Devil's Kin

by Anne Herries

To escape the unwelcome advances of her stepfather, Hester runs away to become mistress of a man she hardly knows. Posing as brother and sister in pre-Revolution Paris, she is blissfully happy with Beau Vane — until doubts emerge.

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

LINDA SOLE also writes under the names of Anne Herries, Emma Quincey, Lynn Granville and one as Juliana Linden.

Linda was born in Swindon. Her family moved to Ely in Cambridgeshire when she was nine, and Linda attended the local school but left at fifteen to work as a hairdresser in her father's business. She was married at eighteen and ran her own hairdressing business for some years before moving to Cambridge, although Linda has now moved to somewhere a bit quieter in Cambridgeshire. She started writing in 1976, combining this with helping her husband to run his antique shop.

Writing as Anne Herries, Linda won the 2004 RNA Romance Award and the Betty Neels Trophy. She lives in Cambridgeshire. After many happy years of taking their holidays in Spain she and her husband, now have a second home in Norfolk. Being only a short drive, they can visit for a few days at a time, which suits their busy lifestyle these days. They are only just across the road from the sea, and can see it from their windows. At home and at the sea they enjoy watching the wildlife and have many visitors to their gardens, particularly squirrels. Anne loves watching their antics and spoils both them and her birds shamelessly. She also loves to see the flocks of geese and other birds flying in over the sea during the autumn, to winter in the milder climes of this country. Anne loves to write about the beauty of nature and sometimes puts a little into her books, though they are mostly about love and romance. She writes for her own enjoyment and to give pleasure to her readers.

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alongside it's features from a bodice ripper, this book was also a mixture of Hardy's "Jude the Obscure," C Bronte's "Jane Eyre" and E Bronte's "Wuthering Heights."Very simply put: a tragic love story that finally gets a chance for reunion combined with angst derived from the novels mentioned. I can't say I was very impressed because its not what I expected from a romance novel. The interaction between the characters and the romance itself is somewhat rustical and stilted. I guess AH wanted to showcase an unbreakable bond between the leads despite the MCs marriage to the om/ow. It was simply too angsty for romance and couldn't delinate the sanctity of marriage in my opinion. Plus, I lost all respect for the H when he introduced the h as his sister when he went to her every night! The h could truly be a Thomas Hardy version, tragic and enduring and the slice of life reunion ... h is unable to have anymore children after she miscarries om's child and now the H is a lord who needs to sire a son but because of his earlier negligence and guilt towards the h he is willing to overlook that...and as a man he has never been faithful, ...u see what I mean

[Lynn Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

masquerade number 94. Set in pre-Revolutionary Paris and England. The heroine, Hester to escape the unwelcome advances of her stepfather, runs away to become mistress of a man she hardly knows. Posing as brother and sister in pre-Revolution Paris, she is blissfully happy with Beau Vane — until doubts emerge.