The Devil's Heart - Lynn Raye Harris
Harlequin Presents
Harlequin, 2011
ISBN: 9780373129867
N.B. The above details relate to the North American release of this book.
My rating
From the back cover:
"A diamond, and a devilish deal…
Francesca D’Oro was just eighteen when darkly sexy Marcos Navarre swept her up the aisle – then fled before the ink on the marriage licence had dried. Marcos might have given Francesca a jewel for her finger, but he stole another: the Devil’s Heart – a dazzling yellow diamond he believed belonged to his family…
Years later Francesca, no longer so youthfully naïve, is determined to reclaim the precious gem! But she’s forgotten that Marcos lives up to the treasure’s name – and dealing with the devil is always dangerous!"
I'll admit that while I am easily pleased (I have not given many books under 3 stars in this challenge) I'm also a bit stingy when it comes to giving away full marks! So far in this challenge I have only given two books a 5 star rating, well this fabulous book by Lynn Raye Harris has become the third! I was absolutely blown away by it.
The story begins, rather violently, with the hero Marcos being held at gunpoint in his hotel room by a thief attempting to steal his family heirloom El Corazón del Diablo, a necklace with a large and valuable yellow diamond pendant. The situation causes painful memories of Marcos's past experiences of brutal warfare. What Marcos doesn't realise is that the thief is Francesca, the heroine and the girl he married eight years previously in order to reclaim the diamond, which had fallen into her fathers hands by deceit. Marcos had left as soon as Francesca had given him the diamond.
Francesca has stolen the diamond back in order to be able to sell it and pay for medical treatment for a dear friend and for revenge against Marcos. Francesca has lived a difficult life in the eight years since she married including being disowned by her family and a brutal attack and miscarriage. When Marcos tracks her and the diamond down there is a fierce confrontation between them. Marcos insists on them re-marrying in order to stop any further claims over ownership to the diamond. He is also determined to seduce Francesca, something he never got to do before, and make her want him back.
Well, what a story! I have tried to keep the description above as brief as possible as I really don't want to spoil it too much! Throughout this book there are so many secrets and revelations that I couldn't wait to turn each page. It was a real roller coaster of emotions, I kept going from being on the edge of my seat to feeling heartbroken! This book was dark with a capital D!
The characters were really well developed, both held scars from the past and were each struggling to live their lives and deal with these at the same time. Marcos was so complex, I didn't like him at first, in fact I'm still not sure if I liked him but he was a true Alpha-male; deliciously tortured yet incredibly caring and dedicated to making the world a better place.
The Journey the characters went on was amazing, they had both been to hell and back and you know what, reading this I felt like I had been right there with them, and this made the HEA extremely satisfying. The writing is flawless, how Lynn Raye Harris managed to contain this to 185 pages I'll never know.
I cannot praise this book enough, I just don't have the words! Lynn, thank you for writing this book.
A must read.
Xx
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