The Devil's Possession

by Heather Waters

When a violent encounter leaves her with child, Highland chieftain Faith Maitland, rescuing Draven the Devil from being executed for witchery, finds herself betrothed to a man with frightening powers who could either be her savior or her downfall. Original.

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy, Historical, Magic, Marriage Of Convenience

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 7, 2007

Reviews

[Sharon Layburn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, but not memorable. The thing that struck me the most about this book is that the cover art is distractingly horrible!

[Blow Pop · Rating 3 out of 5]

First things first - Content warnings: Rape, coerced/forced marriage, animal on animal rape, animal death, and 2 more attempted rapes/assaults

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I initially thought I would.

This book deals with rape very well. Better than most romance books I've ever read have.

Spoilers from here on out:


So, Faith has been raped by Godfrey. A man who is basically looking for a sugar mama. He's pissed that Draven slept with his original woman and appears to have killed her. What actually happened is Harold, Draven's stepfather, killed her and put her in the cottage that Draven burned down. Draven, as a consequence, thinks that it's his fault that she's dead.

Harold wants to use the magic that Draven possesses thanks to his dead mum, to wage a war against the king. Draven keeps refusing to do so. And in doing so has rendered himself voluntarily mute. As such, no one has heard him speak since he was 5 years old.

Faith tells her uncle that it was Draven she had sexual relations with who got her pregnant. She lies to protect part of her dignity at being raped by Godfrey. She also does it to save Draven, who is set to be executed by Harold. Initially, Draven doesn't want to marry her. But come the day of the wedding, she tries to tell the truth even though it'll destroy her reputation but will free him from having to marry her. Draven has decided that he'll have none of it and through a series of gestures indicates that it is his child and he will be the father and marry Faith.

They go to an outdoor faire/market where Godfrey meets up with Faith and attempts to assault her again. Draven finds them with Godfrey's hand on her breast and Faith's head turned and misinterprets what's going on because she hasn't told Draven that she was raped. And she doesn't put it together that Godfrey is who raped her in the first place. Draven gets understandably angry and lights Godfrey's hand on fire. Godfrey winds up losing his hand.

After the faire event thing, Faith and Draven go for a walk in the forest so that Draven can go out "hunting" (read: search for wounded animals to heal). They come across some mountain lions, a male and a female, during their mating. Faith identifies with the female who looks to be trying to get away from the male. The male winds up snapping the neck of the female and then raping her dead body. Draven infers from that that he was wrong about Faith and that she wasn't a loose woman like he initially thought and gathers that she was raped from her reaction to the mountain lion death and rape. He winds up stopping the male at Faith's request and then burying the female (also at Faith's request).

That night, she confirms his suspicions but says she doesn't want to talk about it. After that, she and Draven make a deal that he'll try and heal a child if she winds up sleeping with him. She's devoted to her clan and she sees sleeping with him as something for the good of the clan so she agrees even though she doesn't want to because of her rape.

The next night she goes to him to fulfill her end of the bargain and they wind up not having sex. They only kiss and he respects her wish to not go further. Before that happened however, she left dinner early and waited in his room. Before he got there, she was attempting to touch herself to see if maybe she could do it and suffered a flashback to her rape. After that, she goes to her room to sleep. The next day he attempts to heal the child but the father intervenes and says no even though the mother is willing. That night, the mother brings the child to Faith and Draven after the father is passed out from alcohol to try and have her healed as her cough has gotten worse and she fears for her child's life. Draven heals the child and passes out right after.

Faith and Draven slowly work through both his inability to speak (he starts re-learning how to speak since he's lost the ability to form words well) and her inability to consummate their marriage. Faith goes on her level of comfort though. Draven initially binds his wrists and then puts his bound wrists above his head onto a nail in the wall as a hook so that Faith can take her time and not have to worry about him trying to force her or losing control.

Faith finds that she actually loves Draven and trusts him and decides to actually have sex with him. She lays down naked on his bed and he starts to penetrate her and she stops him because she starts having flashbacks to her attack. Draven stops and decides to give her a position that she'll have all the power for. He has her move and then lays down on his back and has her straddle him. She finds that an acceptable way to have sex and that she really enjoys it. Which is something she thought she'd never do again.

Draven winds up saving her village that night from a fire started by a group of brigands. The next night, Faith is taken by Godfrey and Draven goes after her after telling one of the guards to go tell her uncle what's happened. Draven at this point has fallen in love with her as well and falls into the trap that Godfrey and Harold set for him. Godfrey attempts to assault Faith in front of him but before he can she knees him in the nose giving herself some time to escape after Draven sets Harold on fire.

As Faith escapes, her uncle is just coming to rescue them (like to the gates of where she was taken). One of the men winds up taking her home and the rest of the village goes to save Draven. Draven learns afterwards that Harold wasn't his father after all. Faith gives birth to the child from the rape and then 2 years after Draven gets her pregnant and she gives birth to a second child. And they live happily ever after yadda yadda.



I REALLY liked how the author handled Faith reclaiming her sexuality on her terms with her husband after her initial rape. And that Faith gives Draven the freedom to go free if he so wishes and to stop being her husband and he makes his own choice to stay. It's really rare that I find a book with rape in it that has that element of the woman reclaiming her sexuality on her terms. So while normally a book with rape in it would seriously turn me off (because I've lived it more than once) this was a really good portrayal of it in a romance book. And didn't fall on a lot of the typical tropes you tend to see in romance/historical romance/paranormal romance books. Which was like a breath of fresh air.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is one of my Floaters (you know, those books that float around your house from room to room, and never really get read - started sure, finished not so much). This year I picked 20 of my Floaters to read and either keep or gift to someone else. This is a historical romance with a dash of magic. Not bad. I did enjoy the characters, but, just couldn't connect with anyone. And half way through it sort of just dragged. But, for an older book, not bad. Still don't know if I'll keep it or not.

[Renn · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Very sweet, very real to feel the characters' pain. I can't review in full sentences because I'm honestly too emotional right now. Good writing, the characters feel appropriate to their backstories. The cover doesn't do this justice either; don't believe bad reviews.

[Jai M {Cat Crazy Dragon } · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

[Katie(babs) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor Faith is set to become her people's Highland Chief. But her life is over as she finds herself pregnant from an attack in the woods. She was raped and has no clue what to do. Instead of going to her uncle and tell him what has happened and kill the disgusting villain, Faith instead names another man as the babies father. Huh? Why? I have no clue why she would lie and not tell her uncle the truth.

Draven is the poor guy who Faith names. Draven is being whipped by his father who hates him because he is considered to be a witch like his mother. Draven has powers but is mute. But Faith and her good old uncle come to his rescue and Faith marries Draven.

The rest of the story is Draven writing notes, playing with hawks and walking around as Faith's people hate him because they just know he is the devil! Faith wants to hate Draven but there is just something about him. And when she kisses him, he makes her forget everything.

Water's is an okay writer but this story doesn't have much meat to it. I never really understood why Faith hides the fact that she was attacked. It just doesn't make sense. But we need a tender love story and Draven is an interesting hero but again, this story has not a lot going for it. From the minute Faith makes the decision to lie from some murder mystery Draven is trying to solve, this really can't be considered a Highland romance.

But apparently the men walk around in kilts, so at least that's something!

Overall, just as "eh" read.

[Paranormal Romance · Rating 4 out of 5]

The heroine is left pregnant after being raped in the woods one day. So to save herself the shame of her people knowing, she names the father as a dead man from a neighboring clan. Only he's not dead. Though badly beaten and flogged, the hero is alive and is told he must marry a lass whom he's never seen before. His powers make people believe he's the son of the devil and he's mute so he can't really defend himself. He's plagued by guilt over the murdering of his pregnant lover by accident so he agrees to the marriage. It took a lot of misunderstandings and rough patching in the beginning of their marriage before they really even liked each other but it was a nice, sweet romance. The hero, though hated and feared has his pride and he's truly a man with how he claims the baby as his. The heroine is torn apart by her rape and overwhelmed by the shame of it all but she learns to love her husband and the child in the end.

[Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

Faith Maitland is set to become the next Highland Chief of her clan when she is raped by a passing brigand. She knows that she will be blamed and so she names Draven the Devil as the father of her child. Her clan forces the marriage and they learn to trust each other.

Why I picked up the book: I like the forced marriage senarios as each character learns about the other while in close proximity. Scotland and magic were just an added bonus. Faith failed to act like a Highland Chief in training and a rape victim. Draven's character had no more development or consistant motivation. The historical details were inacurate and the paranormal was never explained.

Why I finished the book: Sheer stubborness. I kept hoping that it would live up to its potential. It didn't.

[Stacie]

This is a story about a man who has the powers to heal and control. The people of his clan view him as the devil and torture him. Just as he is in danger of being burned at the stake, a woman comes up and claims that he is the father of her baby. She is the victim of a rape and needs to find a way out of her situation. She saves his life and they go to live with her clan. This is a pretty good one and does have some interesting plot twists.

[Angela Haas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story never got boring . Loved Draven wonderful character . The villain in the story could have been better developed but it still worked well .Felt like she had to cut a lot form book so somethings seemed rushed .