Tag: Random House Digital

Guest Review: The Devil’s Thief by Samantha Kane

Posted November 7, 2012 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 0 Comments

Judith’s review of The Devil’s Thief by Samantha Kane

In Samantha Kane’s sensual tale of wicked passion, a desperate woman must resort to burglary—but the beautiful thief ends up stealing the heart of a rogue.

The daughter of a reformed jewel thief, Julianna Harte knows a thing or two about stealth. When the foundling home she provides for finds itself in dire financial straits, Julianna is forced to do the unthinkable. In a bit of misguided Robin Hood derring-do, she slips through the window of a wealthy rake to search for a treasure she knows is there: an invaluable pearl. But when the towering and very naked occupant of the moonlit bedroom ambushes her with a bargain—a night in his bed in exchange for the pearl—Julianna doesn’t know if it’s masculine heat or sheer desperation that makes his terms so tempting.

Alasdair Sharpe had no intention of keeping his end of the bargain. Planning to offer his little cat burglar carte blanche instead, he promptly loses himself in the delights of unexpected pleasure. But when he awakes the next morning to find his family heirloom gone, fury quickly replaces sensual languor. Of course, Alasdair is more than willing to use seduction to reclaim his stolen pearl—and find the key to Julianna’s heart.


It wasn’t enough that Julianna Harte turned out to be inept thief or that she was going after the most perfect pearl in the world.  It certainly was more than annoying that she took Mr. Sharp at his word and thought he had given the Stewart Pearl to her as fulfillment of their carnal bargain.  No, Julianna Harte turned out to be a highly intelligent and very complicated woman and one that managed slowly to drive Alasdair Sharpe to look at himself through a whole different set of inner lenses helped along, of course, by the Saint’s Devils, men who were closer than brothers, bound together by their shared childhood boyhood experience and connected more deeply than even blood brothers.  In this first novel in a new series, the reader meets Mr. Alasdair Sharpe for the first time, along with several other gentlemen who have tasted of life’s finer things, loved many beautiful women, faced some dastardly and evil people, all the while managing to maintain a sense of honor, a clear-cut sense of right and wrong, and determination to use their life experiences to right some fairly substantial wrongs.
However, at the core of this story is the budding relationship between Miss Harte and Mr Sharpe–her need for money to support her foundling home, and his need to recover a priceless family heirloom.  In addition to meeting the fascinating heroine who prefers to move through society and its events nearly invisible, the reader meets Alasdair and several of his bosom buddies, some unsavory characters who put Julianna’s life in danger, a young man who has been locked into crime before he was able to walk, and some members of society who turn out to be surprising support for Julianna’s charity efforts.  It is a story that could easily get bogged down in the repartee between the men who make up The Saint’s Devils, but in this instance I think such passages are important to establish the nature of the relationship between these men, what binds them together, the depth of their regard for one another as friends and their bond to one another, and the character and persona of each of the men as a foundation for the coming novels that will tell their individual story.  There are also the humorous, maddening, and very erotic encounters between Alasdair and Julianna, most of which end up with them falling into each other’s arms and not always because they are madly in love.  Often their encounters are couched in angry and adversarial conversation.  I think this novel also challenges readers to look beyond the obvious, to try to see people beyond the prejudices we all carry around with us much as society did to Julianna in judging her as plain, ar at the very least, easily dismissed when compared to the young women who were often styled as the Incomparables
This is a novel that once again reeks with Ms Kane’s unique style and her evident expertise, with her commitment to detail, with a story line and intensity that are uniquely her own.  It is a love story first and foremost, but careful reading of this first novel will, I fully believe, set the stage for all the novels to come.  It is a fine piece of writing and readers who love historical romance fiction will find here a book that begs to be read and enjoyed, feasting on the historical context of that time, and allowing the characters to impress with their view of their reality.  So I recommend this novel and hope you will take the time and make the effort to enjoy and learn.

I give this novel a 4 out of 5.

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.
This book is available from Random House Digital – Loveswept. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.


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#DFRAT Guest Review: About Last Night by Ruthie Knox

Posted June 19, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 4 Comments


Cath Talarico knows a mistake when she makes it, and God knows she’s made her share. So many, in fact, that this Chicago girl knows London is her last, best shot at starting over. But bad habits are hard to break, and soon Cath finds herself back where she has vowed never to go . . . in the bed of a man who is all kinds of wrong: too rich, too classy, too uptight for a free-spirited troublemaker like her.

Nev Chamberlain feels trapped and miserable in his family’s banking empire. But beneath his pinstripes is an artist and bohemian struggling to break free and lose control. Mary Catherine—even her name turns him on—with her tattoos, her secrets, and her gamine, sex-starved body, unleashes all kinds of fantasies.

When blue blood mixes with bad blood, can a couple that is definitely wrong for each other ever be perfectly right? And with a little luck and a lot of love, can they make last night last a lifetime?


Cath is a Chicagoan living in England. She takes the train daily and works at a museum – living a nice, quiet, staid and safe life. This is the New Cath. The “old” Cath we don’t know much about but we get a clue that Cath thinks she made some mistakes in her young life.

One of her favorite things is to watch the people on the train platform and try to figure out their stories and of course she has a name for each of them. One of the people that she thinks she’s got figured out is “City”. City comes to the train in his suits with the newspaper under his arm. He’s gorgeous and oh so not Cath’s type. So why did she end up waking up in his flat?

Cath had agreed to go out on a blind date and ends up drunk – to try and drown out her excessive boredom. She ends up a bit depressed when she starts thinking about her deceased mother and drinks even more. She wakes up in a flat that is not her own and the night before slowly comes back to her. She finds herself in City’s apartment and instead of the buttoned up man she sees on the train all the time she finds a man in jeans and a t-shirt, painting a portrait. The pair find that they hit it off and though Cath is sure that she shouldn’t sleep with “City”, otherwise known as Nev, she does anyway. That is the beginning of what is an amazing and wonderful relationship – to a point. Sure Cath refuses to actually date Nev but they end up together almost all the time they’re not working anyway. Cath starts to open up to Nev about herself and her past and slowly but surely she falls in love with him. Nev falls as well but as open as he is with Cath even he isn’t completely open and trusting.

The tenderness and caring that Nev shows Cath from moment one will, I think, be forever imprinted in my brain. The initial love scene with Nev and Cath was so damned good I went back and read it again. Lol He was such a paradox with his high powered bank job, his family who is all about appearances but then there’s his love for life, his great sense of humor, his relaxed artist personality and it just made me wonder who the real Nev was. I loved that stuffed shirt so very much. Yes, he was emotionally stunted as was Cath but they just worked for each other in so many different ways.

Unfortunately Cath is too fearful of truly letting go and frankly so is Nev. Between the two of them they have to work out their issues and the way that things were resolved in the end was very sweet. I loved so very much of this book. I can see where others might find it a bit frustrating at parts, and yeah, I’m not a huge fan of non-communication but in this case it all just worked for me.

Knox’s writing was fun and easy to read with great dialogue, but it was also emotionally charged and somewhat electric. I loved the fact that she didn’t feel like she had to write a perfect hero OR a perfect heroine. These people were real to me, with real issues that made the book so much better. I would definitely recommend this one as a great summer read.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5


You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place


This book is available from Loveswept – Random House Digital. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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