The Devil You Know

By: Sophia Holloway / Narrated By: Matt Addis

Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins

A fun new author to add to my Regency Romance Library! Oh HUZZAH!

No way to get around it, but there’s nothing that I love more than a good Regency romance. Wellll, maybe my pets… and oh yeah: My husband!

But other than that? It’s so very rare to find good ones as modern authors rather stick to formulas, and one just hopes for the best with the creation of new characters to add to old storylines. Here, in The Devil You Know, author Sophia Holloway does indeed have a bit of an old storyline: A confirmed Rake, serial womanizer, marries a young woman for her large dowry. She in turn, has to marry lest she be cut off and penniless. So we have your run-of-the-mill marriage of convenience where we all hope that two people who have little hope of romance grow to have a stellar relationship. Blah, right? It’s been done; and if Georgette Heyer’s done it, EVERYbody’s done it.

What I like in this book, however, is that Kitty has a bit of spunk, and even the Earl of Ledbury, shallow man that he is and so used to charming the knickers off women, is taken aback and finds himself interested. Though she’s dead set against it, Kitty finds herself kinda sorta falling for him, but she’s no dolt. She’ll go for mind over heart, all to keep herself from being just the newest of Ledbury’s conquests, soon to be his ever-ignored wife.

So the book is the two of them developing a friendship, bonding over their mutual love of horses, and Ledbury sets out to woo his own wife. It’s a fine story of a slowly developing relationship that’s charming and filled with frequently witty banter, and enough stumbles along the way to keep things interesting, but not so many that you’ll find yourself irritated and bored. Some reviewers over on Amazon likened Ledbury to a near-sociopath, but honestly, I found Kitty to be the more exasperating of the two. She’s sooo afraid of trusting the lusty man, so afraid of becoming a forgotten conquest, that her LENGTHY bouts of extreme fear get a tad… old. Still, you pair her with the funny man, add a good sidekick with his own issues, throw in a dash of intrigue and scandal, and I am THERE!

There, even if it is narrated by a man. I thought having a male narrator would really throw off female voices, and I must admit that Matt Addis does indeed have his females sounding a bit mousy-mouthed, but all in all, he did quite well. Especially since a good part of the book is coming from Ledbury’s perspective, and we learn of his beliefs and motives and missteps and all sorts of other stuff.

And the very, very BEST thing?

Sophia Holloway has a second book out there! Now ask me if I’m gonna get it!

Oh huzzah huzzah huzzah!