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.

Julianna started a foundling home in a bad part of London with her father some time ago and it’s now in dire straits.  She hasn’t kept up with the rent, spending what little money they had to buy things for the children, like food and clothing.  Now the building has been sold and the new owner is demanding the back rent or they will be evicted.  Julianna doesn’t want to ask her father and his new wife for the funds fearing that she’ll be told to stop working with the children (she doesn’t really know her new step-mother so she’s unsure of her reaction to Julianna working in such a bad area).  She takes matters into her own hands and turns to thievery.

This may seem like it’s a bit far-fetched, but her father was a thief and she learned the art from him.  Now that he’s married to a respectable woman he has stopped his thieving ways, but Julianna decides she’ll steal this one time to get the money she needs. She decides to steal the Stewart Pearl (a pearl that has been in the Stewart/Stuart family for years)  – owned by the man who lives across the street.  Unfortunately when she’s exiting his room with the pearl in hand, she’s caught by the man himself.

Alasdair Sharp is shocked when he realizes the thief trying to steal his pearl is a woman.  He’s intrigued, however, and though he can’t see her properly he decides that he’ll make a bargain with her.  He tells her that he’ll give her the pearl in the morning if she spends the night in his bed. Even though Julianna already has the pearl she agrees to the night in his bed. Imagine how shocked Alasdair is when he wakes up and the pearl and the girl are both gone.

Julianna hocks the pearl to a very disreputable man.  Since the pearl is so well known, however, it’s her only choice.  When Alasdair starts following her (along with his friends) trying to figure out what she’s done with the pearl, they get to know each other better.  This causes Julianna to have second thoughts about pawning the pearl and now she’s determined to get it back. Of course the only way to do that is to steal it.

This was a book that I requested from NetGalley back in August of 2012.  I remember trying to read it back then and at that time I just couldn’t get into it.  I really liked Kane’s Brothers in Arms series, so I was surprised that this book wasn’t working for me.  I decided to try again and while I got through the book it really didn’t work for me.

The first scene where Julianna is caught and given the bargain was ridiculous.  I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.  Alasdair finds a thief in his room and instead of calling the watch he starts running his finger around her face and collar bone?  Really? I don’t think so. He asks why she wants to pearl and she says she needs it to pay the rent.  When he sleeps with her he gets immediately attached and in his mind is making plans to go shopping with her in the morning and make this woman his mistress. WTF?  He didn’t even know her name yet but he’s making plans for the future? (I mentioned this to Holly and she said he has Captain Save-a-Ho complex. LOL)   I guess he thought that’s his version of compensation as he had no plans to give her the pearl.

The sex scene is one of the most humorous I’ve read in a while.  Yes, she was a virgin and doesn’t tell him, so he thinks she’s experienced.  He doesn’t move gently and when he discovers that he just took her virginity he wants to pull away but can’t make himself do it.  She doesn’t want him to stop so she wraps her legs around him.  What happens then you ask? Well, “he slid farther into her exquisite cavern.”  Cavern?  How big is it in there?  Is there anything less sexy?  Then he immediately thinks about how tight she is. Make up your mind!   Alasdair’s disgruntled because he feels she lied to him about her experience but she never told him she was a virgin, right?.  He says to her that he thought she wanted it and she says to him that she did, indeed, want it.  He then asks her if she only slept with him to get the pearl – like that was really in question.  Duh!  She was stealing it, of course she wants the pearl you stupid man! He is then shocked and says something like you should have told me that you needed it that badly.  What?  I WAS STEALING YOUR FAMILY HEIRLOOM, YOU NUT! How badly did you think I needed it?  I laughed through this whole scene because it was just sheer entertainment – absolutely nothing sexy about it.

Anyway, the story involves Alasdair trying to find out who the thief is so he goes to his friends.  It is mentioned that these friends were Saint’s Devils.  Being book 1 in a series I have no idea who or what those are.  Is this a spin-off from another series?  No idea and nothing was explained about it. The friends play a big roll in the book but it kind of felt like Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

Alasdair was angry for a large portion of the book and then he was claiming he was in love.  I personally didn’t see anything that would have caused these two people to love each other except lust.  Their characters never talked about who they were as people or got to know each other better.  I just didn’t buy the HEA I was given.

Rating: 2 out of 5

The Saint’s Devils