Elizabeth Hoyt - To Desire a Devil

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?
Beatrice Corning, the niece of the present earl, is a proper English miss. But she has a 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.
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?

Comment: This is the final installment in the Legend of Four Soldiers by author Elizabeth Hoyt, and makes the end of another series finished.

In this story we finally learn what happened to Reynaud St Aubyn, a fellow soldier and friend of the previous three protagonists, who has been the subject of some speculation throughout those other books. In truth, Reynaud was enslaved by the Indian tribe where he has been for all this time and the evidence if his death, as seen by others, was meant to deceive his friends. Now, after finally being able to escape, he is back in England and wants to get his life back and that includes his house. 

The problem is that now someone else has his title and money but he plans on doing what he can to recover what he is owned, including using the help of his "cousin" Beatrice, who has been the host for Uncle Reginald, the current earl. In fact he and Beatrice aren't related by blood, for Beatrice's parents have died and they were related to Uncle Reginald's wife. But, perhaps this situation is for the better and Reynaud has a chance to use Beatrice as a way to prove Reginald doesn't have good intentions, although he would not count on liking Beatrice so much...

To be fair, there isn't much more to this story than the actual need to see the end of a main story line and the punishment of the person responsible for the soldiers being ambushed in the colonies, which resulted in their torture and enslavement and that still affects the all now. If not for this, I cannot say this was the most spectacular story written by the author, for she has written other books I liked a lot more. Still, it made for an entertaining story and that was enough for me.

Reynaud is back to England after a gruesome experience, one that certainly left him with what we now call PTSD and this colors his actions and reactions to everything, even simple things. In fact, such a traumatic experience - we learn the severity of it as the plot moves along - would probably affect him even more than what we see, but this being a romance novel, of course he "recovers" rather quickly and the romantic interest speeds things along. It's not as if we don't see a bit of a realistic reaction to what happened to him, he is often irascible and quick to react violently, but I bet in real life, the "path to recovery" would be as simple.

The story is focused on two main elements, Reynaud's recovery and adaptation to his old/new life and the search for the traitor, the person who caused them all to been tortured. There is an expected correlation between these events now, for Reynaud's return might mean he will say or remember something which the traitor could not avoid. The goal was not to make this a real mystery investigation, for we learn who the traitor is very easily - after three books with this debate... - and when we learn why he acted that way, the explanation is incredibly simple and proof of a lack of empathy.

Since this part of the story happens in a very predictable way, the focus is often on the romance. I've found this couple, Reynaud and Beatrice, to be rather meh. They had known each other before Reynaud went to war, and we are told Beatrice would see his portrait and dream about him... Alright... this is a way for their "connection" to have more bases than what it should, and for me it wasn't enough. I mean, it was fine to see them interact and the circumstances make for a quicker than usual relationship, but even bearing this in mind, I wasn't sold on their romance. It was the type of romance that had to have the usual features of an historical romance but in a way I've found unconvincing and a bit too anachronistic.

Of course that at some point, conveniently closer to the end, they realize they are it for one another and I feel happy for them, but I didn't feel their match as something destined, if the characters had been others, the result would have been the same. It was clearly a lot more interesting to see them interact with others, to see new dynamics or the re-establishing of old ones, namely Reynaud's friendship with Jasper (hero book #2), at least it was so for me.

With their romantic relationship now an everlasting one, the traitor caught and old life habits back to their place, there isn't much more to say about these characters and where their lives might lead them to. I'm the type of reader who likes to imagine the character's lives even after the stories are finished, especially if it's a book or world I really felt part of myself, but in this case, while I feel glad things ended up good, that was pretty much it.

Grade: 7/10