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When the Devil Drives
When The Devil Drives by Sara Craven released on May 25, 1992 is available now for purchase.
187 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
6 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Sara Craven
493 books267 followersAnne Bushell was born on October 1938 in South Devon, England, just before World War II and grew up in a house crammed with books. She was always a voracious reader, some of her all-time favorites books are: "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, "Middlemarch" by George Eliot, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë, "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell and "The Code of the Woosters" by P. G. Wodehouse.
She worked as journalist at the Paignton Observer, but after her marriage, she moved to the north of England, where she worked as teacher. After she returned to journalism, she joined the Middlesbrough Writers' Group, where she met other romance writer Mildred Grieveson (Anne Mather). She started to wrote romance, and she had her first novel "Garden of Dreams" accepted by Mills & Boon in 1975, she published her work under the pseudonym of Sara Craven. In 2010 she became chairman of the Southern Writers' Conference, and the next year was elected the twenty-six Chairman (2011–2013) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Divorced twice, Annie lives in Somerset, South West England, and shares her home with a West Highland white terrier called Bertie Wooster. In her house, she had several thousand books, and an amazing video collection. When she's not writing, she enjoys watching very old films, listening to music, going to the theatre, and eating in good restaurants. She also likes to travel in Europe, to inspire her romances, especially in France, Greece and Italy where many of her novels are set. Since the birth of her twin grandchildren, she is also a regular visitor to New York City, where the little tots live. In 1997, she was the overall winner of the BBC's Mastermind, winning the last final presented by Magnus Magnusson.
She worked as journalist at the Paignton Observer, but after her marriage, she moved to the north of England, where she worked as teacher. After she returned to journalism, she joined the Middlesbrough Writers' Group, where she met other romance writer Mildred Grieveson (Anne Mather). She started to wrote romance, and she had her first novel "Garden of Dreams" accepted by Mills & Boon in 1975, she published her work under the pseudonym of Sara Craven. In 2010 she became chairman of the Southern Writers' Conference, and the next year was elected the twenty-six Chairman (2011–2013) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Divorced twice, Annie lives in Somerset, South West England, and shares her home with a West Highland white terrier called Bertie Wooster. In her house, she had several thousand books, and an amazing video collection. When she's not writing, she enjoys watching very old films, listening to music, going to the theatre, and eating in good restaurants. She also likes to travel in Europe, to inspire her romances, especially in France, Greece and Italy where many of her novels are set. Since the birth of her twin grandchildren, she is also a regular visitor to New York City, where the little tots live. In 1997, she was the overall winner of the BBC's Mastermind, winning the last final presented by Magnus Magnusson.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 22, 2016
Millionaire hero has a novel idea for how to woo the object of his desires - blackmail! It will be fun to reignite the old family feud from his grandfather's day (Heroine's mill owner grandfather threw hero's grandfather and father out in the streets after his wife had an affair) by threatening to foreclose on the heroine's family business unless the widowed heroine sleeps with him.
To add to the heroine's pain, her father has dementia, and her brother is a weak ungrateful louse who is married to a whiny woman with an impossible mother. And they're all living in the same house.
There's lots of lovely angst as the heroine revels in the guilt of her husband's car accident - he deliberately drove into a stone wall - and she feels guilty for her attraction to the hero as she contemplates taking him up on his offer.
This had some interesting twists, but it was fairly obvious the hero was smitten with the heroine from the beginning. I liked the hero better than the heroine who was a bit of an ice queen - but then she had a household of horrible people to deal with, so it was understandable.
To add to the heroine's pain, her father has dementia, and her brother is a weak ungrateful louse who is married to a whiny woman with an impossible mother. And they're all living in the same house.
There's lots of lovely angst as the heroine revels in the guilt of her husband's car accident - he deliberately drove into a stone wall - and she feels guilty for her attraction to the hero as she contemplates taking him up on his offer.
This had some interesting twists, but it was fairly obvious the hero was smitten with the heroine from the beginning. I liked the hero better than the heroine who was a bit of an ice queen - but then she had a household of horrible people to deal with, so it was understandable.
January 31, 2016
Once upon a time, Joanna’s car broke down in the middle of a storm, and her family enemy Callum came and changed her tyre or something. ‘You will be mine,’ Callum promised her.
‘Not bloody likely,’ Joanna said, and promptly went and married someone else. Sadly, that didn’t work out. She had a brief and awkward marriage before her husband fatally crashed the car and Joanna went off to live in the US for a year. She felt terribly guilty about the whole thing.
Now, she’s back in England, and everything is going wrong.
Years and years ago, Joanna’s grandfather sacked Callum’s grandfather, and there was much discussion of revenge. Callum’s family’s fortunes have risen as Joanna’s family’s fortunes have fallen, and now Callum is set to own controlling interest in the family’s furniture making business.
‘How did this happen?’ Joanna asks her useless brother. ‘Well,’ he says. ‘I married an idiot and got her pregnant. Then, I started drinking and I started gambling. Then there was the embezzling, to pay for the gambling and to take the idiot on holiday. Then Callum started waving money under my nose, but I don’t like him. Take care of it all for me, won’t you Jo? There’s a good girl.’
So Joanna sets out to take care of it all, by going to see Callum. She has to save her family from her brother’s uselessness, and without upsetting her useless dad, who sits in his room all day staring at photo albums.
Callum invites her to dinner and proposes a solution: Joanna will become his mistress. It’s not ideal, given Joanna doesn’t like him, but she sort of agrees to do it.
‘Slag whore!’ yells her brother when she comes home the next morning. Then he slaps her.
Sara Craven sure does love a heroine desperately trying to save her useless male relatives. We also know we’ve hit the 90s because Callum’s going the mistress angle, rather than shooting straight for marriage. Of course, given that Joanna had been married, he was pretty sure he wasn’t dealing with an outraged hymen demanding a wedding ring.
Joanna’s useless leech family were satisfyingly useless. They were completely hopeless, and completely deserved every disaster that came their way. It’s a shame they didn’t end up in more desperate circumstances.
There’s this amusing bit where the family business burns down and the sister-in-law points out to the police that her husband recently took out a huge insurance policy. That’s a good thing, right? ‘Oh yes,’ says the cop, ‘and now he’s disappeared and you don’t know where he is? How distressing for you.’ He doesn’t add ‘perhaps you’d like to come into town and assist us with our enquiries?’ But then he probably didn’t need to.
Joanna gets to roll her eyes and be snarky to people who deserve it. She’s also a bit snottier than she should be. While she wasn’t drinking, gambling and embezzling, she, like her brother, had married an idiot. And while she had ideas on how the family business should be run, it’s pretty clear that she does zero work, and is irritatingly surprised that the business has managed to run itself without her interference.
Callum was hot enough that it made sense that she’d go marry someone else just to spite him, and then spend most of the book telling him how vile he was while secretly wanting to melt his clothes off with her laser vision. She’s still an idiot, but managed to keep most of her insanity under control.
Callum managed to be fairly ok. The whole blackmail into bed thing is pretty ridiculous, but then he’s dealing with a fairly crazy person, so there probably weren’t a lot of other workable strategies.
Probably, Joanna deserved for it all to have been a lot harder than it was, but this was a fun enough story.
‘Not bloody likely,’ Joanna said, and promptly went and married someone else. Sadly, that didn’t work out. She had a brief and awkward marriage before her husband fatally crashed the car and Joanna went off to live in the US for a year. She felt terribly guilty about the whole thing.
Now, she’s back in England, and everything is going wrong.
Years and years ago, Joanna’s grandfather sacked Callum’s grandfather, and there was much discussion of revenge. Callum’s family’s fortunes have risen as Joanna’s family’s fortunes have fallen, and now Callum is set to own controlling interest in the family’s furniture making business.
‘How did this happen?’ Joanna asks her useless brother. ‘Well,’ he says. ‘I married an idiot and got her pregnant. Then, I started drinking and I started gambling. Then there was the embezzling, to pay for the gambling and to take the idiot on holiday. Then Callum started waving money under my nose, but I don’t like him. Take care of it all for me, won’t you Jo? There’s a good girl.’
So Joanna sets out to take care of it all, by going to see Callum. She has to save her family from her brother’s uselessness, and without upsetting her useless dad, who sits in his room all day staring at photo albums.
Callum invites her to dinner and proposes a solution: Joanna will become his mistress. It’s not ideal, given Joanna doesn’t like him, but she sort of agrees to do it.
‘Slag whore!’ yells her brother when she comes home the next morning. Then he slaps her.
Sara Craven sure does love a heroine desperately trying to save her useless male relatives. We also know we’ve hit the 90s because Callum’s going the mistress angle, rather than shooting straight for marriage. Of course, given that Joanna had been married, he was pretty sure he wasn’t dealing with an outraged hymen demanding a wedding ring.
Joanna’s useless leech family were satisfyingly useless. They were completely hopeless, and completely deserved every disaster that came their way. It’s a shame they didn’t end up in more desperate circumstances.
There’s this amusing bit where the family business burns down and the sister-in-law points out to the police that her husband recently took out a huge insurance policy. That’s a good thing, right? ‘Oh yes,’ says the cop, ‘and now he’s disappeared and you don’t know where he is? How distressing for you.’ He doesn’t add ‘perhaps you’d like to come into town and assist us with our enquiries?’ But then he probably didn’t need to.
Joanna gets to roll her eyes and be snarky to people who deserve it. She’s also a bit snottier than she should be. While she wasn’t drinking, gambling and embezzling, she, like her brother, had married an idiot. And while she had ideas on how the family business should be run, it’s pretty clear that she does zero work, and is irritatingly surprised that the business has managed to run itself without her interference.
Callum was hot enough that it made sense that she’d go marry someone else just to spite him, and then spend most of the book telling him how vile he was while secretly wanting to melt his clothes off with her laser vision. She’s still an idiot, but managed to keep most of her insanity under control.
Callum managed to be fairly ok. The whole blackmail into bed thing is pretty ridiculous, but then he’s dealing with a fairly crazy person, so there probably weren’t a lot of other workable strategies.
Probably, Joanna deserved for it all to have been a lot harder than it was, but this was a fun enough story.
October 15, 2017
Re When the Devil Drives - It was a dark and stormy afternoon when our To the Manor Born h had a flat tire and met the determined, stalkery H of HPlandia destiny who declared she would be his with a fiery kiss of passion. The h bit him in retaliation, before declaring he would be the last man she would be with, even at the heat death of the universe.
Sara Craven does the mistress by blackmail trope here and tho there is not an infamous SC rape scene, he does roofie her with sleeping pills over the course of this one. That being said, he only did it cause she needed the sleep, so if this doesn't fit into your HP world view, well this book will not be your cuppa.
This one actually starts years after the flat tire incident. The h, whose brother and sister in law are horrible people and live in the family home along with her Alzheimer's afflicted father, has returned after a few years in the US working at her aunt's art gallery. The h left the area after her husband killed himself by driving while fully toasted into a wall and the h still carries the guilt from that death. Mainly cause the h and her husband had no lurve mojo going on, the h is still a virgin and she feels responsible for her husband's decision and even his family blames her for his bad choice, as she was so obviously a horrible wife and wasn't in love with her spouse.
It appears that the h and H have feuding familys that started back in the grandparent's day. There was some sort of altercation between the h's grandfather, a big time woolen mill owner, and the H's grandfather, a mill worker that the h's GF evicted and cast out to live a life of barren poverty.
Obviously that did not happen, the H's grandfather went all business tycoon and soon put the h's family out of the wool business and took them over. Now the h's family business is custom furnishings and fittings and apparently the brother, who is married to his top salesman's incredibly idiotic sister, has managed to get that business into financial trouble too. The H, who owns a business empire and a casino club that was converted from a local ancient landed estate has offered money to help the brother and the family firm out and the h is very leery.
She has good reason to be, as the offer is contingent on the h agreeing to be the H's mistress, or he will take the h's and brother's family home, and she is to go live with him in a cottage she was planning to purchase and live by herself in. Mainly to get away from her truly idiotic family. The h soon finds out that not only is the brother an idiot at business, he is a gambler and an embezzler too and the reason that the family home is in dire financial straights is because he blew it all away on bets and taking the shallow sister in law on exotic vacations.
The h is furious, but she agrees to the blackmail. Mainly cause while she has some incredibly funny snarky thoughts, she never says them out loud - until the last part of the book when even her remarkable patience for familial stupidity runs out. This h is one of SC better ones in my pov. While she doesn't particularly like her family, she does love them and her father, a weak and sorta wimpy man at best, is lovable and the h is distressed at his mental decline and she doesn't want him cast out on the street.
This h is a bit snobby and very snarky, she doesn't hold back on berating the H and that might be alienating for some HP voyagers. But I could see how her family was and really the H kinda deserved what he got, cause he was a bit of a donkey's butt, so I did not hold her to really harsh standards on her bouts of witchiness. One of the girlhood memories of the h is being in the car with her father and boys throwing rocks and things at them with the H cheering them on. She was only a little girl and it terrified her at the time, so she thinks the H is truly evil.
With the blackmail agreement in place, the h duly shows up at the appointed time for dinner and an overnight with the H in his fancy casino club. They make it through a verbally embattled dinner and then the H drugs her coffee with sleeping pills, so she does spend the night with him, but nothing physical happens cause for once an SC H isn't a rapist. The next morning the h complains about EVERYTHING and the H tells her she needed the rest. The h storms out and goes home and gets called out by her truly slime slurping brother for being a tart. The h turns around and tells him off too.
Then the H starts making plans for the h and himself to live in a refurbished cottage the h had thought about for her own. The h is disgusted by the thought of sullying such pristine place with such vile and tawdry goings on as being the forced mistress of the and she shares that eloquently with the H.
Who is now realizing that his obsessive determination to have this h is going to make her despise and hate his blackmailing hiney for eternity, no matter how much she likes his punishing kisses and he better think of something else to win her over fast. So the H tells the h that his dubious mistress by blackmail plot was just a test and he was only joking. The h isn't laughing. Especially as she believes the whole reason for the family feud was because her grandmother was raped by the H's grandfather and that was why her own grandfather kicked them out.
Then the h's brother disappears for a few days and the h is left to deal with the pregger blob of a whiny sister in law and her equally blob pustule of a mother. The h finally lets loose with her inner snark and puts the two spoiled buttercups in their place.
The sister in law rises to new heights of idiocy when the family business burns down and the sister in law goes on and on to the investigating police about how the h's brother had made sure the business was very well insured. Leading the h and the reader to believe that her desperate idiot of a brother burned the business down for insurance purposes.
The H sees his chance to win hero status in the h's eyes and maybe get chance to win her over to his side, so he helps the police out by showing them how a local hobo took to sleeping in the h's family business in the off hours and his little fuel stove exploded. The h's brother is actually seeing a venture capitalist friend of the H's, who will help get the family firm back on his feet. The H set the venture capitalist offer up on the down low, he doesn't want the brother to know he is willing to help out.
Then the h finds out that her grandmother wasn't raped, she fell in love with the H's grandfather and then was told by the h's evil grandfather that she would never see her son again and he would ruin the H's family if she left. She died soon after, preggers with the H's grandfather's child and the H's side of the feud declared revenge. Which they got by taking over the grandfather's woolen firm.
The h feels bad that she made such sweeping negative judgments about the H, now that she knows the whole story, so she goes to apologize. The H explains about the brother situation and the fire situation and he also explains how he fell head over heels in love with the h and has loved her from afar for years. His entire purpose in reviving the threat of the old family feud was to win her over until he came to his senses and realized that threats and blackmail were not going get him a lifetime of happy wedded bliss.
The h, who is also in love with the H and not entirely due to his roofie kissing techniques, sadly explains that she ruins men, look at what she did to her first husband. She confesses that she liked the guy, but wasn't in love with him and since they had to abandon any attempts at lurve tower of power climbing moments, she drove him to his death - even tho she really tried, she just destroyed his manhood and then he killed himself. So she concludes she will probably ruin the H too.
The H now knows the h is a virgin and he thinks all his birthday's have come at once, cause he knows they will have great pink tinged passion lurve mojo moments, as soon as he restores the h's self confidence by pointing out the h's first husband was gay and sadly miserable with it.
(SC is remarkably open minded with that statement for HPlandia at the time. She just shares how much of a tragedy it was that the h's first husband couldn't be himself and felt that his only choice was to take his own life to avoid the condemnation of his family and peers. This is an HPlandia first in a very quiet sorta way, as prior to this HP homosexuality was seen as deviant behavior and any one who was one had to be villainized at all costs. So it is nice to see how HPlandia is changing.)
The h, who now understands that it wasn't her corrosive persona destroying men, but the sad tragedy that society won't let people be who they are, joyfully confesses her true and devoted love for the H, who is free to show how equally devoted he is back and we leave them plotting the wedding and a beautiful cottage honeymoon with a four poster bed.
I liked this one, SC can do nice H's and she also does her bit for societal change, tho as always any book that SC does is going to have a bit of bite. This one was well done and the admission that everyone should be allowed to love whom they love, irregardless of gender, is a ground breaker for HPlandia at the time.
This one isn't the best SC has ever written, but the characters are well developed, the H regrets his actions by the end and even the h learns to tone down the witchiness and that makes this one a nice day trip for an HPlandia outing.
Sara Craven does the mistress by blackmail trope here and tho there is not an infamous SC rape scene, he does roofie her with sleeping pills over the course of this one. That being said, he only did it cause she needed the sleep, so if this doesn't fit into your HP world view, well this book will not be your cuppa.
This one actually starts years after the flat tire incident. The h, whose brother and sister in law are horrible people and live in the family home along with her Alzheimer's afflicted father, has returned after a few years in the US working at her aunt's art gallery. The h left the area after her husband killed himself by driving while fully toasted into a wall and the h still carries the guilt from that death. Mainly cause the h and her husband had no lurve mojo going on, the h is still a virgin and she feels responsible for her husband's decision and even his family blames her for his bad choice, as she was so obviously a horrible wife and wasn't in love with her spouse.
It appears that the h and H have feuding familys that started back in the grandparent's day. There was some sort of altercation between the h's grandfather, a big time woolen mill owner, and the H's grandfather, a mill worker that the h's GF evicted and cast out to live a life of barren poverty.
Obviously that did not happen, the H's grandfather went all business tycoon and soon put the h's family out of the wool business and took them over. Now the h's family business is custom furnishings and fittings and apparently the brother, who is married to his top salesman's incredibly idiotic sister, has managed to get that business into financial trouble too. The H, who owns a business empire and a casino club that was converted from a local ancient landed estate has offered money to help the brother and the family firm out and the h is very leery.
She has good reason to be, as the offer is contingent on the h agreeing to be the H's mistress, or he will take the h's and brother's family home, and she is to go live with him in a cottage she was planning to purchase and live by herself in. Mainly to get away from her truly idiotic family. The h soon finds out that not only is the brother an idiot at business, he is a gambler and an embezzler too and the reason that the family home is in dire financial straights is because he blew it all away on bets and taking the shallow sister in law on exotic vacations.
The h is furious, but she agrees to the blackmail. Mainly cause while she has some incredibly funny snarky thoughts, she never says them out loud - until the last part of the book when even her remarkable patience for familial stupidity runs out. This h is one of SC better ones in my pov. While she doesn't particularly like her family, she does love them and her father, a weak and sorta wimpy man at best, is lovable and the h is distressed at his mental decline and she doesn't want him cast out on the street.
This h is a bit snobby and very snarky, she doesn't hold back on berating the H and that might be alienating for some HP voyagers. But I could see how her family was and really the H kinda deserved what he got, cause he was a bit of a donkey's butt, so I did not hold her to really harsh standards on her bouts of witchiness. One of the girlhood memories of the h is being in the car with her father and boys throwing rocks and things at them with the H cheering them on. She was only a little girl and it terrified her at the time, so she thinks the H is truly evil.
With the blackmail agreement in place, the h duly shows up at the appointed time for dinner and an overnight with the H in his fancy casino club. They make it through a verbally embattled dinner and then the H drugs her coffee with sleeping pills, so she does spend the night with him, but nothing physical happens cause for once an SC H isn't a rapist. The next morning the h complains about EVERYTHING and the H tells her she needed the rest. The h storms out and goes home and gets called out by her truly slime slurping brother for being a tart. The h turns around and tells him off too.
Then the H starts making plans for the h and himself to live in a refurbished cottage the h had thought about for her own. The h is disgusted by the thought of sullying such pristine place with such vile and tawdry goings on as being the forced mistress of the and she shares that eloquently with the H.
Who is now realizing that his obsessive determination to have this h is going to make her despise and hate his blackmailing hiney for eternity, no matter how much she likes his punishing kisses and he better think of something else to win her over fast. So the H tells the h that his dubious mistress by blackmail plot was just a test and he was only joking. The h isn't laughing. Especially as she believes the whole reason for the family feud was because her grandmother was raped by the H's grandfather and that was why her own grandfather kicked them out.
Then the h's brother disappears for a few days and the h is left to deal with the pregger blob of a whiny sister in law and her equally blob pustule of a mother. The h finally lets loose with her inner snark and puts the two spoiled buttercups in their place.
The sister in law rises to new heights of idiocy when the family business burns down and the sister in law goes on and on to the investigating police about how the h's brother had made sure the business was very well insured. Leading the h and the reader to believe that her desperate idiot of a brother burned the business down for insurance purposes.
The H sees his chance to win hero status in the h's eyes and maybe get chance to win her over to his side, so he helps the police out by showing them how a local hobo took to sleeping in the h's family business in the off hours and his little fuel stove exploded. The h's brother is actually seeing a venture capitalist friend of the H's, who will help get the family firm back on his feet. The H set the venture capitalist offer up on the down low, he doesn't want the brother to know he is willing to help out.
Then the h finds out that her grandmother wasn't raped, she fell in love with the H's grandfather and then was told by the h's evil grandfather that she would never see her son again and he would ruin the H's family if she left. She died soon after, preggers with the H's grandfather's child and the H's side of the feud declared revenge. Which they got by taking over the grandfather's woolen firm.
The h feels bad that she made such sweeping negative judgments about the H, now that she knows the whole story, so she goes to apologize. The H explains about the brother situation and the fire situation and he also explains how he fell head over heels in love with the h and has loved her from afar for years. His entire purpose in reviving the threat of the old family feud was to win her over until he came to his senses and realized that threats and blackmail were not going get him a lifetime of happy wedded bliss.
The h, who is also in love with the H and not entirely due to his roofie kissing techniques, sadly explains that she ruins men, look at what she did to her first husband. She confesses that she liked the guy, but wasn't in love with him and since they had to abandon any attempts at lurve tower of power climbing moments, she drove him to his death - even tho she really tried, she just destroyed his manhood and then he killed himself. So she concludes she will probably ruin the H too.
The H now knows the h is a virgin and he thinks all his birthday's have come at once, cause he knows they will have great pink tinged passion lurve mojo moments, as soon as he restores the h's self confidence by pointing out the h's first husband was gay and sadly miserable with it.
(SC is remarkably open minded with that statement for HPlandia at the time. She just shares how much of a tragedy it was that the h's first husband couldn't be himself and felt that his only choice was to take his own life to avoid the condemnation of his family and peers. This is an HPlandia first in a very quiet sorta way, as prior to this HP homosexuality was seen as deviant behavior and any one who was one had to be villainized at all costs. So it is nice to see how HPlandia is changing.)
The h, who now understands that it wasn't her corrosive persona destroying men, but the sad tragedy that society won't let people be who they are, joyfully confesses her true and devoted love for the H, who is free to show how equally devoted he is back and we leave them plotting the wedding and a beautiful cottage honeymoon with a four poster bed.
I liked this one, SC can do nice H's and she also does her bit for societal change, tho as always any book that SC does is going to have a bit of bite. This one was well done and the admission that everyone should be allowed to love whom they love, irregardless of gender, is a ground breaker for HPlandia at the time.
This one isn't the best SC has ever written, but the characters are well developed, the H regrets his actions by the end and even the h learns to tone down the witchiness and that makes this one a nice day trip for an HPlandia outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 15, 2018
No love scenes but the hero and heroine had great chemistry and I loved the angst! Another keeper by Sara Craven!
August 15, 2018
Despite its ominous title, the hero of Sara Craven's When the devil drives is not so much of a devil as he is incredibly obsessed and in total luuuuurve (as well as total denial) with the heroine.
Due to a longstanding, generational family feud, these two have had less chances than a Montague and a Capulet.
By the end though, all the Great, Big, Terrible Misunderstandings have been cleared up, the hero does a proper, heartfelt grovel, the heroine has rightly apologized for her mischief, and most incredible of all, it seems that her deadbeat brother and sis-in-law have finally been WOKE and will no longer be an albatross around her neck in the future.
Surprisingly enjoyable read from an author I usually avoid due to irredeemable heroes and the spineless twits who love them.
Due to a longstanding, generational family feud, these two have had less chances than a Montague and a Capulet.
By the end though, all the Great, Big, Terrible Misunderstandings have been cleared up, the hero does a proper, heartfelt grovel, the heroine has rightly apologized for her mischief, and most incredible of all, it seems that her deadbeat brother and sis-in-law have finally been WOKE and will no longer be an albatross around her neck in the future.
Surprisingly enjoyable read from an author I usually avoid due to irredeemable heroes and the spineless twits who love them.
January 15, 2019
"When the Devil Drives" is the story of Joanna and Callum.
A surprisingly angsty read of a forbidden obsession between the grandkids of mortal enemies, Montague and a Capulet clan.
This one has a SUPER obsessed hero, a spunky heroine that is hit hard by circumstances, a VERY douchy h's family, a stupid brother causing distress, a clever blackmail, subtle seduction, falling in love followed by HEA.
What I really enjoyed was
-The insane devotion the H had towards the h; i.e. the scene where he shows up at her husband's funeral..chilling
-How the h could occasionally be a doormat, but she did put Fiona and her mom at their place when they tried to cross lines
-It was she who groveled at the end, because let's admit it, it was she who was the root of all problems and inhibitions
The whole husband secret was very predictable if you've read enough of these books, you would be able to know it before it was revealed.
All the stars for the cray cray hero.
Safe with exceptions
3.5/5
A surprisingly angsty read of a forbidden obsession between the grandkids of mortal enemies, Montague and a Capulet clan.
This one has a SUPER obsessed hero, a spunky heroine that is hit hard by circumstances, a VERY douchy h's family, a stupid brother causing distress, a clever blackmail, subtle seduction, falling in love followed by HEA.
What I really enjoyed was
-The insane devotion the H had towards the h; i.e. the scene where he shows up at her husband's funeral..chilling
-How the h could occasionally be a doormat, but she did put Fiona and her mom at their place when they tried to cross lines
-It was she who groveled at the end, because let's admit it, it was she who was the root of all problems and inhibitions
The whole husband secret was very predictable if you've read enough of these books, you would be able to know it before it was revealed.
All the stars for the cray cray hero.
Safe with exceptions
3.5/5
July 29, 2019
I automatically score this book higher because it is set in my beloved home County of Yorkshire. Specifically, the West Riding which is my bit of Gods own...
Anyway the H and h of this outing are at daggers drawn for most of the book. There is a family feud spanning 3 generations which means they were programmed to hate each other since birth and they seem to avoid each other like the plague. However the H's family (him everyone else I presume is dead) is winning the "battle" and the h's family is heading into decline between her fathers old fashioned business ways and her brother who took over being a complete and utter numpty without an ounce of sense (as often HPlandia brothers are).
The H & h meet at a party as adults and for the H it is love at first sight, he is gutted that its the h as despite his overtures to win a date anyway shes rather a snobby cow to him. When he finds her on the side of the road trying to change a tyre in the rather typical Yorkshire rain he helps her and steals a kiss because she is again rather rude.
The smooch send the h into a tailspin and she rather foolishly marries a man to escape him but its a disaster because she cant fake passion for him and he was according to the H probably gay but afraid to admit it hence his "accidental" (and rather convenient) death.
Becoming a widow sends the h off to America to live with her Godmother to "recover" and avoid the H but she eventually returns because her dad is ill and her brother is a butt munch who had ruined the family business and gotten in debt to the H. He is such a snobby wuss as for all his pretensions of burying the hatchet with the H as soon as he finds out that he is "in bed" with his sister his true colours show.
The H blackmails the h into an affair and drugs the h on their first date because he decided she needed a goods night sleep, this was rather naughty of him as H's shouldn't really be drugging h's this is a task for awful OM that the H can rescue her from. He actually turns out to be rather nice though as throughout their relationship he doesn't go any further than forcing some well received smooches on her and he actually does all he can to rescue the h's family trade and doesn't call in any of his debts. He then kind of dumps the h because she isn't giving him any encouragement and he wants her for real not under false pretences.
h eventually goes after him at the love nest house he secretly bought becauase she loved it and so did he. He wanted a clean slate for them both and thought the cottage was the place to be his forever home with the h. He has a cheeky cry and offers to beg her to stay when she suggests she will tootle off back to America as she has nothing to stay for now and its lurve declarations all around for the HEA.
I actually really liked the H in this one other than the drugging but the h was rather cold and snobby in this one and she is lucky that the H pursued her so avidly.
Anyway the H and h of this outing are at daggers drawn for most of the book. There is a family feud spanning 3 generations which means they were programmed to hate each other since birth and they seem to avoid each other like the plague. However the H's family (him everyone else I presume is dead) is winning the "battle" and the h's family is heading into decline between her fathers old fashioned business ways and her brother who took over being a complete and utter numpty without an ounce of sense (as often HPlandia brothers are).
The H & h meet at a party as adults and for the H it is love at first sight, he is gutted that its the h as despite his overtures to win a date anyway shes rather a snobby cow to him. When he finds her on the side of the road trying to change a tyre in the rather typical Yorkshire rain he helps her and steals a kiss because she is again rather rude.
The smooch send the h into a tailspin and she rather foolishly marries a man to escape him but its a disaster because she cant fake passion for him and he was according to the H probably gay but afraid to admit it hence his "accidental" (and rather convenient) death.
Becoming a widow sends the h off to America to live with her Godmother to "recover" and avoid the H but she eventually returns because her dad is ill and her brother is a butt munch who had ruined the family business and gotten in debt to the H. He is such a snobby wuss as for all his pretensions of burying the hatchet with the H as soon as he finds out that he is "in bed" with his sister his true colours show.
The H blackmails the h into an affair and drugs the h on their first date because he decided she needed a goods night sleep, this was rather naughty of him as H's shouldn't really be drugging h's this is a task for awful OM that the H can rescue her from. He actually turns out to be rather nice though as throughout their relationship he doesn't go any further than forcing some well received smooches on her and he actually does all he can to rescue the h's family trade and doesn't call in any of his debts. He then kind of dumps the h because she isn't giving him any encouragement and he wants her for real not under false pretences.
h eventually goes after him at the love nest house he secretly bought becauase she loved it and so did he. He wanted a clean slate for them both and thought the cottage was the place to be his forever home with the h. He has a cheeky cry and offers to beg her to stay when she suggests she will tootle off back to America as she has nothing to stay for now and its lurve declarations all around for the HEA.
I actually really liked the H in this one other than the drugging but the h was rather cold and snobby in this one and she is lucky that the H pursued her so avidly.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 4, 2018
This is the Sara Craven I loved back in the day. The heroine met the hero two years ago. He's a Hatfield to her McCoy, A Montague to Capulet...you get the drift.
He's immediately interested. She's immediately terrified. She gets married. Her husband commits suicide, she runs to the ends of the earth (The US of A). But now she's back and the family firm is in trouble and the only one to save it is our hero. The price? Her in his bed...no matrimony.
I really liked this hero. He comes across to the heroine as a real jerk but you can see how much he wants her. And every time he has her cornered, he backs off.
This is actually a really sweet story about a heroine and hero who make mistakes and it's all driven by the family feud. When the truth about what happened back in the day is revealed...it could change everything. I enjoyed it.
He's immediately interested. She's immediately terrified. She gets married. Her husband commits suicide, she runs to the ends of the earth (The US of A). But now she's back and the family firm is in trouble and the only one to save it is our hero. The price? Her in his bed...no matrimony.
I really liked this hero. He comes across to the heroine as a real jerk but you can see how much he wants her. And every time he has her cornered, he backs off.
This is actually a really sweet story about a heroine and hero who make mistakes and it's all driven by the family feud. When the truth about what happened back in the day is revealed...it could change everything. I enjoyed it.
August 3, 2018
Joanna Chalfont's and Cal Blackstones's families were enemies for three generations. Both their grandfathers started this enmity, and since their fathers continued it, Joanna was convinced her family was on the right so she kept away from Cal. Unfortunately, he didn't keep away and insisted in crossing her bath and demanding that she belongs to him. In order to save herself and defeat him, she got married! When she loses he husband and her dear brother mortgages her family's house and company to none other than Cal, Joanna comes back to save things. However, she discovers that Cal is still in her track and wants her at any cost.
Enjoyable, but needs a lot of improvement especially at the middle and end! Not a lot of events happened and some things were revealed at the end that were not hinted to the reader along the story line.
There is one thing I liked a lot in this novel, though. The hero! He was prepared to manipulate circumstances to his advantage, but he was not prepared to hurt his beloved even when he has all the cards in his hand. This is true love and I don't think Joanna really deserve it. She is prejudice.
Enjoyable, but needs a lot of improvement especially at the middle and end! Not a lot of events happened and some things were revealed at the end that were not hinted to the reader along the story line.
There is one thing I liked a lot in this novel, though. The hero! He was prepared to manipulate circumstances to his advantage, but he was not prepared to hurt his beloved even when he has all the cards in his hand. This is true love and I don't think Joanna really deserve it. She is prejudice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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November 23, 2019Un Nuevo Comienzo / La Mano Del Diablo
January 1, 2021
3.5 stars
Only for the hero; the heroine wins my personal “shame” award for silliness and self denial! Bah...
Only for the hero; the heroine wins my personal “shame” award for silliness and self denial! Bah...
April 12, 2022
I loved how H declared his love with tears in his eyes!
February 10, 2019
Dare she dream of the devil?
The dreaded day of reckoning had come. It was time for Joanna to stop running and face Callum Blackstone.
If she had only herself to consider...But refusing to submit to Cals' impossible demands meant financial disaster for her father and brother.
Fate has dealt Cal all the best cards, yet the price he wanted Joanna to pay seemed far too high. Could he possibly have a motive other than revenge? Dare she dream.
The dreaded day of reckoning had come. It was time for Joanna to stop running and face Callum Blackstone.
If she had only herself to consider...But refusing to submit to Cals' impossible demands meant financial disaster for her father and brother.
Fate has dealt Cal all the best cards, yet the price he wanted Joanna to pay seemed far too high. Could he possibly have a motive other than revenge? Dare she dream.
December 26, 2019
What if the story caught me, the protaonist quite enigmatic and that I was determined to have it ... until I saw that I loved her ... if she did a lot although not all right and what he puts between the sword and the wall .. .and all that story of fighting in her family where her grandparents were to blame ... everything would have been better if she knew the story well and how bad her grandfather was and how much her grandmother suffered ... well less bad and auqnue with the brother's mistakes, everything could be handled ... she realized that she wanted him and he still wanted to follow her wherever she goes ... what a romantic part !!!
July 15, 2020
I read this thinking all the while that the heroine would grow up, get a job and leave her feckless brother to run his own life. Instead she moons around looking up friends she hasn't seen and feeling sorry for herself because she fell in love with a domineering guy who holds the mortgage on both her family home and business and her brother's gambling debts.
There should have been romantic tension but there was none.
There should have been romantic tension but there was none.
February 23, 2024
A somewhat snobby heroine (it’s a bit difficult to relate to a “modern” woman who hasn’t had to work for a living), a man who’s been in love with her from the day they were formally introduced (it’s called lust, buddy) and an extremely contrived plot designed to keep our couple from actually having any sort of explanatory conversation until the end. Points to a hero who puts a lady’s sleep before his hormones. Other than that, he was grabby and not in a way that made sense.
March 20, 2022
SC is either a hit or miss for me… this one wasn’t memorable nor did I care for neither party. A lot of things happened in her head, typical SC narrative but I felt like the hero could have been more in presence. I mean he’s in love & he lost her once so what’s he waiting for? Another ten chapters & a decade more?
June 7, 2022
This started off quite promisingly with feuding families. An ice queen h and a cocky, dominant H. Rather good set up for a forced sexual encounter that became consensual very quickly but then it all turned a bit quasi Victorian for a 90s romance. Insufficient sexy times and too much trouble at t'mill. Fizzled out towards the end, I thought.
April 20, 2020
3.5 stars
October 28, 2013
Good Sara Craven angst is soooo good.
September 10, 2016
It was an ok read that I barely remember.
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