Reviews

Devil's Pawn by Natasha Knight

zatulasma's review

gila

1bookobsessionconfessions's review

4.0

4 DARK CAPTIVE STARS

This is a dark(ish) captive romance and it involves a powerful secret society.
I love the secret society aspect, it adds a unique, mysterious and creepy vibe.
The setting and story have a delightful touch of a modern gothic tale. The spooky house, the large, dark property with a chapel and cemetery. The beauty/beast characteristics of Isabelle and Jericho all add to this gothic, dark ambience. The past full of tragedies…I loved it!

Jericho is a man out for vengeance and young Isabelle is the one he’s set to use to go about this.
She’s a victim of who her family is and what wrongs they’ve done and believed to be guilty of.
Jericho is the perfect tortured, anti-hero that I live for.
His need for vengeance is completely understandable, it’s his methods that are a little questionable.
He also is very emotional (obviously) so it hinder’s his rational thinking at times, bad decisions are bound to be made.
He’s a bit dark and cruel, BUT he has a secret soft spot that makes him redeemable and very sexy.
His daughter is that soft spot and the interactions he has with her stole my heart.
She’s the light amongst all the darkness in this world and story.
I enjoyed all the adults interactions with her, she’s a bit fragile and so very sweet.
I love the way she brings the best out in the family.

Isabelle is an innocent and she’s a really kind person.
It’s so easy to feel sympathetic towards her, she’s not guilty of anything and she’s in this awful and terrifying situation. She is a blameless victim.
She has a tragic past and it plays a big part for her and in the story in general.
As things move forward she shows a bit of spirit and fight.
I love that she challenges Jericho in a subtle way. She is not just a quiet, demure captive. She has fire in her.

Both characters have a lot of pain and they have had big tragedies and loss in their lives.
They are both suffering and are pretty melancholy people.
Hopefully, they can change things for each other.

The chemistry is good, it wasn’t as titillating or hot as I expected.
It might be a me thing, it might be that I read plenty of captive romance and it didn’t have anything unusual or a different kind of naughty.

There is the inevitable cliffhanger. It was fairly easy to expect, it’s not a cliffhanger that made me want to tear my hair out or throw my kindle.
But, it did make me excited to see how everything plays out in the next book.

nadine_booklover's review

3.0

3.5 stars

Devil's Pawn was my first book by Natasha Knight and I still can't believe I haven't read her books before. She definitely has a great writing style and she created an amazing world where this story is set in.

This arranged marriage (forced) story is really intense and has it perks, but I wish I could have felt the chemistry between Isabelle and Jericho on a deeper level.

This book also showed me, that dub-con is really not my cup of tea. I don't have a problem reading it and I'm not triggered. It just doesn't sit right with me.

beth_joey's review

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This book was incredibly chaotic. 99% of the time I had no idea who was related to who, what the whole purpose of Jericho's plot was, what Isabelle was feeling about the whole situation, and what the hell the IVI was. Don't get me wrong, it's addictively bingeable, but it's really not very good. The smut is also incredibly sub-par, given it pretty much fades to black or gives no level of detail most of the time. The writing is incredibly immature, the characters are surface-level, and the logic is so flawed that it's non-existent. But somehow, I'm still enjoying the heck out of this read, to the point that I immediately had to pick up the sequel. 

daisybookattic's review

5.0

Wow

romancebookloverinseattle's review

5.0

Natasha Knight excels at writing exactly the kind of twisted, dark, spicy books I love to lose myself in. Devil's Pawn is the first in a duet that takes place in the same world featured in The Society Trilogy, the collaboration with A. Zavarelli that first introduced me to Natasha Knight. This first half of the duet features Jericho, a single father who is on a journey for vengeance for the death of his wife. Isabelle features largely in his journey for revenge. She is fairly new to the world of The Society, only having been brought into it three years prior after the death of the family that she had lived with until then. Jericho is a tortured soul, overtaken by the darkness that his search for revenge has brought him into while Isabelle is sweet and innocent despite her losses and grief.

This story takes you on a ride that is intense and dark with lots of secrets and mysteries needing to be unraveled. The interactions between Jericho and Isabelle are filled with a twisted sort of chemistry and scenes that are intensely erotic and dark. I can't wait for the conclusion to this duet, or to dive into all of Natasha Knight's previous books that I have until now missed out on!

adela_j's review

dark emotional medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

bookgramsaga_'s review

4.0

4.5

jamiesbookaddiction's review

5.0

Welcome back to The Society World!! I'm really loving this world.

Isabelle Bishop really knows almost nothing about The Society. She was only taken in after she lost the last of her family at 16, only 3 years earlier. She is a lot stronger than I initially gave her credit for. She is wonderful with Jericho's daughter, Angelique.

Jericho has been plotting revenge for the last 5 years against the Bishops. He is finding that he has a slight soft spot for Isabelle though and it's irritating him.

These two have a very strong attraction to one another. It's been fun seeing how they constantly try and fight it.

There are some twists and turns. We also get to see some more of Santiago and Ivy from The Society Trilogy!

loveydoveyrry's review

3.0

Goodreads decided to glitch and ruin the review I was writing-
—
This book came up in my mind so I decided to read it.

Isabelle (FC: Taylor Hill):
- Naive as hell. It was annoying that she doesn’t know what we know and how she doesn’t believe what her brother is capable of.
- The way she’s so sweet and caring towards Angelique!!!

Jericho (FC: Henry Cavill):
- What can I really say about this man-
- The way his revenge gets the better of him and is not being a father to Angelique…
- The way he provokes Isabelle… look away-

—
I was reading this book! Like I almost pulled an all nighter for this book!

The ending kinda threw me off bc I would never forgive someone if they did that!

The enemies to lovers was definitely there and even though I don’t like it the trope this one didn’t annoy me.

The St. James family are very suspicious like I can’t trust them something about them…

I’m curious about Santiago and Ivy I kinda want to read their book.
—
Overall 3.5-.75/5 stars. The ending again threw me off and this did feel like something you would read on Wattpad and still love it and hate it???

I think I’m immediately jump to the second book bc it did leave us on a cliffhanger.