Devil in Disguise

💥💥💥💥/5

The latest installment in the Ravenal Series, Devil in Disguise, gives us the story of Lady Merritt Sterling and Keir MacRae. Lady Merritt is the daughter of Lillian and Marcus, recently widowed and running her late husband’s shipping company. Keir is a rugged Scottish whiskey distiller, who would like nothing more than to get his business in London done quickly and return home to remote Scotland. When they meet, it’s instant attraction. While Merritt is intent on giving in to the attraction while avoiding a scandal, Keir finds himself in more danger than falling for Merritt can bring when an assassin is after him.

The relationship between Merritt and Keir was lovely. Merritt was fierce, brave, and went after exactly what she wanted. Keir was funny and gruff, but so sweet. Their banter was great and the chemistry was off the charts.

Despite being the latest installment in the Ravenels series, Devil in Disguise really qualifies more as a Wallflowers next generation book, since it was very light on Ravenels but heavy on old friends from the Wallflowers series, including fan-favorite Sebastian, Lord St Vincent (of course, now he’s Duke of Kingston). Some of it felt like a little too much playing to the fans, but I can’t lie, I did eat it up. People may disagree, but I actually enjoyed the twist and do think it’s consistent with Sebastian’s character before Evie.

The ending did feel a little rushed, and the assassination storyline wrapped up with very little danger or anticipation. While I typically like to see a glimpse of the couple in the future for the epilogue, this one is just a conversation between Sebastian and Marcus that was a little disappointing (the subject matter was a little bit of a pet peeve of mine too but I won’t spoil it for you). I would’ve liked more Merritt and Keir!

Bottom line: I’ll take a new Kleypas any day, and this was no exception. So good.