Review: The Devil’s Heart by Cathy Maxwell

Posted April 26, 2013 by Tracy in Reviews | 2 Comments

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

They call her the Unattainable. Lady Margaret Chattan spurned every suitor for her hand, vowing never to marry. The only way to break the curse plaguing her family for two centuries is this ultimate sacrifice. But now her brothers’ lives are in danger. Determined to save them, she risks her very soul by traveling into the heart of the highlands to battle a force that has transcended time.

Heath Macnachtan is not superstitious. Laird of the most independent, nonconforming, madly infuriating clan ever to grace Scotland, he believes he has his hands full. And then, a woman lauded as one of the most beautiful in England, arrives on his doorstep with wild accusations and a mystical quest . . . one that just might help him discover who murdered his own brother.

But the real danger for Heath and Margaret is not a supernatural foe, but a very real love that could destroy them both.

Margaret Chattan is on her way to Scotland to deal with her family’s curse. You see long ago the Chattan family was curse by a member of the Macnachtan family to die whenever they fall in love. Margaret is the first female born into the Chattan family since that curse was voiced and both her and her brother are convinced that she’s the one who can stop the curse.

When Margaret is almost to her destination her carriage is knocked off the road during a storm and almost everyone in her party is killed. Laird Macnachtan happens to find her and takes her back to his home. From the moment that Margaret wakes up Heath Macnachtan wants Margaret to himself. He thinks she’s a bit barmy to think that there actually is a curse but he hasn’t experienced the deaths like she has and her two brothers are failing fast.

Margaret does everything she can think of to find out the details of the curse and exactly how she can break it and Heath is right there with her every step of the way.

In the meantime Heath is dealing with his own issues as his brother died a year before, left him Laird and also left him with a pile of debts. Nothing due to crazy spending, but debts due to regular every day living. Heath worries about the lack of money and also about who killed his brother in the first place.

There’s a lot going on in the story but the romance runs through it pretty clearly. Heath is attached to Margaret from the get go and though he thinks she’s a bit off that doesn’t stop him from wanting her around.

The paranormal part of this story includes a cat that only a couple people have seen that seems to lead Margaret where she needs to go, crazy storms that come out of nowhere and apparitions. While I liked the idea of the curse the actual manifestation of it coming to life wasn’t particularly to my liking.(FYI – I didn’t read the first 2 books in this series so this was my first experience with the Chattan curse.) I thought it went a bit too far and I would have liked it better had it been toned down a bit, but that’s just me, of course.

Overall it was a nice love story and a decent read. I like what I’ve read from Maxwell so far but I think I’ll stick to her non-paranormal historical books in the future.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Cathy Maxwell


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2 responses to “Review: The Devil’s Heart by Cathy Maxwell

  1. Grat review! Hm. I'm one of those weird people that likes their books to be pararnomal or historical…not both. So curses…nah 🙂 And I'm so hanging out for a historical with a non-beautiful heroine!

  2. I've tried the historical/paranormal blend several times and some work, some don't. IDK – I guess it just depends on how the author pulls it off. 🙂

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