Don't Bargain with the Devil: School for Heiresses series
by: Sabrina Jeffries
Published by: Pocket Books (June 2009 Release)
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Reviewed by Patty Inglish
Author Sabrina Jeffries provides popular literature a revitalizing romance series in her School for Heiresses novels. A finishing school and its headmistress in Regency England is an enticing venue for romance and intrigue, jealousies and mysteries. The series takes us back to a simpler life containing clearer values that can be translated to the alarmingly turbulent 21st Century. Given the impetus afforded by the latest novel, we can insert a little of the past into today for a lift in spirits.
In this installment, an ambitiously handsome magician from Spain moves to lands abutting the school campus, where Lucinda, one of the former pupils who’s just 19, is the temporary art teacher,. The Spaniard Diego’s publicized plans to create a pleasure garden raise eyebrows and alarm among the school staff and surrounding community. This drives Lucinda toward a solid purpose of stopping the garden of evil from manifesting, if she can. However, the magician has his own secret purpose to fulfill.
As magic and art meet, sparks fly in annoyance and anger, but then in something more passionate. Whose purpose will the rising embers serve?
This story of military intrigue, war, lost relatives, shanghaied women, fortunes, and secret admirers all unfold at a pace brisk enough to engage and enchant readers without exhausting them. I reached the last chapter, hardly realizing I had done so. An additional engaging storyline is provided solely in the brief correspondence quoted at the start of each chapter. This occurs between Headmistress Charlotte and her anonymous male cousin and benefactor. The conflict in those notes rises and falls at times alternate to those of the main plot, providing extra excitement, interest, and humor.
Don’t Bargain With the Devil can be successfully filmed for a large audience. Those that normally do not enjoy romance will enjoy this story, drenched in drama, intrigue, humor, and mystery. Sexual scenes are graphic, but refreshingly without profanity, adding to good taste.
Adults that enjoy mystery, magic, romance, and European culture conflict will appreciate this novel and look for more.
Armchair Interviews agrees.
Author’s Web site: http://www.SabrinaJeffries.com
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