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A review by jackiehorne
The Devil's Submission by Nicola Davidson
2.0
This might have been interesting if it had been fleshed out into a full novel. But as it stands, it feels like we're just going through the motions, moving the characters along to fit the slight plot. Lord Grayson Devereaux ("Devil") is the quiet accountant of the pleasure club owned by by himself and two other appropriately-named aristocrats. Recently married, he's left his wife because she's been so unlike the lady he thought he wed, a strong, bossy woman whom he hoped might help him fulfill his sexual desires to be dominated.
For her part, Eliza, listening to the counsel of her conventional mother, tried her damnedest to be a docile, obedient wife, and has no idea why the husband who once seemed so enamored has abandoned her (I think this all was portrayed in the first book of the series, which I had not read, which may be part of the problem). Now, her mother (who, despite being an aristocrat, improbably runs a girls' boarding school!) is in financial straights, and urges Eliza to reconcile with her husband to get money to help her. Eliza's mother is so one-dimensionally unpleasant that it was difficult to understand why Eliza would aid her in anything, never mind asking her estranged husband for cash. But dutiful Eliza leaves the country and moves into her husband's rooms at the gaming hell. And the two end up quickly finding their sexual way to each other, once Eliza begins to pick up on the clues about her husband's preferences that Grayson drops.
The story ends with the reconciled couple putting Eliza's too-demanding mother back in her place (a message rather at odds with the dominant woman theme of the rest of the book). Totally ridiculous that anyone could embezzle fifteen thousand pounds from a girls school—have you looked at what people paid for schooling in this period??
Demanding that such a story be historically accurate is perhaps asking for the wrong thing here. Still, I far prefer Kate Pearce's erotic historicals, with their fully fleshed-out characters, to this.
For her part, Eliza, listening to the counsel of her conventional mother, tried her damnedest to be a docile, obedient wife, and has no idea why the husband who once seemed so enamored has abandoned her (I think this all was portrayed in the first book of the series, which I had not read, which may be part of the problem). Now, her mother (who, despite being an aristocrat, improbably runs a girls' boarding school!) is in financial straights, and urges Eliza to reconcile with her husband to get money to help her. Eliza's mother is so one-dimensionally unpleasant that it was difficult to understand why Eliza would aid her in anything, never mind asking her estranged husband for cash. But dutiful Eliza leaves the country and moves into her husband's rooms at the gaming hell. And the two end up quickly finding their sexual way to each other, once Eliza begins to pick up on the clues about her husband's preferences that Grayson drops.
The story ends with the reconciled couple putting Eliza's too-demanding mother back in her place (a message rather at odds with the dominant woman theme of the rest of the book). Totally ridiculous that anyone could embezzle fifteen thousand pounds from a girls school—have you looked at what people paid for schooling in this period??
Demanding that such a story be historically accurate is perhaps asking for the wrong thing here. Still, I far prefer Kate Pearce's erotic historicals, with their fully fleshed-out characters, to this.