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.
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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