Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Don't Bargain With The Devil by Sabrina Jeffries


I was fortunate enough to receive an Advanced Reader Copy of the new book, Don’t Bargain with the Devil by Sabrina Jeffries. It is due to be released in June 2009 and it is surely worth the trip to the nearest bookstore to get it.
This is another book in Jeffries’ School For Heiresses Series. One thing I have always enjoyed about this series is the correspondences between Charlotte Harris, the owner of the school and her mysterious “Cousin Michael.” In this book they were very enjoyable and sometimes humorous.
Lucy Seton, a former student at the school, has been hired temporarily to replace the art teacher. She arrives at the school to find out that the property next door is for sale and could be sold to a magician who says he would like to build a Pleasure Park there. Obviously this would not be good for a girl’s school to have such a park next door. Enter the hero Diego Montalvo ,conjurer par excellence. There is an immediate attraction between Lucy and Diego which Lucy tries to deny. As their relationship develops it is obvious that there is more to the reason why Diego is living next door to the school. Lucy, Mrs. Harris and the school’s supporters do everything they can think of to raise money to try and thwart the purchase of the property. All of this makes for some very interesting events and interactions between characters.
Without giving away the meat of the story let me just say that Jeffries has written a book that immediately draws the reader in. I found myself so involved with Lucy feelings that I was actually getting angry on her behalf at the way she was being manipulated. I shared her frustrations and her tears. She is a bright “hoyden” of a heroine who is full of spunk and in her own way tries very hard to do the right thing.
Diego is a handsome hero and I had some sympathy for him but his manipulation of Lucy and his friend Gaspar certainly made me dislike him at times.
I thought the characters were well developed and I liked seeing how they changed as the story progressed. The setting changes from England to Spain and while I usually dislike that feature in a story it was necessary and was done in a very seamless fashion. Jeffries has her own way of including humor into her stories and I always appreciate that.
As usual Sabrina Jeffries delivers an excellent tale for which I give it 5 stars. I highly recommend this book. Even better at the end she gives us just a glimmer into her next book in the series which is Charlotte Harris’ story and she gives us several clues to chew on as to the identity of the mysterious “Cousin Michael.” I think I will be so disappointed if he turns out to be Charles Godwin!!! That book Wed Him Before You Bed Him will be released in July 2009 and believe me I will be first in line to by it!

2 comments:

  1. And don't forget if you missed the first four books in Sabrina's New York Times bestselling series, The School for Heiresses -- all 4 books are being reissued TODAY for a special price of $5.99 each by Pocket!

    You can read the series start to finish -- what with Book 6 coming June 23!

    Jeanne
    (I work with Sabrina)

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  2. Thanks, Jeanne, for giving the information on the reissues. I have all of the books but some folks may have missed some of the first ones. It is a great series.
    Gigi

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