365 books in 365 days Challenge ... Book #295

A Devilishly Dark Deal - Maggie Cox
Mills & Boon Modern
Harlequin UK, 2012
ISBN: 9780263890396












My rating

From the back cover:

"A deal with the devil
Having made his fortune from nothing, billionaire Marco Aguilar has wiped the dirt of a poverty-stricken childhood from his expensive shoes. Now he can have anything he wants – and his next acquisition is beautiful charity worker Grace Faulkner. He’ll finance her beloved orphanage if she agrees to become his mistress! 
Only Grace’s sweet, selfless nature – and the fire she ignites with her touch – shakes his iron defences to the core. Tortured Marco has been driven by demons for so long – can he be saved by this innocent angel?"


The title of this book is great, nice bit a alliteration!

The heroine Grace is on holiday in Portugal when she hearts that the well known businessman Marco, the hero, is due to arrive. She decides to try and arrange a meeting with him to ask for a donation to the charity she works for - the charity needs backing in order to build a new orphanage for children in Africa. Although Marco is initially annoyed at Grace's interruption her passion for her cause moves him and he agrees to listen to her proposal. Marco also realises he is very drawn to Grace, both for her passion as well as her honesty. He asks Grace to spend the rest of her holiday with him, and Grace agrees. At first she is nervous and flustered by Marco's attentions but soon realises the attraction is entirely mutual. They start a passionate affair, which quickly becomes more, but Marco is afraid that Grace's refreshing openness will cause him to let down his very guarded heart.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. But I have to be honest and say that I just found it boring. The actual story only takes place over a few days but the pace of the book made it feel like forever, it became a little tedious after a while. I found the heroine to be a little too uptight, way too puritanical, and a bit of a martyr. The hero is a good character though, very complex.

This story just didn't have enough kick to make it really enjoyable, in my opinion. It is a little disappointing.

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