A Deal with the Devil

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Okay, this was absolutely delightful, so delightful, in fact, that I read it in less than 5...hours? I've been having some bad luck with books recently, and wanted something low-pressure, fun, and easy to read. A Deal with the Devil met every single one of those points, with the added bonus of being written extremely well. I liked all the characters I was supposed to, when I'm usually sort of resigned to at least being irritated by the main character. (Why are so many main characters in romance novels whiny?) Talia was extremely competent in just about everything she was asked to do. But she'd only do what she was told if she could gripe about it. She had a smart, wicked mouth. I loved watching her and Hayes bicker with each other. That's quickly becoming a favorite trope of mine — the mild-dislike-to-lovers trope. If you like that one, too, you'll love A Deal with the Devil.

Anyway, Talia is a debut novelist struggling to finish her first book in time. She's poor as dirt, with a family that's struggling after her father died. When her friend offers to let her work as his replacement while he's off adopting his daughter, Talia leaps at the chance. Only...she knows she'll be working for a man that she despises. Only like...we're never really given a reason why she hates him. Not that it really matters — I think we're supposed to assume that her friend talked bad about Hayes before, but we don't see that in the book. Either way — I liked how we saw Talia struggle with writing while being so good at just about everything in her life. It was a nice foil.

I can see why someone might dislike this book — Hayes is extraordinarily wealthy and appears to work continuously so he can become even more so — but I truly, truly enjoyed it. I loved how much Hayes wanted Talia before they bent together, and I really loved how much he was willing to change in order to be right for her. They both shifted their lives in order to work together. They were so similar, but so right for each other.

I hope the next book in this series is just as good.