Kleypas, Lisa. Devil in Disguise (The Ravenels #7). Avon/Harper Voyager, 2021. 384 pp.. ISBN 9780062371966 8.99

****

Widowed Meritt Sterling has taken over her late husband’s shipping business and falls for a client: Scotsman Keir MacRae. Their chemistry is immediate and off the charts. I did find the lust at first sight believable, as she seems to have had a healthy relationship with her late husband and knows what she’s missing out on. I appreciated the female gaze in this book. At any rate, she tries to resist as she’s trying to avoid scandal…and he seems to have a price on his head.

This is a suspenseful, passionate tale. The writing is impeccable; MacCrae’s description of scotch whiskey will have you craving a wee dram for yourself. The characters are fiesty, the setting feels historically accurate, and savvy readers will probably figure out the plot twist pretty quickly. I haven’t read all of the other books in the series, and didn’t feel like I was missing out.

I did listen to the audiobook as well; narrator Mary Jane Wells goes effortlessly from patrician British to Scots brogue to flat American accents to give a sense of each character. This is not an audiobook to listen to with someone else in the car though; the intimate scenes are explicitly, juicily detailed and super steamy. The gorgeous, lush painterly cover is appealing but implies our heroine might be the namesake of the book.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #DevilInDisguise from #NetGalley.