NOTHING IS MORE INTOXICATING—

Reynaud St. Aubyn has spent the last seven years in hellish captivity. Now half mad with fever he bursts into his ancestral home and demands his due. Can this wild-looking man truly be the last earl’s heir, thought murdered by Indians years ago?

OR DANGEROUS—

Beatrice Corning, the niece of the present earl, is a proper English miss. But she has a secret: No real man has ever excited her more than the handsome youth in the portrait in her uncle’s home. Suddenly, that very man is here, in the flesh—and luring her into his bed.

THAN SURRENDERING TO A DEVIL.

Only Beatrice can see past Reynaud’s savagery to the noble man inside. For his part, Reynaud is drawn to this lovely lady, even as he is suspicious of her loyalty to her uncle. But can Beatrice’s love tame a man who will stop at nothing to regain his title—even if it means sacrificing her innocence?

I definitely can't wait.