Book 3, Devil in Spring: The Ravenels

I was extremely disappointed in this book. When I heard that Lisa Kleypas was writing a romance with Sebastian and Evie's son, I was thrilled and breathlessly waited in anticipation for its release.

Instead, she wasted him--and a huge literary opportunity to spotlight the Devil in Winter's son--in a mundane romance in which he was a supporting character. It should have been titled "Pandora in Spring".

I I would not have minded as much if it had been a interesting romance, but it was bland and dull. And then there was a subplot thrown in at the end, which was obviously serving as a probable jumping-off point for the next series.

I expected Gabriel--he was Sebastian's son for heaven's sake--to be a scapegrace and have some sexy, fun adventures before he was was reformed by the right woman. At the very least, I expected more of an interesting character, given his family background and DNA. I felt he was rather insipid, actually.

Sorry, Lisa--I love your books and I adored the Wallflower series, but this was a waste of time to me. The ONLY thing that made me happy was whenever Evie and Sebastian showed up, which was too infrequently.

This turned out to be a huge disappointment. I managed to get to 90% and quit. I simply couldn't care about these people or the story. Gabriel is supposed to be a devil and isn't. He falls in love with Pandora within seconds and gives her the pet name of Love. This silly pet name only served to irritate me particularly since there really never seemed to be a connection. While there were a couple of chuckle worthy moments of dialog, in general, this story was endless pages of detailed sex and sudden bad guys coming in to take over the story and cause harm to Pandora. With all the demanding she did about her board game business did precious little of it.

I'm sorry to say that this book wasn't as enjoyable as I thought it would be. Like other reviewers, I was looking for an interesting update and extension of the Wallflower Books. Loved "Devil in Winter" and hoped that this book would reacquaint readers with Evie, Sebastian, etc, as well as develop a strong story between Gabe and Pandora. I was disappointed by the thin character development--especially for Gabe--and wish that the plot had spent more time developing a reasonable reason for them to get together as well as explain the threat from the Irish separatists. All of a sudden, Pandora needs to be assassinated? Come on! It is too bad that so little care was given to a story that could have been really interesting and memorable.

Devil In Spring is the third installment of Lisa Kleypas’s Ravenel series. Having read the earlier novels, I wondered if the heroine would be a lady who had matured. Well, she doesn’t at first and I was prepared to not like this book based on the first half or so. Then the heroine becomes more self-aware and transforms into a more developed character, plus she has a wonderful hero.

Lady Pandora is more than unconventional. She is self-described as stubborn and I would add combative too. She is also a bit unfocused yet focused. She wants to be a business woman and has a singular bent on that aspect of her life but gets distracted during conversations. She never and I repeat never wants to marry so she is devastated when she is caught with notorious rake, Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent in a compromising position.

Gabriel is none to pleased either. He has avoided match making mamas but he is intrigued by Pandora who is a bundle of energy. She talks too much and walks too fast and she has practically no filter from her brain to her mouth when it comes to Gabriel. He wants to do the honorable thing but she is dead set against it telling him she has no desire to give up her freedom to a man. So begins this battle of wills.

Let me state that Gabriel is a complete romantic. He is swoon worthy and as silver tongued as his father who is featured in another book, yet Pandora resists. Focusing on women’s rights, she uses this as reason not to fall for him. Most of this book is about convincing Pandora that Gabriel is the real deal, a genuine hero who is unselfish and admirable. It’s easy to like him.

Pandora is one of those heroines, a reader just has to believe will improve as the story continues despite her immaturity in the first part of the novel. Frequently her family talks of how she and her twin were raised on their estate with no friends. They make this sound as if the girls were parented by wild animals or something and this should excuse all of Pandora’s faults. This in no way covers her actions as her other sisters are as well educated as Pandora and move through London society without her negative attitude. Also Kathleen, her brother’s widow, was one who greatly believed in propriety and was very managing as I recall from a previous book, Hard to believe she would not have influenced her and finally she is twenty-one, not a fifteen year old miss from the country. Nonetheless, Pandora does grow up and it takes falling in love with Gabriel to make her understand that she is better with him and that life is more complex and unpredictable than she expects. She feels the joy and the fear of these emotion.

Ms. Kleypas has created a superb hero in Gabriel, and he way outshines his heroine. He is confident and certain and so charming. He is what makes this story so readable. Yes, Pandora has her viewpoint but there are only so many times the reader wants to hear how she does not want to marry Gabriel. His inner thoughts are more interesting and complex. Here is a man falling in love and readjusting his ideals and contemplating how to assure a very intractable heroine. I thought his emotions and actions were so enjoyable, deep, and unpredictable. He is what makes this story gratifying. I also loved catching up with his family, who are just as generous and kind as Gabriel.

I am a great fan of Lisa Kleypas in general, but I especially enjoyed this book. Getting a chance to see Evie and Sebastian and their family was a real treat. (A further glimpse of Westcliff and Lillian and their brood, would be appreciated.) I loved Pandora's quirkiness and Gabriel's ability to see her for who she was. While I liked the other two Ravenel books, this one was my favorite, so far. Looking forward to the next one. Keep up the good work, Lisa!

Truly wonderfully developed characters who actually talked--a perfect example of how to tell a story outside the characters' heads. As always rich bits of historical detail make this a strong Lisa Kleypas romance in every aspect except for the plot, which could have used more thought as it took a sharp turn toward English political history that was unfortunately uninteresting and made for a rather flat ending even with the involvement of Kleypas' dynamic characters. Read it for the romance, Kleypas' sweetly lyrical descriptions, and characters we love.

First let me say I love love love the way Ms. Kleypas writes. She can turn a phrase into something lyrical and magical. I love the research and the descriptions of a life that I will never get to experience. Her historical references of dress and food and society at the time transport me and once reading her books I am thrown into a delicious world of the past.
Why the three stars then?
Let me first say that when I started reading her, I seldom gave less then 5 stars. I loved the witty repartee with the H and the h. The character development kept me interested and the love making scenes were off the charts steamy. I did not have that experience with this book or the last couple of her books. The steamy scenes went on forever and ever and ever. The last one I skipped through was 5 pages long. Just too too much!

Pandora and Cassandra annoyed me to no end when they were first introduced. They seemed like dull witted children to me. However at the beginning of this book, I really admired how Kleypas was able to turn Pandora's quirks into charm and eccentricity. But half way through the book her childish behavior and constant need for reassurance made the relationship between her and Lord Vincent seem almost unnatural to me. It was a little creepy at times the way he took such a fatherly role with her. Left me unsettled. She came off as spoiled and self indulgent by the end of the book. I guess the story took a disappointing turn for me.
Having said that...will I continue to read Kleypas. Yes. I will for all the reasons I previously stated. She really is a master story teller, I just do not always care for her characters.

I was looking forward to this book, but was left feeling underwhelmed. The first half of the novel was classic Lisa Kleypas, full of humor and characters I wanted to love. However, it felt like Kleypas realized halfway through the novel that she never set up a true conflict in the plot. I quickly lost interest in the ridiculous assassination attempt that was half-heartedly thrown in there to call back to Devil in Winter. Gabriel was a character very different from Sebastian and deserved a very different storyline than a bad rehash of a previous book.

***Love, love love.***
Devil in Winter is one of my all time favorite books, anxiously awaited this release for months! I loved Gabriel, seemingly the perfect combination of the best of both Sebastian & Evie. Pandora was a wonderful mix of quirky, strength & fragility that will steal your heart and make you smile. Very sad to see the book come to an end. Hopefully LK will keep giving us glimpses of these beloved characters in upcoming books in this series.

I enjoyed this story even though it was predictable. Having read the previous Ravenel books, you knew the heroine well enough to know how she would act. Her hero was gallant, but had a bit of a dark side that made him that much more enticing. I would recommend reading this book along with the other books connected to this storyline.

Even though I could anticipate to a certain degree what would happen, it was still entertaining and sometimes surprising how things happened. It is definitely worth reading.

I'm a little surprised Pandora got her story before Cassandra, but I did enjoy hearing about how she captivated Gabriel! I did not like this story as much as the previous in this entry, but it was a fun read nevertheless. I think this would be good reading for a romance novel lover who is looking for an entertaining book to read while commuting or traveling.

I didn't expect Devil in Spring to equal Devil in Winter, but I was hoping it would be more interesting than this. Gabriel was shafted terribly in character development. He was a toothless Sebastian 2.0. Stunning, but pretty dull. In fact, "pretty dull" was an apt description of the whole story.
Kleypas did great historical research, then set about proving it in the most monotonous ways.
The book seemed like filler used for setting up the stories Kleypas is really interested in telling. I suspect Sebastian and Evie's oldest, Phoebe, has a story in her future--maybe with West. Same with Ransom and Dr. Gibson from Marrying Mr. Winterborne.
The look into Sebastian & Evie's family was enough to make the purchase worthwhile, but I found even this less interesting than I hoped. They were all so nice--even when they were supposedly baiting each other. Again, "toothless" comes to mind.

Always enjoyable to read a novel I have a history with, and Wallflowers is the history. I found myself wrapped up fairly quickly with my handsome hero. Evie Jenner found him first Duke or not he's a treat. The son is a perfect choice for a Ravenel. I'm ready for the fourth book, can't be published soon enough for me! Highly recommend this author's entire backlist of books.

One of my favorite historical romance authors. So fun to visit characters from a past series, which often backfires because the author can't balance it. Not the case here. I appreciated the way the plot developed. Dialogue was good (some of my other favorite authors have been too dialogue heavy in their books lately). Well done.

I'm completely mixed on this book. I enjoyed the first 1/4. The last 1/4 as well. I thought Gabriel was one of the most patient and understanding heros ive had the pleasure to read. If I'd been courted in 1877 he would of been my ideal. I did take issue with Pandora. She went on and on and on about women's rights to the point where I just wanted to shake her. I'm an old school feminist who believes in men's rights as much as womens and this felt a bit like the new wave of feminism happening now which I'm not entirely subscribed too. I think if I had sensed she wasn't so against changing the lovely alpha in him I would of digested it better, he seemed capable of changing his whole world for her after all with lots of love and patience. I thought he deserved as much in return by omission. Alas it works out, but it took her bloody forever. I always got the sense he only ever wanted to please and understand her and never hold her back, so I got quite frazzled mid book when she wouldn't give an inch even after he told her many many times he didn't want to change her and was very honest with whatever he could discover regarding her fears of remaining as independent from him as possible in 1877. So to be blunt and honest, that could be what held me back from enjoying this book and Pandoras journey.

The story I felt was rather romantic in the way the hero was portrayed and that was refreshing. His character remained defined and never wavered. She was all over the place. He truly was written as a caring, patient and romantic lead. Which I suppose was the authors intentions. She needed someone like that if your going to have a lead whose attention span is constantly moving. I enjoyed the scenes with Gabriel and his mother and father quite a lot. I thought they were brilliant and tied into their story in clever ways. So if you've a fondness for that couple than you will surely enjoy it. The author also unleashes some secrets in this one, I'm only assuming she has more to come since in essence a mystery continues.

But again, the best part of this book for me was Gabriel. He's every woman's idea of a good man in 1877. I definitely recommend the read. I may not of loved every second of it, but I did feel satisfied with the conclusion.

I loved reading about Sebastian again, because he's my second favorite Kleypas hero, (Derek Craven #1). It was exciting to read about his family life knowing the origin of his character. I loved the recurring characters and I hope all the Challon siblings get their own story. Hopefully there's another happy ending for Phoebe, and I am curious about Cassandra's story.

I loved Gabiel, but I understand why his character only had hints of flaws, but nothing was really specified. He's titled, wealthy, intelligent and beautiful, plus he's always had the support of a wonderful family. If he were to complain then it would lessen his character. All in all, I think he is perfect the way he was written.

Pandora was... In the beginning, I loved that she fought for equality in her marriage, but it got annoying. I don't think she understood Gabriel's character. To sum up Pandora: Meh.

I feel Gabriel was more in love with her than she was with him. From beginning to end, the reader feels his love and attraction, but you don't feel it with Pandora. I really didn't like her.

This book got a 4 stars, because of think he Challon bunch.

Another great Kleypas book - loved reading about some of my old favorite characters from earlier books! Pandora was a unique individual, not giving in to social conventions. I agree with some others in wishing Gabriel's role was more detailed.
Hope to meet some of the new interesting characters in the future... hopefully the wait will not be long.

"Devil in Winter" has always been one of my favorite Lisa Kleypas novels. In fact, it is at least in the Top 3, if not #1 of my favorites from her (a few others rotate through those three, but "Devil in Winter" is always right near the top). The Wallflowers were my introduction to Lisa K, and I devoured all her others. To me, I went in thinking "Devil in Spring" could never live up to it, because it holds such a piece of my heart in romance novels. I love her books, she is an automatic purchase for me, particularly her historicals, and she writes connected books (particularly of families) so well.

And somehow, "Devil in Spring" surpassed "Devil in Winter." It has been quite a long time since I've gotten to the end of a book and cried just because it was over and wept over how wonderful the love story was, but I did it with "Devil in Spring." Not only did we get some lovely peaks of Evie and Sebastian, and how they've grown as people, and that they are still so in love, but we got Gabriel and Pandora--and they are just as wonderful as Evie and Seb. I also enjoyed that Evie and Seb weren't a sub-plot, they were just part of the world, even though we did get some wonderful scenes with them, and one just by themselves early on.

I have loved the Ravenel family since their first book, but Pandora is officially my favorite. I'm not sure Cassandra will be able to surpass her (Garrett Gibson *might*, but she isn't actually a Ravenel, just part of that world). Part of it is that Pandora's attitudes are reflecting some historically appropriate issues that still resonate massively today, and so it felt like she was very modern, but still historically correct. It is amazing to see the reflection of the history in today's world. Lisa K also does a great job with educating about history, without making it feel like a history lesson---and this was probably her best showing of that skill. I wanted to be Pandora's best friend, and Gabriel matches her so wonderfully--he is truly Seb's son, but also his own man. It takes a lot for me to say, "I dont' know how they are going to get together at the end of this" in a romance novel now, and I actually said it out loud while reading this book.

It could not have been more perfect. I started recommending it to friends (even some who don't read romance) by half-way through the book. Lisa Kleypas shines, with her brightest light, in this story, and I was so sorry to see it end. It makes me want to go back and read all of hers again.

Pandora is not a traditional romance heroine, which I found a good change of pace. She places down firm boundaries to be who she is, and is not brooding or self sacrificing. Simply an odd duck who has no desire to not be an odd duck. It was Gabriel, our "hero" who needed more fleshing out. He falls in love very quickly, without enough character development. Also, his "dark" sexual desires are more of a very very light gray.

I have read every one Lisa Kleypas 's novels with my most favorite being The Devil in Winter which I have probably read at least 20 times. I have been anxiously awaiting this book when I realized the hero was Sebastian and Evie's son. I loved meeting them again and their families and hope we will have more stories about the Wallflowers families.

You will truly enjoy reading Pandora and Gabriel's story. I couldn't put it down and stayed up all night to finish. It didn't disappoint and I am already looking forward to the next in the Ravenel series.

I enjoyed this quire a lot - I didn't agree with some of the comments about him falling in love with her too quickly. I thought it was a good edition to the series and liked how some of my favorite characters were brought into the book.

This review has spoilers.

I would say this is a 3.5/5 stars for me. I really enjoyed the first half or so of the book, but the pacing in the second half seemed...odd.

I enjoyed both of the main characters, though I felt more could have been done to Gabriel to give him flaws. He was practically perfect in every way. There was ample opportunity to go into any problems or character issues he might have, and it seemed there were none (aside from some minimal time appropriate opinions on women's roles). Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved him as a character, but there were even a few times in book when it was mentioned he should show Pandora his flaws, and they just never really came up or seemed that diminishing.

Pandora was quirky, and I enjoyed that, but she was also frustrating. There seemed to be a huge imbalance on level of affection between the characters, with Gabriel willing to do just about anything, and Pandora intent on her own goals, which was definitely good from a certain perspective, but in a romance, I'd prefer a little more balance. I think Pandora's objections to marriage were some of the best articulated for a romance at this time period, but honestly, impossible to overcome without a major character decision/change, and I don't think the change was as believable as it could have been.

I liked being introduced to Gabriel's family and seeing what happened with Sebastian and Evie. (Devil In Winter is one of my favorite romances.) I enjoyed Gabriel's relationships with his family members, I enjoyed that the characters had frank discussions, and I enjoyed that there were moments of connection between characters other than Gabriel and Pandora.

I would have preferred if more of the story was from Gabriel's perspective, if the romantic scenes had been, I don't know, more intense - there was something not quite up to par about them - and if there had been a greater sense of urgency to the later complications.

The added plot elements in the last third or so of the book seemed like a set up for another character's story, but was fairly out of no where in this book, and the resolution was distant - the main characters only on the periphery of it. They weren't as engaged and active as I'd have liked them to be, considering this is *their* book. Also, there were several minor plot elements that were brought up and resolved (somewhat) without much depth (e.g., the mistress, Gabriel's needs). I questioned why they were included or why they weren't expanded on.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story; I will certainly re-read the book; and I look forward to seeing these characters in future installments. (Seriously, we need to get a Dr. Gibson story. Who will she be teased with next?)

Boring and dragged on couldn’t finish the book. Love the Wallflower series, Marrying Winterbourne and favorite of all time hero Derek Craven from Dreaming of you. Better off to reread those stories.

##SPOILERS## This contains SPOILERS!#
This book is named as a Ravenels series but was promoted and advertised as a sequel to Lisa Kleypas' highly popular bestseller Devil in Winter. Even its pre-publication teaser uses the entire prologue featuring the hero and heroine of Devil in Winter (the present hero's parents). So we can imagine the high expectations and anticipation of Ms Kleypas' fans for this book.

So did it meet my expectation?. Is this sequel better, or at least at par with its predecessor? No, and a big NO.

Gabriel (the hero) is bland and weak whose only conflict and angst in life is his secret preference for bedding only a woman with "subversive talents" (his father's words). And his secret shameful guilt of keeping a married woman as a mistress because he thinks she's the only one who is talented enough to indulge him as such in bed. And guilt is eating at him because he truly believes in the sanctity of a marriage vows. It makes you wonder, if it bothers him so much, with his good looks, vast wealth, breeding and high status in society why couldn't he find and keep as a mistress a highly skilled professional courtesan who would make it her business to satisfy whatever "subversive" acts he might wish to do with her, instead of having it with someone else's wife.?

And now the heroine. Don't let me start on Pandora, the heroine. I think she's best described in the hero's (her husband's) own words when he instructs her footman :-

"She doesn't pay attention to time, so you'll have to mind her schedule. She tends to lose things easily. Keep an eye for dropped gloves, handkerchiefs, books, anything she might accidentally leave behind. She's sweet natured and impulsive, so for God's sake keep swindlers, street-sellers, pickpockets, and beggars away from her. Also, she's often distracted, so don't let her trip on the pavement or veer into the street. She's hard of hearing in her right ear..."

Now, either that sounds like a 5 yr old - in which case she needs Nanny - or a decrepit old crone with no business to be out and about. Either way she definitely doesn't sound like anyone having a business acumen capable of being totally independent of her husband's guidance and involvement, which she adamantly asks for as a condition for agreeing to marry him.

She's also not particularly fond of running a household, not interested in carrying out duties and acquiring talents expected of ladies of good ton. Her only interest is in supposedly setting up her game invention business which her husband must neither interfere nor get to own. With all her immaturity, her irritating absent mindedness, and her previously sheltered life one would think her talks of independence and business venture are nothing but a 19 yr old girl-child passing fancy.

And honestly, a historical romance book in which the author writes about a 19th century heroine insisting on talking, behaving and demanding to live as a 21st century woman totally puts me off. When I read a historical romance I want to immerse myself and get lost in a story that revolves around values and standards of that era. If I want to read about a modern thinking heroine I would go read contemporary romance. 2 stars.

I looked forward to the release of this book immensely. Lisa Kleypas is usually the best of the best of the historical romance genre. A very gifted writer and an absolute "must read" for me in the past. And like many other avid historical romance fans- "Devil in Winter" is in my top two favorites of all time. This book started off well, I loved the humor of the beginning. But it soon lost interest for me. If I wanted to read about feminism, a woman devoted to her career, or really politics in general- I would be reading modern romances. I suspect this is the "trend" right now in historical romance, but it already it has lost its novelty for me, and I will not be purchasing any more historical romance books that seem to be putting a modern spin or including any other sort of obligatory "suffragette" message in a historical romance, it is just annoying. I want romance and a good plot and great character development-and that is it, no politics. I'm hoping that this is just an aberration, and not a continuing trend.

I loved Devil in Spring. Gabriel was wholeheartedly Evie's son, and not devilish at all. Instead he is a mature, contentious young man who thinks he is more sexually perverse than he actually is to his father's amusement. Pandora is adorably awkward, but believably matures throughout the novel. I loved reading about Sebastian and Evie's home and children, especially little Ivo!

All in all a quick, engaging read. Lovely escapism.

I enjoy her writing so much, this classic Lisa. He world-building is phenomenal. At one point in the book the main characters are on a beach and I could feel the tide pulling at my legs. Amazing! Anyways, this book mirrors her "Love in the afternoon @ novel with Poppy and Christopher; yet it's uniquely its own jewel.

I hated Pandora! I mean really hated her! She was so childish! I found nothing I liked about her!! I had to make myself Finnish this book. I am a huge Lisa kleypas fan! I have all her book's. I have loved most and only liked some but this one, I have no words! Did I tell you how much I disliked Pandora? She was like a child that always needed her way! She ruined the book for me!

I have always loved Lisa Kleypas. I buy all of her books. This one is amazing. I laughed out loud. Unique and this series reminds me a lot of the Hathaway series. I completely missed her historical romances. She has her own brand of writing witty smart characters. Loved this book. Love, intrigue and comedy. I can't wait for another book. I love this author though. So i have a bias.**** I'm baffled why every other reader seems to be comparing her to the 50 shades Grey author as a non-fan of that book. Where exactly did you get that impression and why? This book would definitely make more sense if you've read Evie and Sebastians story. Yes Pandora was different not demure or a lady in waiting. She writes each character differently yet has her own style. NO it's not historically accurate but well researched and it adds to the plot. I loved this book. Please find the correct genre. Low ratings ...because you expect every book to look and sound the same.Smh.

I am looking at all the glowing reviews and I highly anticipated this book but returned it for a refund at 51%. I love the wallflower series, the hathaways. So many wonderful stories written by this author that why it pains me to write such a negative review I have no choice. The heroine is stubborn which I admired in Lillian in It Happened In Autumn. What I found difficult was the weak plot of how Pandora was going to find her independence. I found it ridiculous that combined with her constant refusal of Gabriel drove me nuts. I sucked it up and continued on when it happened. Gabriel every bit the devil his father seduces Pandora in a midnight rendezvous. He does not take her innocence but introduces her to pleasure. While she is recovering his mistress is brought up in conversation. How she is soooo talented in bed and has no inhibitions. He gloats about how beautiful she is and oh, btw she's married! Now this all happens while he is telling Pandora she should marry him and how hard it's been with his great respect for marriage vows but he needs to fulfill his desire and all other woman are far too lady like in bed! Now I ask you is this romantic? Does this sound like a man who will stay faithful if he is willing to bend his morals and carry on with a married woman just to fulfill his lust? So easily he is able to give her up when to his own beloved parents he knows he's disappointed and wants to make proud keeps mrs. Black for years. I am just so disgusted because I know what stories this author can put out. Ones that steal your heart and while Sebastian (Gabriel's father) was known to dally with married woman it is all in his past he does not lay with the naked virgin he's just seduced and discuss his beautiful, goddess of a mistress beside her. Evie brought him to Sebastian to his knees with surrender. I didn't feel convinced with the level of feelings in this one because if you love someone, can't live without them you would not use present tense when discribing your mistress or need your future wife to tell you to give her up! Yuk! I usually put enjoy at the end of my reviews but I don't think it's possible with this one.

This entire series is pretty disappointing. I have disliked the Pandora since meeting her in Book One and I was curious to see if the author would be able to make her likeable and believable in this book. But she remains as immature, irritating, self-centered, obtuse and obnoxious as ever. Why anyone would want to be around her at all let alone marry her is a mystery which the book does not begin to explain. The Hero simply falls in lust at first sight- apparently because he finds the heroine's nervous twitching arousing, his family immediately clasps her to their collective bosoms, her new footman says she's a brick- but as a reader, I didn't feel any of it. It was all just words on a page. The Hero is rather dull- gorgeous, endlessly dutiful, responsible, sensitive, nurturing, bending over backwards to placate the heroine and answer her ridiculous demands and constantly angsting about his "dark desires" which seem to be a mild need to tie up the heroine and enjoy when she bites him during sex. Yawn. The sex scenes drag on and on and seem to just be padding so Ms.Kleypas doesn't have to do the hard work of character development, writing a coherent story line and making me care about the H & h. The relationship between the H & h has some strange overtones- the H treats the h like she's a fragile delicate helpless young child (she's 21) and he's her protective doting Father (he's 28) Until, of course, it's time for another sex scene. At which point they turn into non-stop orgasm machines. Neither the H or h seem to grow or mature in any way at all during the course of the book. I truly enjoyed the Wallflowers series. I know Ms. Kleypas can write heroes and heroines that are fully developed real people that I care about and books that are a pleasure to read. She just did not do it in this series- the "previews" for the last 2 books had so much potential that the actual books did not live up to. I am not sure I will read the 4th book in this series as I have liked each book less than the one before it.

At the age of fifteen, Lisa Kleypas was the first historical romance author that I'd ever read; Devil in the Winter is my All. Time. Favorite. I was beside myself when I read that Sebastian and Evie's son was getting his own story. I was so excited that at midnight I was checking the store at 5 minute intervals for this to be available. Once received, I dived in and stayed up waaaaay past my bedtime.

It's a tad painful to write a bad review for one of my favorite authors. Lisa has a way of setting a scene, getting you emotionally invested, and teaching something about the human condition. Those are my expectations when reading her work... And I was totally let down. My previous excitement turned into bitter disappointment. I actually returned this book because I was so annoyed.

The plot and the characters were underdeveloped in the extreme. The book itself was about 50 pages shorter than her usual. The attraction between them didn't make sense. The reason why they were forced to marry was silly and unbelievable even for that time period. Pandora's character was like being inside the mind of teenager. Literally the only thing I liked about her was that she was blunt and honest. Gabriel was a watered down character who I still don't understand cause there was so little information about him. Towards the last 100 pages, I had to force myself to finish.

I'm honestly speculating if Kleypas was forced to write this. Perhaps there was a demand for a devil in the winter sequel or maybe a rush to meet a deadline. This book is that out of character to her writing style.

It's been less than a week since I finished this book and I can barely remember how it ended. Its that forgettable and underwhelming.

I sincerely hope Mrs. Kleypas does better next time.

Pandora is my new favorite heroine! Quirky and passionate she is a fully developed character that doesn't quite fit the historical English woman mold. The male was fun, and he happens to be Evie and Sebastian son from the wallflower series. A nice twist. If you're already a fan of Lisa's historical romances this will add to the love. If this is your first.... go buy more.

If you asked me which one book was my most desired book of the year, I would answer, without any hesitations, Devil in Spring. I mean I cried when I heard who the book would be about, so that speaks volumes. Honestly, a book need only have Lisa Kleypas’ name on it for me to want it. But this book, I wanted because I fell in love with Pandora Ravenel in the previous book. And secondly, it features the son of Lisa Kleypas’ most iconic couple, Evie and Sebastian. How could I resist? Yet again, Lisa Kleypas has proven why she is the Queen of historical romance.

I have loved most of the author’s heroines. They are always smart, kind and very genuine. But Pandora might quite possibly be my favorite. She was unusual for a heroine of the era, her quirkiness stemming from her ADHD. I was curious to see how Lisa Kleypas would implement this into her story when she announced this a couple of months ago, and I personally thought, she did it smoothly and tactfully. There was just something about Pandora’s desires for more than marriage, her passion for her goals that made her shine. She was very much of a feminist, wanting equality for men and women in every aspect of life, and it made her all the more of a stronger protagonist. Besides her staunch aversion to marriage, Pandora was a funny character too, who constantly had me smiling or giggling at some of her antics. She was a breath of fresh air, and I have no doubts that readers will love her. I was a bit nervous about Gabriel. As much as I adore his reformed rake of a father, Sebastian, I didn’t want him to be an exact copy of his father. Thankfully, he wasn't! Fans of the Wallflower series will find the best of both Evie and Sebastian in Gabriel. He was intelligent, sophisticated, and charming but fret not! He also had his slightly rakish side that came out around Pandora.

At first glance, together these two seemed like the most unlikely couple, but as usual Kleypas makes them work brilliantly. It was glorious watching Gabriel fall thoroughly and hopelessly in love with this girl who is nothing like him, but ignites all kinds of desires in him. Watching Pandora slowly fall for him was even better. It was quite entertaining to read as she became bombarded with all these feelings that she never thought she would experience. He accepted her with all her flaws and how could she resist that and his seductive ways? As always, Lisa Kleypas presents readers with some scorching scenes between Gabriel and Pandora, but my favorite have to be the kissing scenes that are infused with so much sensuality, that I felt tingly all over. Not to mention, the witty banter between the couple is just so much fun. I just don’t know how this woman continues to write such engaging romances.

Besides the incredible romance, I was also very happy at the secondary cast, especially Evie and Sebastian’s big family. We get to see the strong bonds that exist between not only Evie and Sebastian, but also all the siblings and grandchildren. It was just heartwarming to see life after the HEA for Evie and Sebastian. All that being said, I do have a minor complaint when it comes to Devil in Spring and that would be the dangerous conspiracy mentioned in the synopsis. While executed very well, I would have liked for it to have happened a little sooner, and not towards the later end of the book. I was also hoping to see more of Pandora and her board games business ventures in the book. There was lots of descriptions to the game, of course, but I would have liked to see Pandora in action. However, none of those issues took away even a little from my enjoyment of the story.

I devoured Devil in Spring in one day, and it was just everything that I wanted and more. I’ve sung Lisa Kleypas’ praises left and right on this blog and on my old blog, so if you still haven’t read a book from her, I’m not sure why you’re wasting your time here when you could be reading a beautiful romance that gives you all the butterflies.

This just wasn't what I'd hoped for.

First, the blurb says that Gabriel is a "Cynical rake", which led me to expect more scenes that had him grappling with his feelings, or perhaps him being confused by his feelings of love. But, nope. He just jumped right into his marriage with both feet, very abruptly enamoured with Pandora.

The romance in this novel was a bit too swift for my liking. Honestly, I felt like this romance (and, really, the novel) ended when they got married. The second half of the novel was basically a lead-in to the next book, like a *really* long epilogue. I wish that there'd been more tension between the h&h; not necessarily a conflict, but more sexual tension to keep things interesting.

For a man with "certain tastes" when it came to bed sport, I really expected more heated love scenes, but this felt very tame. Disturbingly, Gabriel treated Pandora like a child, being overly gentle and affectionate, when in this particular novel, with their particular personalities, good "bodice-ripping" love scenes would have been vastly preferable. I hate to say it, but this was a real let-down.

The reason that I'm giving this three stars, instead of two, is because Lisa Kleypas has a wonderful way with words, her descriptions were superb, and the characters (individually) were lovely.

I'm such a sucker for redemption stories. Or more than that it's the internal change. I need to believe completely that a character not only leaves a certain past behind them but they actually see it for what it was. Sebastian at first wasn't ashamed or even cared about his past as a rake. He did seem a bit ashamed of his actions with kidnapping Lilian. It's like he hit bottom and was desperate. I learned while reading. Actually pretty early on when he was so kind to Evie and so doting that he could have never truly hurt Lilian. So I simply had every sort of good romance feeling reading this story. I loved every thing about it. Sebastian never look at another woman once he spoke to Evie. They hadn't even met till this book. They were at some of the same dances before but he hadn't even seen her up close. He was smitten from the start.
Their dialogue was so cute. The bet and then how he lost was adorable, emotional and beautiful. So much heat , heart and love. Simply amazing.

✨ ? ✨ ? ?

Expected a lot and glad I didn't spend the $. Get it from the library. H and h drifted through a lame plot. Too many parts where I wondered where I had read this before, and some paragraphs even in the same story. Lots of paragraph lengthening adjectives so you do have to pay attention. And the romance menu anymore seems to be "one from column A, one from Column B", one finger, two finger, on the bottom, on the top and backwards. That's not romance! That's sex from the romance writer's how-to catalog. But I did broaden my vocabulary with a new word for a condom!
Read it if you must to continue your Kleypas addiction, but be warned, your addiction may wear off.

I almost bought this book several times but kept being dissuaded by the negative reviews. Finally, I couldn't resist a sequel to Devil in Winter, which is one of my Kleypas favorites. And I'm glad I succumbed, because this is a really sweet book with nice main characters and even better secondary characters. (Kleypas seems to have plans for some great future stories.) As some reviewers have noted, there's not a lot of story and almost no conflict. The hero, Gabriel, described as a "cynical rake" on the back cover, is neither cynical nor a rake. In fact, he's pretty much the perfect man -- devoted husband, loving son, loyal friend. He never makes a mistake, which is one of the reasons the story lacks conflict. As for Pandora, I don't understand why some readers don't like her. She's a heroine with a brain and some backbone. Also beautiful and loving -- a devoted wife and affectionate sister. Yep. Almost as perfect as Gabriel.

This isn't Kleypas best, and if you've read the Wallflower and Hathaway series and liked them, you're probably wondering what's going on with the Ravenels. So far, the series isn't as good as those other two. But I think it's getting better with each book, and Kleypas has introduced some characters that are more interesting than what we've gotten so far, so I'm optimistic about what's to come. Still, Devil in Spring is worth a read. Kleypas is a good writer, and sometimes it's nice to read a romance that's just a romance. So, if you're in the mood for a sweet, simple love story, this is a good one.

'Devil in Spring' is Lisa Kleypas's third story in her latest historical series, The Ravenels and this is Pandora and Gabriel's happily ever after. If you've never read 'Devil in Winter', a story of Gabriel's parents, then you've missed out on one of the best romance novels ever written. However, you don't have to have read it to get the gist of this story and Gabriel's character.

He is someone who grew up knowing his destiny and duty of one day becoming a duke, yet the love of his parents had allowed him the freedom to play the field and at the moment we meet him, his parents are not happy with him because he is having an affair with a married woman. He, on the other hand, is very happy with the situation and doesn't have plans of breaking it off any time soon. That is until he crosses paths with our heroine and they get caught in a compromising position.

As for our heroine, Pandora, we've had a pleasure of meeting her from the start of this series and out of all the Ravenel's, she stood out the most because of her unique outlook on life. I believe all Ravenel's sisters have had a hard upbringing, but Pandora was a precocious child and she bore the brunt of her father's anger the most. She is finally coming into her own and with help from her brother in law, looking forward to being a business woman. She never planed on marriage and a husband because she doesn't want to give up her freedoms. All that changes after they're caught.

What I loved about this story the most are the characters of Gabriel and Pandora and the way they handled the situation they found themselves in. I loved the courting and enjoyed the banter. I was happy when they entered into marriage without the "convenience" being any part of it. I reveled in Gabriel's confusion of trying to figure out who this girl was.

"His annoyance drained away, displaced by a rampage of heat and delight. His heart began to thump with the force of his need to be alone with her. To be inside all that energy. Everything in him had just ignited like a bonfire of cotton sedge. He wanted her, wanted her, with all the reckless, self-indulgent desire he usually managed to keep contained. But it made no sense. He was a civilized man, an experienced one with sophisticated tastes, and she was . . . holy God, what was she?"

What I had a bit of a problem with was big enough to make me enjoy this story less. When I'm taken on a ride, I'd like to finish that ride with a bang, and having us witness all the trials and tribulations of these two awesome characters, I feel that the author had let me down in not taking me into the wedding ceremony itself. One moment they're engaged and the next, in a carriage going to their honeymoon destination.

The secondary plot made sense only because of the further introduction of the young copper with Ravenel's eyes, otherwise was wasted on me.

Should you read it? You bet! It looks like Lisa Kleypas is back to writing historical novel's and I am glad for it.

Let me also suggest the audio for this story. I kept going between the two and I must say the narrator, Mary Jane Wells, rocks!

Melanie for b2b

My Impressions: Ahhhh…Evie and Sebastian are back! Yes, for those die hard Kleypas fans, ‘Devil is Spring’ is the story of Gabriel, their eldest son. This was a pleasant surprise to revisit one of my favorites couplings from Kleypas’ previous Wallflowers Quartet.

Hearts and Flowers: I wasn’t sure about Gabriel and Pandora at first. I mean, I liked them separately…Gabriel’s mocking quips and irreverent personality is adorably reminiscent of his dad Sebastian (eh, but with less rancor than pops). Pandora is more of a mystery…she’s like a Bohemian Flower Child. She has no boundaries, no impulse control, no attention span and no mental filter…whatever she’s thinking at any given moment tends to pop right out of her mouth no matter what the actual conversation is about. It’s amusing…and confusing, all at once. I almost felt sorry for anyone who tried to engage her in conversation. [That poor fellow at dinner who became the victim of her mashed potato cloud diagram…LOL!] Gabriel seems to be the only person willing…or able to keep up with her whimsical and random babble. But as things progressed, I warmed up to their connection…it was actually rather sweet how Gabriel let her be herself. He is pretty much the only person outside of maybe her twin Cassandra who not only let her be her…but he seemed to genuinely prefer her that way. Their little after-hours rendezvous cemented my love for this pairing …when Gabriel basically let her say and do whatever she wishes, and seemed overjoyed with both her and himself. I love it.

Funny Bone: These two were hilariously funny. The conversations they got into…Pandora’s complete lack of property etiquette…or embarrassment. Honestly, any situation that Pandora got into with anyone was generally giggle-worthy. Gabriel’s commentary…and reactions to her tickled my funny bone as well. As did Sebastian’s sardonic advice and observations. Even Gabriel’s sister Phoebe gets into the act. Oh Lawd! At some points, I literally had to put the book down until I could compose myself.

Minor Beefs: Not much to complain about here. Although…the prose was a bit wordy. To the point where I think it could have benefited from a more hard-nose edit. But to be fair there was a lot of things going on at once. The love story, the police/government intrigue, and updates from characters and couples from previous books [Dr. Garett Gibson, The Winterbornes, Devon/Kathleen & the whole crew of Revenels]. There were also several major players from the previous Wallflowers series that turned up [Sebastian/Evie & their Fam, even Westcliff makes a cameo].

Random Thoughts: Will we get to see Westcliff and Lillian’s kids?? Pretty please! Also, I’m rather anxious for the next installation in the Revenels series…which I assume will be Cassandra’s story. Hmmm, I wonder what manner of man she will end up with? The mind boggles.

Cliff-Notes: No, no real cliffhanger. There were a few minor strings left hanging in the intrigue subplot, but this is to be expected, as this is the 3rd book in a series and there must be some sort of continuity between installments. Just keeps things interesting.

The Verdict: A light-hearted romantic read…this is the Kleypas of old.

After Marrying Winterborne, this book was a disappointment. The heroine, Pandora, is independent, entrepreneurial and supposedly quirky but she is also very selfish and utterly self-serving the entirety of this book. The hero does nothing but make compromises and bend over backwards to make her happy but there is absolutely NO compromise on the heroine's part. She never even tries. I honestly didn't understand why or how the hero could possibly fall in love with her. It definitely came across a one-sided love story the entire time. She really didn't bring much to the table. feel like this was a wasted opportunity. LK could have done so much better with Sebastian and Evie's son as the hero and their cameo.

As a 2017 Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Romance, I’m been curious about this book since its publication. When it become available at my local library, I couldn’t resist checking it out so I could check into why it was so popular. Btw, I had recently read Book 2 of this series, Marrying Mr. Winterborne, and really enjoyed it.

Knowing going into there would be some former mistress drama, I was more than just a little leary and concerned I likely wouldn’t finish it, folks. As an avid romantic at heart, I’m not a fan of scenes linking the hero with OW. To my surprise and relief, I didn’t have to endure physical smexy scenes involving this other person. However, she did turn up briefly on occasion in mental thoughts, conversations, and even one short, jealous rampage. The timing of the former is what I feel most compelled to mention.

A tell all, getting things off his chest conversation right after their first time, third base, hot and heavy scene with Pandora opened a box of guilt and confession I would have preferred remained tightly sealed. He explains why he chose the OW exclusively to have a long term affair with and that he feels guilt over it. Pandora’s innocence was a huge turn on for him. He quickly fell for Pandora and never seemed to want to be with the mistress again after meeting Pandora. He had to woo Pandora into marriage since she was determined never to marry.

The writing flowed, and I did stay fully engaged. However, the former mistress drama aspect lowered my rating by 1 star.

Title: Devil In Spring, Series: The Ravenels (Book 3), Author: Lisa Kleypas, Pages: 387, stand-alone but part of a series, likely ADHD heroine with hearing issue who wants to stay independent, handsome hero who formerly had a mistress, get to know each other first, virgin heroine never been kissed, leary at first but quickly falls for her, has to woo her into marriage, no OW/OM after meeting, no separation, no cheating, no love triangle, jealous OW scene, dramatic life-threatening scene.

Book 1 - Cold-Hearted Rake (Devon & Kathleen), 10/27/15, Pages: 419
Book 2 - Marrying Winterborne (Rhys & Helen), 5/31/16, Pages: 416
Book 3 - Devil in Spring (Gabriel & Pandora), 2/21/17, Pages: 387
Book 4 - Hello Stranger (Garrett & Ethan), 2/27/18, Pages: 400
Book 5 - Devil’s Daughter (West & Phoebe), (not yet released)

(These comments are based on a library edition. This is not an ARC review.)

Pretty good but there were some disappointments or things I just didn't like.

For one, I felt like Gabriel just immediately loved Pandora. He went from reluctant suitor to love-struck-I-must-marry-this-girl without any real development. I kept wondering . . . why?? There were allusions to other parts of his character that we never saw- feeling judged based on his parents past behavior, the bedroom stuff that was quickly dropped, his business involvement in the gambling club. It seemed to be mentioned once and then not brought up again. The main gist of his character was that he loved Pandora and wanted her to be happy.

I didn't dislike Pandora but her twin was completely taken out of the story and had almost no involvement at all. I thought that was odd considering how it was mentioned multiple times it was mostly just them growing up and the other siblings, including Helen, weren't involved in their lives. Plus, Pandora came across as so immature in the first book, I couldn't get over her being a serious businesswoman in this book. Then again, I haven't really loved the Ravenal serious so far and the books have been mostly forgettable to me. I wondered if I forgot some character development from the second book.

And finally, the whole Irish bomb plot thing came out of left field and was completely pointless. It didn't even add its, I'm assuming, intended suspense because there was no connection with any other part of the story. It was just totally random. I would rather the suspense have been with his mistress and her comments and continued from there.

I had hopes Pandora's character would bring a unique spin on the historical romance yarn but it all turned out to be a carbon copy of every Kleypas romance historical novel: Super Alpha Male who is strong like a Greek god, great in bed, apathetic to women, overly protective, rich to excess, immune to flaws and turns into a wet weepy whiny mess once he falls in love with the leading woman who will ultimately curl up in his lap like a little helpless child. I had hoped for an intriguing story line (the anarchist plot could have been intriguing) but it was the typical of what's to be found in all the novels with lots of sex scenes (same as the rest, just the names change). Sadly, if you're read one Kleypas historical romance, you've read them all, it's time to find a new author. The contemporary romances at least had characters of more depth and flaws that enabled redemption and some semblance of plot.

I am a true fan of this author’s works. This is the second time I have read this story on the past year. It’s one of those books you want to read over and over again.

The story contains lots of beauty and originality. The romance is almost a side note because it’s not so much a punch to the face as it is a steady growth of emotion. Normally I prefer a Love at first sight approach but LK is so skilled at writing that I began to love a turn in this story that would usually leave me cold.

In addition to romance, this story is filled with mystery, espionage, humor, and links to past and future romances. The heroine is fun and quirky, with a heart of gold and a core of steel that cannot be broken. I absolutely adore her. She is one of the best leading ladies I have ever had the privilege to read about. Her counterpart is handsome, smart, and honorable. Yes, he has flaws but he is true to his character all the way through. I liked him even when I didn’t like him. Lol. Even when he was being an a**, it came from Love and frustration.

The author put a unique spin on how the L word was introduced in the story. Get your tissues ready.

Can I tell you how much I love Pandora's story? Seriously, I LOVE HER! She's not an ordinary young woman. Her mind is going 90 mph, and going all sorts directions. When she accidentally entraps Gabriel, her first thought is I'm not marrying him. He's puzzled by that, her feelings toward marriage. After all, he's trying to do the right thing, and he's stuck with a girl who doesn't want anything to do with him. Puzzled and intrigued. Gabriel puts on this facade that he's pretty perfect, except for his mistress. Overall, he's on the up and up. Now he's kind of stuck with this high-spirited girl.

I love Devil In Spring, because we see that through most of the story Pandora trying to show how unsuitable she would be to Gabriel. Gabriel has no clue, but he wants this enchanting creature. His family adores her natural charm, and he kind of enlist their help to figure out a way to show Pandora it will be all right. Gabriel is a lot of fun, because he's such a stand up guy. At first he wants to marry her because it's the right thing to do, but he starts to fall for her hard and fast.

I kind feel like Pandora as I'm righting this, because there's so much I want to tell you about this story. At the same time I can't, because I don't want to spoil. Yes, Pandora does stumble onto something sinister, and I think this plot line carries into the next story. However, the main part of the story is about these two people who accidentally find themselves in a compromising situation. They both need to compromise what they are willing to give and take for happiness.

Rating:
5 Stars

This was an enjoyable read, but a bit odd. It's the second in the Ravenels series that I've read. I liked it just as much as the first - or I guess that would be the second, since I started with #2. I was going to go back to #1, but when I realized #3 was Pandora's story, I just had to go there. (Maybe there was more about how she got such an unusual name in book #1, but I was kind of surprised that never came up in book #3.)

What made the novel a bit unusual was that it switched about mid-way through from being a pretty traditional romance, i.e., hero and heroine are made for each other but circumstances keep them apart, to more of a mystery romance. I would have loved to have seen the plot evolution of the second half of the book begun in the first half. It was intriguing, but if there were clues in the early chapters, I never saw them.

That said, I would highly recommend Devil in Spring to anyone who enjoys a traditional romance novel (warning: quite spicy), especially those who have a thing for the Victorian era. I am eager to read the next book in the series, unless of course, I go back to the first.

Reading some of the other reviews before I purchased this for myself, I half-expected to be lukewarm toward Gabriel and despise Pandora. While there are some problems with the story, they certainly don't reside with he characters.

Pandora Ravenel is odd, it's true. She has some of that Beatrix Hathaway-esque free spirited nature, plus a nineteenth-century feminist bent, and she also has physical ailments she tries to keep hidden from others, including tinnitus and vertigo, that resulted from a childhood injury... at the hands of her father. And this is where I express concern for readers who dismissed Pandora's character as being too weird (to put it mildly) and immature: exactly how well-adjusted did you think she would be, having grown up in an abusive and neglectful home with *lasting physical damage*? There is already a difference in Pandora between "Cold-Hearted Rake" and "Marrying Winterbourne," and one between the latter and "Devil in Spring." She *has* grown up under the care of Devon & Kathleen. However, it's still so recent that she has seen any good marriages in her family - for her, the most prominent marriage was the walking disaster between her mother and father, and she is terrified of becoming trapped in such an arrangement.

Then there is Gabriel St. Vincent, and I have been excited to meet this character for over a year. Sebastian & Evie are one of my very favorite HR couples, and it was so nice to see them again with their clan. But I think our revisiting Sebastian & Evie might inadvertently be why so many reviewers seem disappointed with Gabriel: a true rarity of the HR world, he is a well-adjusted gentleman, with *slight* rakish tendencies. Yes, he acknowledges some "dark" sexual desires, and a bunch of us probably were expecting some legit BDSM (which was actually quite popular in the Victorian underground), but really he was only "dark" by surface Victorian standards: he liked a lot of enthusiasm from his partner (plus some light bondage). And as a true source of relief for a reader who has read plenty of HRs with a-hole heroes (I was soured on Devon for a long time), Gabriel isn't a cabbagehead about falling in love.

So my complaints aren't with the characters. They're with the very thin plot. It's as if Kleypas had started the novel with the intent to simply write a "pure romance," but halfway through felt compelled to address the political concerns of that time and perhaps subtly connect them to the political fears of today. I'm talking about...

***SPOILERS***

... terrorism. In this case, it's Irish separatist / anarchist terrorism (from context I thought they were Irish separatists who wanted Home Rule, but they keep being called anarchists in the book). The last 30-40% of this book deals with terrorism, and looking for at least one mole within the Home Office, and there isn't the SLIGHTEST HINT earlier in the novel that we're going to be dealing with terrorists. I actually blinked several times when the first sign of fishiness occurred: "Okay, Pandora's going to this printing company for her board game, and... they might be making bombs?" And it goes from there, to a stabbing in the street ("Oh hi, Dr. Gibson, long time no see!"), all the way to an attempt on the Prince of Wales' life. The product description *seriously* buries the whole terrorism thing (it's referred to as a "dangerous conspiracy"). It would've helped if we'd had a little hint of "Irish anarchists bomb a London prison" in the beginning, so it would at least be in the backs of our minds.

Anyway, it looks like the next novel will be dealing with the fallout of the end of this one, so I have a feeling we're going to be seeing more of "Mr. Ransom." By the way, there goes my theory that Ransom was the son of Matthew & Daisy (I'm sure they would've known each other, were that the case).

5 Kisstrophe Stars!!!!
Absolutely fabulous!
Pandora and Gabriel St. Vincent were perfect. So many things to say...Pandora is an independent smart woman and does not want to be married and beholden to any man. Cue Gabriel being a gentleman and Pandora trapped in settee, leads to a compromised situation and the inevitable marriage that must ensue. Fortunately for Gabriel, Pandora enthusiastically releases him from all bands of marriage because she simply does not want to marry. Lol. And Michael Ivo? He is the younger brother to Gabriel and this quote...
" I do not know why girls keep changing their fashions every few months and making such a fuss about it." Ivo said. "We men had a meeting a long time ago, and we all decided, 'It's trousers.' And that's what we've worn ever since." (ha,ha,ha,aha,) Priceless. Loved it! I cannot wait for Michael Ivo St. Vincent's story, a young rake in the making, Lol. Loved all of this so much!I pray fervently that we get a story about young Michael Ivo named after his grandfather in the near future. Just bloody awesome!

The reason I started writing reviews on the store was because I was reading so many books they were running together and I needed a way to keep track of my thoughts on them and was easily searchable so I could tell if I'd like to read it again. Five stars is my code for myself that a book might be worth re-reading. It doesn't mean it's the best prose ever, or the most inspiring characters or the most exciting plot. But something about the book caught my attention and I might like to re-experience it. Sometimes I like a book so much that I go back and read the best parts right away, but that's rare. This book made me laugh several times, and I even shared a few of those scenes with my husband (Pandora's comments about the pox, that the settee compromised her and Gabriel just happened to be there). A couple scenes were highly quotable, like Sebastian's explanation of the importance of small talk, which Pandora later relates to her conversation about clouds with Gabriel's sister. Is the prose in this book on par with Kleypas' best works? No. But it's MUCH improved over the first two Ravenel books, flows well and includes some intelligence and humor. Other than the medical explanations, the overall vocabulary is suited to a middle-school level. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and read it in one day. I didn't even finish the previous book. Gabriel is devine and I wished the book focussed more on him and less on Pandora. But I liked Pandora just fine - she'd fit right in at my Thanksgiving table - she's an extreme version of the women in my family - ambitious, creative, thinking of a million things at once and highly outspoken. Some of my favorite scenes were the ones with Evie and Sebastien, Kleypas aged them very well, they were just as appealing in their maturity. And one of my favorite characters was Drago, Pandora's "watchdragon." Good book. Might be worth re-reading for the humor and delightful characters.

huge five stars!!

So Devil in Winter has been an all time fav historicals of my mine (and why the paperback i have looks really ugly now). So the moment this book landed on my kindle I was all over it…and didn’t even move the 4-5 hours it took me to read it

Lady Pandora Ravenal, my sweet kind and very much ADHD suffering heroine. She’s was such a mixture of compassion, love, a penchant for trouble and intelligent that you couldn’t help fall in love with her.

Lord Gabriel St. Vincent, the heir to the dukedom and a very responsible and conservative man. He was also as Pandora called him silver tongued devil and obviously smitten with Pandora since their first meeting. He was an awesome hero, loving with his family, arrogant and charming and fiercely protective of Pandora.

Their romance was just so darn adorable, beautiful and amazingggg! They had such a gentle and then sparking chemistry, along with how their relationship developed they got to know the real each other and I loved how their was honestly between them from the start. Their (witty) banter and interactions were all done so well, we go through of them both not wanting to be married to dear god I really can’t live without you! and it’s just done in such a natural/wonderful way. Gahhh loveeedd it! They were wonderful together so was the writing and the plot and I shall a remain a forever fan of Lisa Kleypas’s historicals.

I loved how slightly horrified he was at the that his life was no longer going to be the clam and content future he had hoped for but would have hurricane of a woman as his wife. I LOVVVEEED how Gabriel did not at all try to change anything about Pandora he just loved her like she was, he was so gently and loving towards her *dreamy sigh* he could also be very charming and teasing but he really understood Pandora and made it so she was happy with something she never wanted to do to begin with.

Pandora was equally wonderful, she had no plans of ever really marrying let alone falling in love but being with Gabriel seeing who he really was, she couldn’t help but fall in love with him.

I also loved seeing Evie and Sebastian again them being the great parents and grandparents and still in love and lust with each other after all these years *Swoon* They had a beautiful family and I was sad to hear about their daughter.

All in all my favourite in the series. This book made me ridiculously happy and lived up to the expectations I had!

We also get to see who I believe is going to be the hero and heroine of the next book and I approve, the more I get to know Garrett Gibson the more I like her. She is so fascinating. And now I have to wait another year till I get my hands on the next book.

Final Verdict: The book had this enchanting quality that I adored, it’s swoon worthy, unique and a refreshing historical romance.

UPDATE: So I wrote this review when the book released I just never got around posting it because I couldn’t find the right images for the mood board ‍♀️ and anyhoo I’ve re-read this book for the second time since it’s release and I still love it so much, definitely a favourite of 2017!

I listened to this book in Audible.
Pandora Ravenol's story had to be an unique one for she was just that.​ Pandora and her twin sister Cassandra were ignored by their parents as children. They were allowed to run free as forest sprites on the family property. They had no formal training into society. So at the age of twenty plus one, Pandora has no desire for attending balls and being in polite society. So imagine her surprise when she is thought to have been compromised and now expected to marry against her will.​

Gabriel St. Martin has slipped the bonds of marriage for years. And now at the age of twenty plus eight he is caught in a compromised position and has to do the honorable thing and offer marriage. How shocked he is to find that his offer of marriage is rejected by the woman in question. Her desire to have nothing to do with him or marriage as a whole intrigues him. Now the chase is on to make this woman his for all time. And what a merry chase Pandora leads him on. This is a wonderful and well written book for the character Pandora. A true must read.

When I’m in a book slump, a tv slump, a potential kdrama slump, and stupid Zelda won’t work on my stupid Switch, a smart thing to do is pick up a random romance I’m in the mood for and hope like hell that it entertains me for a while. A couple nights ago, I was feeling all kinds of unrelenting boredom when I picked this one up on my kindle and proceeded to read it under the covers, in bed (my parents don’t take too kindly when I start reading a book at 5:00 in the morning, hence the secrecy).

The two main characters in this historical romance are delightfully unique. Pandora Ravenel was a lively, innocent wallflower whose brain honestly works a lot like mine. She isn’t all that interested in getting married – and even if she does, no way is she doing it without striking the word “obey” from the marriage vows – and inequality of the sexes is a big no-no. I liked her quite a bit. Of course, she was also unlike me in that she was lively and gorgeous and never afraid to be herself, but these are just more things I appreciated about her character. I think she was described as a forest sprite or something similar, and she’s just so precious and adorable and I loved getting to read her story.

The hero in this book is a kind-of rake by the name of Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent. He’s all kinds of hot and delicious, and I kid you not when I say that I fell for him at the first gravelly sound of his voice. The thing that made him special was that he was a nice rake – I’ve never seen one of those in my entire life. When it comes to rakes and rogues, they’re usually a part of a hate-to-love or disinterest-to-love romance, but in this case, he was nice and charming right out of the box. And I ate it up. If you told me I’d ever fall for a nice guy, I would’ve laughed it off, but I swear, recently I’m reading/watching/falling for more and more nice guys, and I am so amazed. Pleased, but amazed.

Ex: Michael (sort of) in Jane the Virgin; Ahn Min-hyuk in Strong Woman Do Bong Soon; the eighth prince, temporarily, in Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo; Drew in Egomaniac by Vi Keeland…

WHAT I LOVED ABOUT THIS BOOK:

• The way Gabriel treated Pandora, right from the very beginning, had me swooning. It was slightly annoying that he was kind of sexist in that he had a hard time not protecting Pandora all the time and accepting that marriage was not a favorable union for a woman; however, he did try his best and acknowledge that Pandora’s progressive way of thinking was indeed correct. Not too shabby for a rake born and bred in the Victorian era.

• The plot is really fast-paced – Pandora and Gabriel’s romance takes place in less than a week. She and he are caught together while he is attempting to get her unstuck from a settee, and thus, the honorable thing for him to do is marry her. BUT it turns out marriage is Pandora’s worst nightmare, so what’s a guy to do but invite her and her family over for a week and figure out what the heck to do?

• The characters! One thing romance writers always have is exceptional side characters, because those side character have or will show up in other books. Everyone is really well-developed because of this fact, and I already have a new ship, who will apparently be featured in the next installment in The Ravenels series, Hello Stranger.

This is a really quick read at less than three hundred pages, but it was really cute and fun, and I didn’t even notice the lack of pages until I saw the Goodreads stats. I gave this book five stars (★★★★★).

While Lisa Kleypas's Gamblers duology will always be my first love, I'm slowly working my way through her other series. Specifically the Ravenels and the Wallflowers series at the moment (which is maybe an odd choice of series to read concurrently, seeing as how the Wallflowers are prequels to the Ravenels). I recently read DEVIL IN WINTER, which is frequently lauded as Kleypas's best work (have they not read the Gamblers?), and while I didn't really agree with Sebastian St. Vincent's portrayal as a debauching rake, I could definitely see the appeal of his romance with Evie. So far, DEVIL is my favorite book in the Wallflowers series.

You can imagine how palpable my excitement was, then, when I found out that Kleypas was writing a book called DEVIL IN SPRING which was about - gasp - Sebastian and Evie's son, the "cynical rake": Gabriel St. Vincent...

...That was, until I realized who his romantic pairing would be. Pandora, the odiously affected and annoying Ravenel cousin-in-law from COLD-HEARTED RAKE. In fact, I specifically called Cassandra and Pandora out as something that detracted from the rating because they were so immature. At nineteen, they acted more like six with their making up words and playing games.

But DEVIL IN SPRING took place two years later. Maybe the twins would mature.

...NOPE...

It kills me, kills me, to give Lisa Kleypas books low ratings. I've done it before, twice, in the cases of ONLY WITH YOUR LOVE and SOMEWHERE I'LL FIND YOU, which I rated one and two stars respectively. Not because of the writing (Kleypas always writes beautifully - something I adore her for) but because of some very bad characterization. In the case of ONLY WITH YOUR LOVE, it was because of dubious consent on the hero's part that I felt was addressed very badly. In the case of SOMEWHERE I'LL FIND YOU, it was because I thought the hero was emotionally abusive. But both those books are published in the early 90s, when Kleypas was still finding her trademark style.

DEVIL IN SPRING does not have that excuse.

**WARNING: SPOILERS TO FOLLOW**

Pandora is an immature, childish heroine who makes up words and fairy tale stories, and at one point, demands to fire her footman because he does not look like Father Christmas. She encounters the hero when she's stuck ass-out in a settee, and when Lord Gabriel decides to rescue her in a moment of ill-placed pity, they are caught and considered compromised, and must be married at once.

Pandora does not want to be married because she wants to start her own business and doesn't want to obey anyone, but both her family and Gabriel manage to convince her to visit Gabriel's family estate with promises that she will not be coerced into marriage. Everybody finds her manic pixie dream girl act utterly charming and Gabriel decides he loves her instantly and casts his mistress off into the dirt.

Will we be seeing her again later? Oh, ho ho. You cheeky, cheeky person.

Pandora discovers that she's great at sex and great and crying and does both these things in abundance while crying how she will obey no one, not even her husband. Smitten Gabriel falls over himself granting concession after concession, but it's never enough. She fights him at every turn, even when they're married 2/3 of the way through the book. What's the last 1/3 about, then?

Lisa Kleypas's other trademark: superfluous murder mysteries. I honestly don't know why she does this, but almost all of her stories that I've read have a very lame murder mystery thrown into the last act. It's always obvious who the guilty person is, and never seems to serve any purpose beyond putting either the hero or heroine in jeopardy to show how much the other person loves them and padding out the plot. The first time, I was like, "Okay, I can deal." But now it's becoming a theme...

Somehow, Pandora manages to get in a jab at her husband for saving her life, accusing him of controlling her. I was already done by that point, but that was the done straw that broke the done camel's back. After that, I was done with being done. I was DONE².

Gabriel, on the other hand, was merely okay. The sex scenes with him were decent and sexy, but not particularly noteworthy. In the beginning of the book, Gabriel frets over being married to a virginal girl because his mistress was the only one capable of satisfying his odd desires. Spoiler alert: Gabriel's apparently into light bondage and you will get one scene where he ties Pandora's hands behind her back with the laces of a corset. After that, it's never mentioned again.

I'm really not sure why he's blurbed as a "cynical rake", unless rake = having a mistress and being into bondage. Honestly, when I picture "rake" I think of someone who actually involves in some pretty questionable behavior, and not some upstanding, golden-haired gent who keeps his few affairs discreet and occasionally engages in a bit of rough sex and cards. His father, Sebastian St. Vincent, wasn't really a rake either, but at least he displayed some morally objectionable behavior.

DEVIL IN SPRING was a disappointing read for me. I enjoyed reading it with the Unapologetic Romance Readers for our March 2017 read, but apart from that, there was little to redeem it. I see that the next book in the series is Dr. Gibson's book and Cassandra's story is probably going to follow that. I'm going to give this series a few more shots to impress me, and then I'm folding.

P.S. Some required rakish reading for those who love real rakes.

RUTHLESS by Anne Stuart

DUKE OF SIN by Elizabeth Hoyt

If you know of other books, with real rakes, let me know. I love collecting them!

2 to 2.5 out of 5 stars

Books like this are why I keep coming back to Kleypas, even after some of the spectacular misses she's turned out. This was a great book. The character of Pandora was fantastic. I really felt like Kleypas knew this character, inside and out, and her unique voice came through loud and clear. I've read a lot of romance novels and in every one the heroine is touted as being "special," hence why the hero loves her rather than all the other gorgeous women in his life. But usually that specialness is very standard. I.e. the heroine is an actual nice person while all the other women are nasty, materialistic bitches. That's not the case here. Pandora really is a special, unique heroine and Kleypas does a great job of bringing that character to life. I loved all of Pandora's lists of "facts" that were phrased in humorous off-the-wall ways. And I loved the way her underlying vulnerability gradually became more and more apparent the longer we spent in her company.

In the previous books in the series, other characters continually refer to Pandora as a wild, unruly girl, hopelessly unrefined by societal standards. When these comments were made, it was with the reader in the commentator's perspective and thus seemed accurate and justified. For example, Kathleen, the heroine of Cold-Hearted Rake, was brought up by a woman who strictly adhered to all the rules of deportment and instilled those values in her charge. So when Kathleen became the defacto guardian of Pandora and her sisters, she despaired of ever bringing the girls up to scratch so that they could marry well. Her negative comments were coming from a place of love and concern. She adored Pandora and her unconventional ways, but worried about her future and thus did her best to scold the girl into proper behavior. As a reader of Cold-Hearted Rake, I saw nothing wrong with Kathleen's behavior here, nor that of the strict matron they brought on to continue to instruct the girls. And by all accounts in those books, Pandora was hardly ever affected by their scolding because she was just too high-spirited and headstrong to listen to anyone. However in this book, viewing things from Pandora's perspective, we gradually come to see that all those comments actually did have an effect on her. That constantly being told her whole life that she was a screw-up when it came to behavior has left her with some wounds to her self-esteem. This was very well done by Kleypas.

The book opens with Pandora being the free-spirited and headstrong young woman we came to love in the previous books. And when she starts making mental comments about how she often makes mistakes when she ought to be "proper" it seems like she's just a girl who is honest with herself about her shortcomings and the rotten luck she has at always somehow finding herself in a situation where she'll embarrass herself. However, as time goes on and these comments become increasingly omnipresent in her inner monologue, the reader starts to realize that this is more than self-awareness. And that Pandora’s unconventional behavior actually masks a hidden disability that she finds shameful. It all came together to give us a very real, nuanced, likable and, most importantly, believable character for our heroine. And the audiobook narrator, Mary Jane Wells, deserves special mention for doing such an excellent job of giving voice to this character. The voice she created for Pandora was spot on and really put the whole experience right over the top for me.

As for the plot, it was refreshingly unique as well. The way in which Pandora got herself accidentally compromised by Gabriel was adorable and very “her.” And it was nice to have a hero who immediately insisted on doing the honorable thing right from the start, despite the fact that he’d done nothing wrong. However it was equally refreshing to see that Pandora’s family was willing to stand by her and weather the scandal if she didn’t wish to marry Gabriel. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen a regency romance where the compromised heroine wasn’t immediately forced into marriage. Some readers may find this anachronistic, but given that this was a series romance and we’d already been assured of the Ravenel’s love and support for Pandora, I was happy to see them ready to do whatever it took to ensure she remained the happy, unconventional creature she was, even if doing so meant consequences for them.

Gabriel was a good match for her and it made some sense that he was willing to accept her unconventional behavior because he'd been brought up by an uncharacteristically loving and close family who were somewhat unconventional themselves. But at the same time, it was kept from being completely unbelievable by having Gabriel be initially baffled by Pandora's refusal of marriage. He was hard-pressed to understand why any woman would turn down the gorgeous and rich heir to a dukedom in favor of working. I thought that gave Gabriel's character a level of believability he might not otherwise have had.

There were a few niggling things about the book that kept it from being perfect though. Cassandra was almost completely absent from this book. After all the time spent in previous books stressing to us that the twins were inseparable, I found it very odd that Pandora almost never spoke to her twin throughout this very tumultuous period of her life. Also Pandora's women's suffrage talk was just this side of getting annoying. She talked about it quite a lot while refusing Gabriel's proposal and I was just getting to the point where it was starting to irritate me when she finally agreed to marry him and it stopped. Likewise, I was just barely able to keep thinking of Pandora as a woman, rather than a girl. Despite the fact that she was 21 in this book, her behavior was so childlike at times that it was hard not to see her as a 16-year-old girl. And when Gabriel referred to her as "my girl" that didn't exactly help matters. But just enough was done to keep me on the right side of that line.

The plot kind of stalled out a bit after Pandora and Gabriel got married. A hastily concocted storyline about Irish bombers had to be dreamed up to pad out the last 1/3 of the book, which felt a little inconsistent. If Kleypas had just slipped a line or two into the beginning of the book about the Irish anarchists' activities then it would have felt less like it was tacked on as an after thought when the romance didn't turn out long enough for a whole book. And the storyline with Gabriel's long-time, married mistress, Mrs. Black, was surprisingly disappointing too. After spending the whole book discussing this woman, I expected more to come of it at the end.

But all in all, this was an enjoyable read and I hope to see more books continuing the series. Kleypas has definitely laid the groundwork for more books. Cassandra still needs her story, and there's the female doctor, the police detective, and that one friend of Devon and Rhys's whose name I forget. Oh and Devon's brother, West. Plenty of interesting and likable characters to base a story on, and this book makes me optimistic that they'll be winners.

The one thing I can count on with books written by Ms. Kleypas is to be entertained to the point that time ceases to have meaning. The romance in Devil in Spring is wonderful, delightful and full of delicious pitfalls and challenges to make the love between Gabriel and Pandora more powerful and engaging. Once again, this author delivers a well-written, exciting and sigh-worthy novel that delivers satisfaction. The most adorable thing though is how Ms. Kleypas delivers her recipe after the HEA. I can’t recall ever giggling while reading a recipe in any cookbook I’ve ever owned.

Reading this novel was like a blast from the past. A hero and heroine from long before not only thrived, but their love and lust for each other is as wonderfully potent as it was when readers were first introduced. It stands to reason that any progeny of theirs would be just as unique, clever, well-rounded and as intriguing as their parents. Gabriel is a credit to his lineage.

The first part of the book concentrates on getting Gabriel and Pandora together. There are a lot of interesting personality issues to overcome or to learn about or reach an understanding about in order to move the plot forward. Pandora’s upbringing was unconventional to say the least. The next chunk of the novel explored the accidental discovery of a diabolical plot which thrusts Pandora into becoming a heroine in the truest sense of the word. Of course that means that Gabriel needs to out-hero her so he can save the day because he is, after all, Sebastien and Evie’s son, he can do no less. Personally, I prefer to believe Pandora and Gabriel saved each other, especially after getting to know them and their quirks of personality. The one thing they both didn’t count on was that one of them might be the target of an assassin. Talk about suspense!

Even though both protagonists have internal and external conflicts tripping them up, when it comes to their physical attraction they have no problems in steaming up the pages and delighting a reader with just how compatible they truly are.

My favorite secondary character is Drago. I adored what Pandora did to his name and was charmed when she introduced his whale as ‘Bubbles’. That started a short but highly endearing and adorable exchange that epitomizes just how special Pandora was as a leading lady. She has the ability to create a kind of magic that inspires other characters to rediscover their child within. Because they are powerless to resist, a reader is treated to some fantastical and delightful dialogue.

On the whole, Devil in Spring has what I look for in a romance and Ms. Kleypas delivered on all counts. Experience the whole emotional spectrum: excitement, shock, fear, lust, humor, whimsy, empathy, and most of all love, when you read your own copy of Devil in Spring. It’s a winner.

originally posted at long and short reviews

I had recently rediscovered the fabulous Lisa Kleypas when I read her last novel Marrying Winterborne, which I had reviewed on my blog. I read a few historical romances a year, and what I had loved about the last book, her skill at writing about intriguing characters, who weren’t the usual romantic leads in a novel, is true again in Devil in Spring. Pandora Ravenal, who we had met briefly before, is an unusual lady. She has an active mind, isn’t interested in ballrooms and a future husband. She wants to own a business, and in fact has already started one, with the support of Rhys Winterborne. She came up with a great idea for a board game and is going to mass produce it and sell it in his department store. So when she does a favor for a friend at a ball and gets stuck in a gazebo, she doesn’t plan to trap Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent into marriage. Unfortunately for the both of them, while he is helping her unwind her dress from the gazebo they are discovered without a chaperone. Oh no! A typical happenstance in these novels, but Pandora comes from an atypical family, who won’t make her marry her suitor. Gabriel feels relief, but then becomes intrigued, and once he spends time with her realizes there is no one else for him.

Pandora was a wonderful departure with her ADHD behavior and lack of conversational skills. She was a beauty, yes, but she lacked etiquette and didn’t give a hoot for the usual London societal rules. Gabriel is intrigued by her behavior, and it’s fascinating to see how he goes with the flow when her interest jumps from one topic to another. In fact, he finds himself figuring out how to intrigue her in return.

This was not your usual historical romance, and if you are in the mood for light reading that takes a slightly different path, this series would be a great one for you to read!

I LOVED this one. Pandora was charming in her outspoken, unconventional way. Gabriel was a charming rake of sorts who comes from an unconventional family. I loved them both on their own as as an attempted couple. The more Gabriel gets to know Pandora, the more he wants her. And she fights giving up her independence most of the way. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I laughed out loud at some of the conversations between the two of them. That doesn't even begin to count the times when it just made me grin. I loved how Pandora's mind was always working and that she was intelligent and had fun making up words. They just seemed to flow out of her naturally.
Even additional characters were a lot of fun. You can see where Gabriel got some of his seductive ways once you are introduced to his father. That's not a bad thing though because his father is a reformed rake wildly in love with his own wife. He had a great sense of humor too which he passed onto his son. Just listening to him was funny too. Families on both side were a great addition to the story and I really enjoyed them too.

There is more to the story than just the fight to win Pandora to marriage, and the adjustments after they marry. Although that was fun in itself. There are some plots, action, some surprises and also some "liberties" taken before marriage. There is also several scenes of marital sex too, so if that makes you uncomfortable, skim over those parts and enjoy the rest of the story.

For me I think this was a character driven story and it won me over.

London - 1876

Evangeline (Evie), the Duchess of Kingston and her husband, Sebastian, the Duke of Kingston have been married for 30 years and are still deeply in love. He informs Evie that their son, Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent, has been involved in a scandal and it appears he has compromised a daughter of the Earl of Ravenel.

Lady Pandora Ravenel and her twin sister, Lady Cassandra are immersed in all of the activities of their London Season. Having lost their parents, their cousin, Devon, Lord Trenear, became the Earl after the death of their brother. He has paid for the twins’ season and has provided substantial dowries for them as well. Both Cassandra and Pandora are both bored but Cassandra is more willing to participate in the festivities.

Their chaperone, Lady Berwick, is dutifully trying to discover why Pandora has no dances listed on her card only to find that the young miss has faked an ankle injury. But Pandora also grows dizzy during certain dances. In truth, Pandora does not wish to marry at all. She wants to pursue her passion for creating board games and has recently received a patent for one. Her brother-in-law, Mr. Winterbourne, owns an enormous department store and has helped her get started with her business and stocks her games in his store.

One evening, Pandora agrees to retrieve an earring her friend lost in the summer house. In trying to reach the earring, she becomes stuck on a settee. Grumbling about her predicament attracts a man who tries to help her free herself. But then they are both caught in an embarrassing position by their host, Lord Chaworth, who accuses the man of accosting her. He then insists that the young man arrange to marry her. He is Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent, and heir to a dukedom. Although Pandora is adamant that she will marry no one, they both soon realize that they have no other choice.

Gabriel’s family owns a well-known, popular, and respected gaming house in London called Jenner’s.

Pandora is well-known to be a wallflower but she is also a free-spirited young woman whose happiness will be with a man who understands who she truly is.

Gabriel and his family invite Pandora and her family to visit with them so they can all get to know one another better. Even though Pandora is skeptical of marriage, she soon finds herself falling under the spell of Gabriel’s charms.

This was an absolute gem of a book by Lisa Kleypas and I am certain it will long be known as a classic.

The reason I started writing reviews on the store was because I was reading so many books they were running together and I needed a way to keep track of my thoughts on them and was easily searchable so I could tell if I'd like to read it again. Five stars is my code for myself that a book might be worth re-reading. It doesn't mean it's the best prose ever, or the most inspiring characters or the most exciting plot. But something about the book caught my attention and I might like to re-experience it. Sometimes I like a book so much that I go back and read the best parts right away, but that's rare. This book made me laugh several times, and I even shared a few of those scenes with my husband (Pandora's comments about the pox, that the settee compromised her and Gabriel just happened to be there). A couple scenes were highly quotable, like Sebastian's explanation of the importance of small talk, which Pandora later relates to her conversation about clouds with Gabriel's sister. Is the prose in this book on par with Kleypas' best works? No. But it's MUCH improved over the first two Ravenel books, flows well and includes some intelligence and humor. Other than the medical explanations, the overall vocabulary is suited to a middle-school level. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and read it in one day. I didn't even finish the previous book. Gabriel is devine and I wished the book focussed more on him and less on Pandora. But I liked Pandora just fine - she'd fit right in at my Thanksgiving table - she's an extreme version of the women in my family - ambitious, creative, thinking of a million things at once and highly outspoken. Some of my favorite scenes were the ones with Evie and Sebastien, Kleypas aged them very well, they were just as appealing in their maturity. And one of my favorite characters was Drago, Pandora's "watchdragon." Good book. Might be worth re-reading for the humor and delightful characters.

huge five stars!!

So Devil in Winter has been an all time fav historicals of my mine (and why the paperback i have looks really ugly now). So the moment this book landed on my kindle I was all over it…and didn’t even move the 4-5 hours it took me to read it

Lady Pandora Ravenal, my sweet kind and very much ADHD suffering heroine. She’s was such a mixture of compassion, love, a penchant for trouble and intelligent that you couldn’t help fall in love with her.

Lord Gabriel St. Vincent, the heir to the dukedom and a very responsible and conservative man. He was also as Pandora called him silver tongued devil and obviously smitten with Pandora since their first meeting. He was an awesome hero, loving with his family, arrogant and charming and fiercely protective of Pandora.

Their romance was just so darn adorable, beautiful and amazingggg! They had such a gentle and then sparking chemistry, along with how their relationship developed they got to know the real each other and I loved how their was honestly between them from the start. Their (witty) banter and interactions were all done so well, we go through of them both not wanting to be married to dear god I really can’t live without you! and it’s just done in such a natural/wonderful way. Gahhh loveeedd it! They were wonderful together so was the writing and the plot and I shall a remain a forever fan of Lisa Kleypas’s historicals.

I loved how slightly horrified he was at the that his life was no longer going to be the clam and content future he had hoped for but would have hurricane of a woman as his wife. I LOVVVEEED how Gabriel did not at all try to change anything about Pandora he just loved her like she was, he was so gently and loving towards her *dreamy sigh* he could also be very charming and teasing but he really understood Pandora and made it so she was happy with something she never wanted to do to begin with.

Pandora was equally wonderful, she had no plans of ever really marrying let alone falling in love but being with Gabriel seeing who he really was, she couldn’t help but fall in love with him.

I also loved seeing Evie and Sebastian again them being the great parents and grandparents and still in love and lust with each other after all these years *Swoon* They had a beautiful family and I was sad to hear about their daughter.

All in all my favourite in the series. This book made me ridiculously happy and lived up to the expectations I had!

We also get to see who I believe is going to be the hero and heroine of the next book and I approve, the more I get to know Garrett Gibson the more I like her. She is so fascinating. And now I have to wait another year till I get my hands on the next book.

Final Verdict: The book had this enchanting quality that I adored, it’s swoon worthy, unique and a refreshing historical romance.

UPDATE: So I wrote this review when the book released I just never got around posting it because I couldn’t find the right images for the mood board ‍♀️ and anyhoo I’ve re-read this book for the second time since it’s release and I still love it so much, definitely a favourite of 2017!

I listened to this book in Audible.
Pandora Ravenol's story had to be an unique one for she was just that.​ Pandora and her twin sister Cassandra were ignored by their parents as children. They were allowed to run free as forest sprites on the family property. They had no formal training into society. So at the age of twenty plus one, Pandora has no desire for attending balls and being in polite society. So imagine her surprise when she is thought to have been compromised and now expected to marry against her will.​

Gabriel St. Martin has slipped the bonds of marriage for years. And now at the age of twenty plus eight he is caught in a compromised position and has to do the honorable thing and offer marriage. How shocked he is to find that his offer of marriage is rejected by the woman in question. Her desire to have nothing to do with him or marriage as a whole intrigues him. Now the chase is on to make this woman his for all time. And what a merry chase Pandora leads him on. This is a wonderful and well written book for the character Pandora. A true must read.

When I’m in a book slump, a tv slump, a potential kdrama slump, and stupid Zelda won’t work on my stupid Switch, a smart thing to do is pick up a random romance I’m in the mood for and hope like hell that it entertains me for a while. A couple nights ago, I was feeling all kinds of unrelenting boredom when I picked this one up on my kindle and proceeded to read it under the covers, in bed (my parents don’t take too kindly when I start reading a book at 5:00 in the morning, hence the secrecy).

The two main characters in this historical romance are delightfully unique. Pandora Ravenel was a lively, innocent wallflower whose brain honestly works a lot like mine. She isn’t all that interested in getting married – and even if she does, no way is she doing it without striking the word “obey” from the marriage vows – and inequality of the sexes is a big no-no. I liked her quite a bit. Of course, she was also unlike me in that she was lively and gorgeous and never afraid to be herself, but these are just more things I appreciated about her character. I think she was described as a forest sprite or something similar, and she’s just so precious and adorable and I loved getting to read her story.

The hero in this book is a kind-of rake by the name of Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent. He’s all kinds of hot and delicious, and I kid you not when I say that I fell for him at the first gravelly sound of his voice. The thing that made him special was that he was a nice rake – I’ve never seen one of those in my entire life. When it comes to rakes and rogues, they’re usually a part of a hate-to-love or disinterest-to-love romance, but in this case, he was nice and charming right out of the box. And I ate it up. If you told me I’d ever fall for a nice guy, I would’ve laughed it off, but I swear, recently I’m reading/watching/falling for more and more nice guys, and I am so amazed. Pleased, but amazed.

Ex: Michael (sort of) in Jane the Virgin; Ahn Min-hyuk in Strong Woman Do Bong Soon; the eighth prince, temporarily, in Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo; Drew in Egomaniac by Vi Keeland…

WHAT I LOVED ABOUT THIS BOOK:

• The way Gabriel treated Pandora, right from the very beginning, had me swooning. It was slightly annoying that he was kind of sexist in that he had a hard time not protecting Pandora all the time and accepting that marriage was not a favorable union for a woman; however, he did try his best and acknowledge that Pandora’s progressive way of thinking was indeed correct. Not too shabby for a rake born and bred in the Victorian era.

• The plot is really fast-paced – Pandora and Gabriel’s romance takes place in less than a week. She and he are caught together while he is attempting to get her unstuck from a settee, and thus, the honorable thing for him to do is marry her. BUT it turns out marriage is Pandora’s worst nightmare, so what’s a guy to do but invite her and her family over for a week and figure out what the heck to do?

• The characters! One thing romance writers always have is exceptional side characters, because those side character have or will show up in other books. Everyone is really well-developed because of this fact, and I already have a new ship, who will apparently be featured in the next installment in The Ravenels series, Hello Stranger.

This is a really quick read at less than three hundred pages, but it was really cute and fun, and I didn’t even notice the lack of pages until I saw the Goodreads stats. I gave this book five stars (★★★★★).

While Lisa Kleypas's Gamblers duology will always be my first love, I'm slowly working my way through her other series. Specifically the Ravenels and the Wallflowers series at the moment (which is maybe an odd choice of series to read concurrently, seeing as how the Wallflowers are prequels to the Ravenels). I recently read DEVIL IN WINTER, which is frequently lauded as Kleypas's best work (have they not read the Gamblers?), and while I didn't really agree with Sebastian St. Vincent's portrayal as a debauching rake, I could definitely see the appeal of his romance with Evie. So far, DEVIL is my favorite book in the Wallflowers series.

You can imagine how palpable my excitement was, then, when I found out that Kleypas was writing a book called DEVIL IN SPRING which was about - gasp - Sebastian and Evie's son, the "cynical rake": Gabriel St. Vincent...

...That was, until I realized who his romantic pairing would be. Pandora, the odiously affected and annoying Ravenel cousin-in-law from COLD-HEARTED RAKE. In fact, I specifically called Cassandra and Pandora out as something that detracted from the rating because they were so immature. At nineteen, they acted more like six with their making up words and playing games.

But DEVIL IN SPRING took place two years later. Maybe the twins would mature.

...NOPE...

It kills me, kills me, to give Lisa Kleypas books low ratings. I've done it before, twice, in the cases of ONLY WITH YOUR LOVE and SOMEWHERE I'LL FIND YOU, which I rated one and two stars respectively. Not because of the writing (Kleypas always writes beautifully - something I adore her for) but because of some very bad characterization. In the case of ONLY WITH YOUR LOVE, it was because of dubious consent on the hero's part that I felt was addressed very badly. In the case of SOMEWHERE I'LL FIND YOU, it was because I thought the hero was emotionally abusive. But both those books are published in the early 90s, when Kleypas was still finding her trademark style.

DEVIL IN SPRING does not have that excuse.

**WARNING: SPOILERS TO FOLLOW**

Pandora is an immature, childish heroine who makes up words and fairy tale stories, and at one point, demands to fire her footman because he does not look like Father Christmas. She encounters the hero when she's stuck ass-out in a settee, and when Lord Gabriel decides to rescue her in a moment of ill-placed pity, they are caught and considered compromised, and must be married at once.

Pandora does not want to be married because she wants to start her own business and doesn't want to obey anyone, but both her family and Gabriel manage to convince her to visit Gabriel's family estate with promises that she will not be coerced into marriage. Everybody finds her manic pixie dream girl act utterly charming and Gabriel decides he loves her instantly and casts his mistress off into the dirt.

Will we be seeing her again later? Oh, ho ho. You cheeky, cheeky person.

Pandora discovers that she's great at sex and great and crying and does both these things in abundance while crying how she will obey no one, not even her husband. Smitten Gabriel falls over himself granting concession after concession, but it's never enough. She fights him at every turn, even when they're married 2/3 of the way through the book. What's the last 1/3 about, then?

Lisa Kleypas's other trademark: superfluous murder mysteries. I honestly don't know why she does this, but almost all of her stories that I've read have a very lame murder mystery thrown into the last act. It's always obvious who the guilty person is, and never seems to serve any purpose beyond putting either the hero or heroine in jeopardy to show how much the other person loves them and padding out the plot. The first time, I was like, "Okay, I can deal." But now it's becoming a theme...

Somehow, Pandora manages to get in a jab at her husband for saving her life, accusing him of controlling her. I was already done by that point, but that was the done straw that broke the done camel's back. After that, I was done with being done. I was DONE².

Gabriel, on the other hand, was merely okay. The sex scenes with him were decent and sexy, but not particularly noteworthy. In the beginning of the book, Gabriel frets over being married to a virginal girl because his mistress was the only one capable of satisfying his odd desires. Spoiler alert: Gabriel's apparently into light bondage and you will get one scene where he ties Pandora's hands behind her back with the laces of a corset. After that, it's never mentioned again.

I'm really not sure why he's blurbed as a "cynical rake", unless rake = having a mistress and being into bondage. Honestly, when I picture "rake" I think of someone who actually involves in some pretty questionable behavior, and not some upstanding, golden-haired gent who keeps his few affairs discreet and occasionally engages in a bit of rough sex and cards. His father, Sebastian St. Vincent, wasn't really a rake either, but at least he displayed some morally objectionable behavior.

DEVIL IN SPRING was a disappointing read for me. I enjoyed reading it with the Unapologetic Romance Readers for our March 2017 read, but apart from that, there was little to redeem it. I see that the next book in the series is Dr. Gibson's book and Cassandra's story is probably going to follow that. I'm going to give this series a few more shots to impress me, and then I'm folding.

P.S. Some required rakish reading for those who love real rakes.

RUTHLESS by Anne Stuart

DUKE OF SIN by Elizabeth Hoyt

If you know of other books, with real rakes, let me know. I love collecting them!

2 to 2.5 out of 5 stars

Books like this are why I keep coming back to Kleypas, even after some of the spectacular misses she's turned out. This was a great book. The character of Pandora was fantastic. I really felt like Kleypas knew this character, inside and out, and her unique voice came through loud and clear. I've read a lot of romance novels and in every one the heroine is touted as being "special," hence why the hero loves her rather than all the other gorgeous women in his life. But usually that specialness is very standard. I.e. the heroine is an actual nice person while all the other women are nasty, materialistic bitches. That's not the case here. Pandora really is a special, unique heroine and Kleypas does a great job of bringing that character to life. I loved all of Pandora's lists of "facts" that were phrased in humorous off-the-wall ways. And I loved the way her underlying vulnerability gradually became more and more apparent the longer we spent in her company.

In the previous books in the series, other characters continually refer to Pandora as a wild, unruly girl, hopelessly unrefined by societal standards. When these comments were made, it was with the reader in the commentator's perspective and thus seemed accurate and justified. For example, Kathleen, the heroine of Cold-Hearted Rake, was brought up by a woman who strictly adhered to all the rules of deportment and instilled those values in her charge. So when Kathleen became the defacto guardian of Pandora and her sisters, she despaired of ever bringing the girls up to scratch so that they could marry well. Her negative comments were coming from a place of love and concern. She adored Pandora and her unconventional ways, but worried about her future and thus did her best to scold the girl into proper behavior. As a reader of Cold-Hearted Rake, I saw nothing wrong with Kathleen's behavior here, nor that of the strict matron they brought on to continue to instruct the girls. And by all accounts in those books, Pandora was hardly ever affected by their scolding because she was just too high-spirited and headstrong to listen to anyone. However in this book, viewing things from Pandora's perspective, we gradually come to see that all those comments actually did have an effect on her. That constantly being told her whole life that she was a screw-up when it came to behavior has left her with some wounds to her self-esteem. This was very well done by Kleypas.

The book opens with Pandora being the free-spirited and headstrong young woman we came to love in the previous books. And when she starts making mental comments about how she often makes mistakes when she ought to be "proper" it seems like she's just a girl who is honest with herself about her shortcomings and the rotten luck she has at always somehow finding herself in a situation where she'll embarrass herself. However, as time goes on and these comments become increasingly omnipresent in her inner monologue, the reader starts to realize that this is more than self-awareness. And that Pandora’s unconventional behavior actually masks a hidden disability that she finds shameful. It all came together to give us a very real, nuanced, likable and, most importantly, believable character for our heroine. And the audiobook narrator, Mary Jane Wells, deserves special mention for doing such an excellent job of giving voice to this character. The voice she created for Pandora was spot on and really put the whole experience right over the top for me.

As for the plot, it was refreshingly unique as well. The way in which Pandora got herself accidentally compromised by Gabriel was adorable and very “her.” And it was nice to have a hero who immediately insisted on doing the honorable thing right from the start, despite the fact that he’d done nothing wrong. However it was equally refreshing to see that Pandora’s family was willing to stand by her and weather the scandal if she didn’t wish to marry Gabriel. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen a regency romance where the compromised heroine wasn’t immediately forced into marriage. Some readers may find this anachronistic, but given that this was a series romance and we’d already been assured of the Ravenel’s love and support for Pandora, I was happy to see them ready to do whatever it took to ensure she remained the happy, unconventional creature she was, even if doing so meant consequences for them.

Gabriel was a good match for her and it made some sense that he was willing to accept her unconventional behavior because he'd been brought up by an uncharacteristically loving and close family who were somewhat unconventional themselves. But at the same time, it was kept from being completely unbelievable by having Gabriel be initially baffled by Pandora's refusal of marriage. He was hard-pressed to understand why any woman would turn down the gorgeous and rich heir to a dukedom in favor of working. I thought that gave Gabriel's character a level of believability he might not otherwise have had.

There were a few niggling things about the book that kept it from being perfect though. Cassandra was almost completely absent from this book. After all the time spent in previous books stressing to us that the twins were inseparable, I found it very odd that Pandora almost never spoke to her twin throughout this very tumultuous period of her life. Also Pandora's women's suffrage talk was just this side of getting annoying. She talked about it quite a lot while refusing Gabriel's proposal and I was just getting to the point where it was starting to irritate me when she finally agreed to marry him and it stopped. Likewise, I was just barely able to keep thinking of Pandora as a woman, rather than a girl. Despite the fact that she was 21 in this book, her behavior was so childlike at times that it was hard not to see her as a 16-year-old girl. And when Gabriel referred to her as "my girl" that didn't exactly help matters. But just enough was done to keep me on the right side of that line.

The plot kind of stalled out a bit after Pandora and Gabriel got married. A hastily concocted storyline about Irish bombers had to be dreamed up to pad out the last 1/3 of the book, which felt a little inconsistent. If Kleypas had just slipped a line or two into the beginning of the book about the Irish anarchists' activities then it would have felt less like it was tacked on as an after thought when the romance didn't turn out long enough for a whole book. And the storyline with Gabriel's long-time, married mistress, Mrs. Black, was surprisingly disappointing too. After spending the whole book discussing this woman, I expected more to come of it at the end.

But all in all, this was an enjoyable read and I hope to see more books continuing the series. Kleypas has definitely laid the groundwork for more books. Cassandra still needs her story, and there's the female doctor, the police detective, and that one friend of Devon and Rhys's whose name I forget. Oh and Devon's brother, West. Plenty of interesting and likable characters to base a story on, and this book makes me optimistic that they'll be winners.

The one thing I can count on with books written by Ms. Kleypas is to be entertained to the point that time ceases to have meaning. The romance in Devil in Spring is wonderful, delightful and full of delicious pitfalls and challenges to make the love between Gabriel and Pandora more powerful and engaging. Once again, this author delivers a well-written, exciting and sigh-worthy novel that delivers satisfaction. The most adorable thing though is how Ms. Kleypas delivers her recipe after the HEA. I can’t recall ever giggling while reading a recipe in any cookbook I’ve ever owned.

Reading this novel was like a blast from the past. A hero and heroine from long before not only thrived, but their love and lust for each other is as wonderfully potent as it was when readers were first introduced. It stands to reason that any progeny of theirs would be just as unique, clever, well-rounded and as intriguing as their parents. Gabriel is a credit to his lineage.

The first part of the book concentrates on getting Gabriel and Pandora together. There are a lot of interesting personality issues to overcome or to learn about or reach an understanding about in order to move the plot forward. Pandora’s upbringing was unconventional to say the least. The next chunk of the novel explored the accidental discovery of a diabolical plot which thrusts Pandora into becoming a heroine in the truest sense of the word. Of course that means that Gabriel needs to out-hero her so he can save the day because he is, after all, Sebastien and Evie’s son, he can do no less. Personally, I prefer to believe Pandora and Gabriel saved each other, especially after getting to know them and their quirks of personality. The one thing they both didn’t count on was that one of them might be the target of an assassin. Talk about suspense!

Even though both protagonists have internal and external conflicts tripping them up, when it comes to their physical attraction they have no problems in steaming up the pages and delighting a reader with just how compatible they truly are.

My favorite secondary character is Drago. I adored what Pandora did to his name and was charmed when she introduced his whale as ‘Bubbles’. That started a short but highly endearing and adorable exchange that epitomizes just how special Pandora was as a leading lady. She has the ability to create a kind of magic that inspires other characters to rediscover their child within. Because they are powerless to resist, a reader is treated to some fantastical and delightful dialogue.

On the whole, Devil in Spring has what I look for in a romance and Ms. Kleypas delivered on all counts. Experience the whole emotional spectrum: excitement, shock, fear, lust, humor, whimsy, empathy, and most of all love, when you read your own copy of Devil in Spring. It’s a winner.

originally posted at long and short reviews

I had recently rediscovered the fabulous Lisa Kleypas when I read her last novel Marrying Winterborne, which I had reviewed on my blog. I read a few historical romances a year, and what I had loved about the last book, her skill at writing about intriguing characters, who weren’t the usual romantic leads in a novel, is true again in Devil in Spring. Pandora Ravenal, who we had met briefly before, is an unusual lady. She has an active mind, isn’t interested in ballrooms and a future husband. She wants to own a business, and in fact has already started one, with the support of Rhys Winterborne. She came up with a great idea for a board game and is going to mass produce it and sell it in his department store. So when she does a favor for a friend at a ball and gets stuck in a gazebo, she doesn’t plan to trap Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent into marriage. Unfortunately for the both of them, while he is helping her unwind her dress from the gazebo they are discovered without a chaperone. Oh no! A typical happenstance in these novels, but Pandora comes from an atypical family, who won’t make her marry her suitor. Gabriel feels relief, but then becomes intrigued, and once he spends time with her realizes there is no one else for him.

Pandora was a wonderful departure with her ADHD behavior and lack of conversational skills. She was a beauty, yes, but she lacked etiquette and didn’t give a hoot for the usual London societal rules. Gabriel is intrigued by her behavior, and it’s fascinating to see how he goes with the flow when her interest jumps from one topic to another. In fact, he finds himself figuring out how to intrigue her in return.

This was not your usual historical romance, and if you are in the mood for light reading that takes a slightly different path, this series would be a great one for you to read!

I LOVED this one. Pandora was charming in her outspoken, unconventional way. Gabriel was a charming rake of sorts who comes from an unconventional family. I loved them both on their own as as an attempted couple. The more Gabriel gets to know Pandora, the more he wants her. And she fights giving up her independence most of the way. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I laughed out loud at some of the conversations between the two of them. That doesn't even begin to count the times when it just made me grin. I loved how Pandora's mind was always working and that she was intelligent and had fun making up words. They just seemed to flow out of her naturally.
Even additional characters were a lot of fun. You can see where Gabriel got some of his seductive ways once you are introduced to his father. That's not a bad thing though because his father is a reformed rake wildly in love with his own wife. He had a great sense of humor too which he passed onto his son. Just listening to him was funny too. Families on both side were a great addition to the story and I really enjoyed them too.

There is more to the story than just the fight to win Pandora to marriage, and the adjustments after they marry. Although that was fun in itself. There are some plots, action, some surprises and also some "liberties" taken before marriage. There is also several scenes of marital sex too, so if that makes you uncomfortable, skim over those parts and enjoy the rest of the story.

For me I think this was a character driven story and it won me over.

London - 1876

Evangeline (Evie), the Duchess of Kingston and her husband, Sebastian, the Duke of Kingston have been married for 30 years and are still deeply in love. He informs Evie that their son, Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent, has been involved in a scandal and it appears he has compromised a daughter of the Earl of Ravenel.

Lady Pandora Ravenel and her twin sister, Lady Cassandra are immersed in all of the activities of their London Season. Having lost their parents, their cousin, Devon, Lord Trenear, became the Earl after the death of their brother. He has paid for the twins’ season and has provided substantial dowries for them as well. Both Cassandra and Pandora are both bored but Cassandra is more willing to participate in the festivities.

Their chaperone, Lady Berwick, is dutifully trying to discover why Pandora has no dances listed on her card only to find that the young miss has faked an ankle injury. But Pandora also grows dizzy during certain dances. In truth, Pandora does not wish to marry at all. She wants to pursue her passion for creating board games and has recently received a patent for one. Her brother-in-law, Mr. Winterbourne, owns an enormous department store and has helped her get started with her business and stocks her games in his store.

One evening, Pandora agrees to retrieve an earring her friend lost in the summer house. In trying to reach the earring, she becomes stuck on a settee. Grumbling about her predicament attracts a man who tries to help her free herself. But then they are both caught in an embarrassing position by their host, Lord Chaworth, who accuses the man of accosting her. He then insists that the young man arrange to marry her. He is Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent, and heir to a dukedom. Although Pandora is adamant that she will marry no one, they both soon realize that they have no other choice.

Gabriel’s family owns a well-known, popular, and respected gaming house in London called Jenner’s.

Pandora is well-known to be a wallflower but she is also a free-spirited young woman whose happiness will be with a man who understands who she truly is.

Gabriel and his family invite Pandora and her family to visit with them so they can all get to know one another better. Even though Pandora is skeptical of marriage, she soon finds herself falling under the spell of Gabriel’s charms.

This was an absolute gem of a book by Lisa Kleypas and I am certain it will long be known as a classic.

‘Devil in Spring’ is the third book in historical romance author Lisa Kleypas’ new series, ‘The Ravenels’.

The first book in Kleypas’ new series was ‘Cold-Hearted Rake’ which came out in 2015 – and actually, I attempted to read it but DNF’ed after about four chapters. I don’t know why, but I could not get into it – there was none of the effervescent reading comfort I normally get from a Kleypas historical, which was disappointing. I was resigned to just sitting this series out, and patiently waiting for Kleypas to move onto her next series – whatever it may be. And then she made an announcement about who would be in the third book …

Ask pretty much any Lisa Kleypas fan, and they’ll tell you that one of their all time favourite couples she’s written in Evie and Sebastian from the third book the ‘Wallflowers’ series, ‘Devil in Winter’. Sebastian was a notorious rake who had done some pretty questionable things in the past … Evie was a red-headed innocent, with a stutter and new inheritance that made her an easy target for greedy relatives – their coming together involved Evie propositioning Sebastian to become her husband and help protect her wealth and independence – what neither of them bargained on was falling madly in love in the process. It is one of the hands-down best historical romance books and pairings in the genre. Hands. Down! So when Kleypas announced that the third book in her Ravenels series would focus on Evie and Sebastian’s son Gabriel Lord St. Vincent … well, I had to come onboard.

First off – I was able to read ‘Devil in Spring’ as a stand-alone, knowing nothing of what had previously happened in the first two books. Anyone who is not familiar with Evie and Sebastian’s story could likewise come into ‘Devil in Spring’ cold.

Gabriel is much like his father was – though rather than bedding numerous women, Gabriel’s notorious for having kept an inappropriate mistress for the last two years (a woman married to the American ambassador). He is a most tempting bachelor from a prosperous family, but with no intentions of ever getting caught in a marriage trap by a young miss … except that’s exactly what happens. Only, it’s Lady Pandora Ravenel who is quite literally caught in a settee and needs Gabriel’s help to get loose – and unfortunately when they’re caught in a compromising (but innocent) position, Gabriel is impressed upon to “do the right thing” and marry Pandora.

The only person who wants to be married less than Gabriel is Pandora – because she has plans for herself, and a business to run. And actually, I loved this aspect of the story – not only does Kleypas go into meticulously fascinating detail about women’s rights in this era (wherein even the Queen has spoken out against suffrage and suggested feminists should be whipped!) but Pandora’s business enterprise in the burgeoning board-game industry is modelled on real-life game designer Elizabeth Magie, whose patent for ‘The Landlord’s Game’ was considered direct inspiration for Monopoly (of course, a man called Charles Darrow basically stole her idea and for a long time her contributions were erased. *HUFF*!)

Gabriel is infinitely intrigued by the fact that Pandora wants to marry him about as much as she wants a salad fork in her eye – but the two agree to see if it’s worthwhile dodging ruinous rumours by having Pandora and her family stay with Gabriel’s tribe at his family’s estate.

***
“I’ll be nice as nice can be,” Pandora said. “But don’t you remember what happened at Eversby Priory, when a goose built her nest in the swans’ territory? She thought she was enough like them that they wouldn’t mind her. Only her neck was too short, and her legs were too long, and she didn’t have the right sort of feathers, so the swans kept attacking and chasing the poor thing until finally she was driven off.”
“You’re not a goose.”
Pandora’s mouth twisted. “I’m an awfully deficient swan, then.”
***

Pandora is most definitely a throwback to Kleypas’s archetype ‘Wallflowers’ heroines – the shy but brilliant young lady with quirks and secrets. Her background is both tragic and admirable, and it’s easy to see why Gabriel is fascinated enough to warrant getting to know her better, only to fall in love with her …

And Gabriel takes after his father as one of Kleypas’s better rakes. He’s thoughtful and kind, secretly feeling the pressure of his family and title and in need of someone like Pandora to keep him on his toes.

I will say that in the latter half of the book a political undercurrent comes into the plot which feels like it’s setting up for the fourth instalment (in which case, I’d come back for it!) but in Pandora and Gabriel’s story it felt a little disjointed. But that’s my only complaint in an otherwise stellar historical romance outing.

I may now go back and read books 1 and 2 in ‘The Ravenels’, but more likely I’ll just keep moving forward from this point on. It does feel really, really good to be back in the reading groove with Kleypas, who is one of those authors I come to rely on for a once-a-year release and guaranteed good read. And ‘Devil in Spring’ was a good way to get back in the groove.

I used to read a lot of historical romance books and after all these years “Devil in Winter” still remains my favorite. When I have heard that Lisa Kleypas is back with a new book featuring the son of Sebastian and Evie, I was over the moon happy! This book is charming, funny and sexy!
Pandora is a young lady that wants nothing to do with marriage, society balls or future husbands. She prefers staying at home plotting her next board game and making business plans. When she finds herself involved in a scandal with a handsome Lord, suddenly all her ideas turn upside down.
Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent enjoys his bachelor life and avoids the marital traps. When he saves a beautiful vixen, he is intrigued by the peculiar girl and he will do anything to make her his wife.
Gabriel falls hopelessly in love with Pandora but she wants nothing to do with him. Slowly, she shows her that he can accept her the way she is without her changing and proves that marriage is all about their pleasure.
Gabriel is not like Sebastian. He is not a notorious rake like his father without though missing his seductive ways. He is the perfect mixture of Sebastian and Evie, so he is caring, protective but also intelligent and hot.
Pandora is so different than the heroines of this era. She is quirky, funny and a true feminist. She is genuine, honest and she chases what she wants, something unusual of this time. Sometimes, she appears a little naïve but taking in consideration that she grew up unconventionally, I understand her strange ways.
There is romance in this book and some erotic scenes that are sizzling! Their dialogues are clever and there is a little bit of adventure towards the end. I love that there is honesty between them and that they accept each others’ flaws.
As for my objections, I think Gabriel fell too quickly in love with Pandora for my taste and sometimes Pandora is stuck only on her plans, but overall their relationship is entertaining. Lisa has clearly done a lot of research for this book and sometimes I found it interesting and sometimes I was overwhelmed with the details.
The thing I loved most of all was the cameos from characters from previous books. The prologue with Sebastian and Evie is so amazing and I devoured every detail when they were involved. The bond between Pandora’s and Gabriel’s families is so great and I love how supportive they are to this couple. That was a touch that certainly earned points for me and made the story more exciting.
“Devil in Spring” might not compare with “Devil in Winter” but it showed me once again why I love this author’s writing and her historical books. It’s a story that will leave you craving for more scoundrels and unique ladies and hopefully, she will write soon some of the secondary characters’ books!

I really liked this romance, which at times was fun and witty, but also treated the difficulties the couple faced with depth and caring. Pandora was a lively, intelligent, independent woman who wanted to take advantage of all the technological and social advances of the age to run her own business. She had no interest in getting married, and her unusual personality seemed to turn suitors off anyway. Gabriel was perfectly happy leading his bachelor life, visiting his club and his mistress as he pleased. Having grown up in a loving family, he knew it was possible to find true love, but he wasn't particularly looking for it. One embarrassing incident later, and the two of them are facing a forced marriage. Can they get to know each other in a week and make the most important decision of their lives?

It was great to see Evie and Sebastian from the previous Wallflowers series, dispensing sage and caring advice, while managing their mostly grown offspring. The secondary characters were all interesting in their own right, and I'm going to have to read the rest of the Ravenels books to find their stories.

This book is set in the Victorian era (1876), so it was interesting to learn how upper-crust families were changing from the Regency period. It was also fascinating to learn about the legal options for women at the time regarding property ownership, the printing industry, and early female doctors and medical practices of the time.

I liked that Pandora wasn't perfect. She had physical difficulties and personality quirks that she had to work to overcome, yet most of the people in her life, especially Gabriel, accepted her for who she was and didn't try to make her into somebody she wasn't. And while Gabriel appeared to be the perfect model of a man, he also had his issues that he needed to deal with.

Enough with the insta-love. (Minor spoiler) I did however enjoy this one better then the other three. I really liked Pandora. I loved her exuberance for life. I don’t know whether the author intended this or not but Pandora has a classic case of ADHD. For those that don’t understand what it’s like to have ADHD Pandora tells you. Before you think hey, she’s concentrating on her game company she can’t have ADHD, that is what is known as Hyper focus. She is also deaf in one ear. I know you’re not reading reviews to get an education but it’s not often that characters are written with these sort of issues. Gabriel was no slouch. Very sexy, not as amoral as his father was. But he falls in love with Pandora way too quickly. Plus the medical practice while spot on historically Pandora bled too much to have survived her injury. I don’t know whether I liked it better than Devil in winter but I quite enjoyed it. Hated book four.

This was my first Lisa Kleypas and I loved it. After finding himself caught in a compromising situation with Pandora, rogue and future duke Gabriel offers to marry her. Pandora is not interested in a marriage of convenience, or marriage at all really and would prefer to maintain her freedom and control over the rights to the board games she creates. Gabriel convinces her to spend a week at his family's country estate and decide after that. During this time, the two are inexplicably drawn together and Gabriel finds himself unable to live without Pandora. There was of course some danger at the end and some subplot I expect to be revisited later on in the series. This was a very satisfying romance for me with fantastic characters and I'd highly recommend it.

This greatly anticipated 3rd entry to The Ravenels series by Lisa Kleypas was in a word, sensational! I had hoped the apple didn't fall far from the tree when I found out that the hero of Devil in Spring, Gabriel, is the oldest son of Sebastian, the former Lord St. Vincent. First introduced in the Wallflowers series novel, Devil in Winter, Sebastian was a renown rake, now reformed, happily married for 30 years, and the Duke of Kingston for the last 10 years. Pandora is a wallflower by choice, enduring her first London season . She has plans to manufacture and market a board game of her own invention, and is determined never to marry so that she can keep her emotional and financial independence. Gabriel has definitely inherited his father's sardonic wit, golden good looks, barely leashed sensuality, and he, himself is blindsided by an encounter with a captivating wallflower. His feelings after this first encounter with the delightfully eccentric Pandora, are brilliantly illustrated by these words from the book: "He was a civilized man, an experienced one with sophisticated tastes, and she was...holy God, what was she? He wished to hell he didn't want to find out so badly." This mesmerizing couple and their exhilarating romantic journey kept me glued to the pages of this book until the very end.

'Devil in Spring' by Lisa Kleypas is book Three in "The Ravenels"series. This is the story of Pandora and Gabriel. We met Gabriel's parents in the book series "A Wallflower Christmas" and now it is his turn to have his own story. I have read the other books but easily feel this can be a standalone book...but I would hate for you to miss the others...they are that good!!
Pandora and her sister have had a somewhat hard life. Their parents and brother have died...although they were never a close family. But her sisters are slowly starting to marry for love and it is bring her and her twin sister out into the town for the season. Pandora knows she does not wish to marry but goes to support her sister and to keep from being board. But when a friend asked that she help her with a lost item it takes Pandora into a compromising position with Gabriel. Gabriel is willing to do the honorable thing but Pandora is not. She has a board game business she is starting and does not want to become someones property. But Gabriel parents talk them all into going away for a week together to get to know each other and their families.
Ms. Kleypas is on of my Top Favorite Authors...I just run to her books... I don't walk! I grab them up as soon as I can!

Part of a Series: bk3
Setting: England 1876/77
Hero: Gabriel (Lord St. Vincent)- avoiding the marriage mart,
Heroine: Lady Pandora- Quirky, endearing, Lovable and independent.
plot/storyline:4.5* - Marriage of convenience because he helped out of situation. She was Extremely hesitant (more like hated the idea of marriage). He after getting to know her was liking the idea of marriage.
Ending-4.5*- An engaging HEA.
Reading Enjoyment:4.5* I enjoyed reading and Loved the Wallflowers series cameos in this book (The Devil in Winter, and It Happened one Autumn) I liked the fact that the H and h were true to their personalities in the way when opportunities arose there was no games of jealousy or flirting with other people.
Overall rating:4.5 - I am confused on the date it began with spring of 1876 , it didn't state another year past as it end in Dec 1877??
(out of 5*)

LOVE the characters. Pandora is my absolute favorite heroine. I'm sure I've liked others as much, although none come to mind, but I haven't liked anyone more.
I fell in love with Pandora in the first book of the Ravenel series, when we met Pandora and her twin Cassandra as they were using their mourning veils to collect berries and catch fish. Who wouldn't love them? All three sisters are wonderful as undivuals and as sisters, and as cousins to the surprisingly responsible new Earl and his brother.
They became even more interesting in Book II.
in this book, it's all about Pandora, and her wonderful Gabriel, scion of the offspring of the unexpectedly delightful marriage between Evie and Sebastian of the Wallflower series.
there's a long wait for Book IV, which I trust will be Cassandra's story(?) with LOTS MORE PANDORA, please. Actually I'd love another entire book about Pandora and Gabriel. And let's not leave West hanging.
This series is even more of gem than the Wallflowers series, which was also great fun.
I reiterate, MORE PANDORA PLEASE!

This was just wonderful! Pandora has always been the most interesting of the Ravenels for me and she lived up to her previous appearances. I really liked that Lisa Kleypas didn't shy away from her oddities, but also didn't overdo them in the context of the story. Gabriel was everything I could have expected from Sebastian and Evie's son and more. I appreciated the complexities that were slowly revealed about his character and how they resulted from his upbringing. The romance was super engaging and I liked that most of the time was spent on Gabriel trying to sell the idea of marriage/love to Pandora. Now I really want books about Gabriel's siblings especially his older, widowed sister. Well done, Ms. Kleypas!

A Victorian romance that takes place in England in 1877, this book stands out because of its attention to historical accuracy. The book highlights the progress of this period. Sterile medicine, delicate procedures and surgeries, indoor plumbing, the struggle for women’s independence are all part and parcel of this story. I received a painless education about the time period.

The characters are well defined with strong motivations. Neither the hero nor the heroine are likely to be confused with other romance characters in other stories. The romance itself isn’t especially unique. The couple meet, their relationship is fraught with challenges, they marry, and live happily ever after. What makes this book singularly readable is the author’s pacing and descriptive abilities.

This story has more graphic sex descriptions than are absolutely necessary. I would rate this a five star if not for the overly descriptive bedroom scenes. I borrowed this book from my local library.

I've been waiting for this book like most fans of Lisa Kleypas. I mean it's about Sebastian and Evie's son, Gabriel. I've been dying to see what he would be like and this didn't disappoint - at all.
Gabriel is trapped in a compromising situation by Pandora Ravenel, but it's not her fault. In fact, she doesn't want to marry, especially someone as handsome as Gabriel, because she wants to produce her board game (side note: I swooned when I found out her character is based on the real woman who invented Monopoly).
This is a lovely story. Gabriel woos her, first because he wants to do the right thing, but then he becomes intrigued by her odd behavior. It takes Pandora a little longer to fall in love with Gabriel, but they are a wonderful couple, two of my favorites of Ms. Kleypas's books (and that's saying something). I also liked the history that is skillfully woven in here: Victorian medical practices, Winterbourne's store (from the last book too), the board games, and the part about Irish home rule.
Now it's just a matter of waiting for the next book in the series - sigh.

I was anxiously awaiting this book and it did not disappoint. I loved both characters and that's saying a lot bc I did not like Pandora in Marrying Winterborne. But in this book, her character is well developed. Some of the criticism has a been that she is too childlike......but what did you expect when she has been a literal prisoner her whole life. Also I loved Gabriel....it was refreshing to read about the hero falling in love with their heroine first. I didn't find him insipid.....just bc he didn't have some big angst in his life, didn't make him less of a hero in this book. In reality, he is the son of a loving couple (Evie and Sebastian) who have given their all to the family. It would be weird if he did have angst filled issues. I of course LOVED anything about Evie and Sebastian.......Devil in Winter being one of my all time favorite books! The ending do feel a bit rushed but obviously the author was setting up future storylines. There were many funny moments in Pandora and Gabriel's interaction. This book was well worth the time!

I am a Lisa Kelypas fan and this was fun book to read. It introduced new characters and had some of the old favorites, like Evie and Sebastian from Devil in Winter, play supporting roles. I will admit that this book is better than a lot of romance novels out there but it just does not match up to Ms. Keleypas's previous novels such as the Wallflower series and even the first book in this series. I did like the main characters (although I feel the hero could have been made a little more rounded), and enjoyed Pandora's determination to be independent. I think the book could have skipped the treason plot and focused on the couple relationship more which I felt was a little rushed. The sex scenes were adequate but the author has done better in the past. Overall, despite the weaknesses this was a good book and I have no hesitation recommending it to romance readers, it will put a smile on your face.

I love Lisa Kleypas - she really writes wonderfully. Her characters are always consistent and her story lines are usually very entertaining. This one was a 2.5 stars at best though. The character of Pandora was just painful to listen to. She sounded like a 12 year old girl to me, which made the sex scenes creepy. Gabriel was great, like most Kleypas heros he was funny, sexy and sensible. Why she sometimes writes such terrible heroines is beyond me. I didn't feel any chemistry between the two, though that may have been due to my dislike of Pandora. She was just so awkward - and not in a cute, funny way - that it made their conversations cringe-worthy. And my god, the complaining. She whined the entire book. I get that Kleypas doesn't want to use the same heroine character over and over, and I respect her for making each one unique. But this one was just icky.

I did finish the book; however, every so often I seriously considered to quit reading - there wasn't much of a plot , the heroine was not likable (quite frustrating really). It was beyond my understanding why the hero fell in love almost at first sight. Maybe I expected too much since I love Devil in Winter and figured that this one would be as good.

At least 60% of the book was very boring with long and uninteresting sex scenes. I liked the chance to meet Sebastian and Evie again and found that the best parts of the book included them and their children and grandchildren. All in all, this one is a disappointment.

Devil in Spring is the third book in the Ravenels series. I love Lisa Kleypas's books and she is one of my auto buy authors.
Devil in Spring started interesting with witty dialogue and cute scenes but then heroine behaved like a spoiled and stubborn child and hero whom believe to have dark desire become besotted with a girl whom just by accident caught in scandal with him.
Gabriel is handsome and the heir of dukedom and trying to do the honorable thing but Pandora keeps refusing to accept his proposal.
And suddenly the plot change to a dangerous one which has nothing to do with what Pandora has plan for her work....
I must say Lisa Kleypas's writing is wonderful and captivating but I have a hard time to like the heroine and not believing the hero being so perfect. Or what was the dark desire of the hero and the plot towards the end.
Still Lisa Kleypas is one of the best authors and I love her books.

Lisa Kleypas will always be my first regency author, in any sense, and I love her even if sometimes I think that some old books she wrote are just unreachable. This one is one of the best in latest times and I liked Pandora a lot, she was witty and funny and going back to visit old friends like Sebastian and Evie was a plus. I didn't like Gabriel so much, but I'm sure he will grow on me.

Lisa Kleypas sará per sempre colei che mi ha iniziato al regency romance e l'amerò per il resto dei miei giorni, anche se ormai nessun libro arriva più ai suoi livelli, nemmeno i suoi. Questo comunque resta uno dei romanzi migliori tra gli ultimi e Pandora mi é sempre piaciuta molto, sia per il suo senso del umorismo che per la sua storia piuttosto intensa, inoltre rivedere Sebastian ed Evie mi ha fatto piacere come sempre. Gabriel é l'unico personaggio che non mi abbia fatto impazzire, ma magari con il tempo.....

A wonderful 3rd book!! Pandora has always been wild, spirited and having a free will does not wish to marry. She just wants to start her board game company. When she is put in a compromising position accidentally it's Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent that is made to suffer. He was just trying to help the Lady out of a tight situation and ends up he might have to marry her. When the Ravenels are invited to Gabriel's family home for a week, Pandora reluctantly accepts. She is determined not to marry. When she and Gabriel gets closer she tells him her secrets and why she doesn't want to marry. When he agrees to let her be as independent as possible, her reserve starts to crumble. She finally agrees and they are married to weeks later. Pandora accidentally stumbles onto a Irish conspiracy with the police and the home office it puts her life in danger. A fast paced book with intrigue, conspiracy and love!!!

Devil in Spring by Lisa Kleypas (Audio Edition)
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells
Series: The Ravenels #3

4 Stars - I immediately liked Gabriel. He's straightforward and doesn't seem too arrogant. I Loved how sometimes he just tries to bait Pandora. I Loved Pandora’s made up words and her fact book! Too funny! Their interactions are wonderful and they had a great spark between them. I did find some parts in the story had a bit more backstory and/or description which seemed to put a slight lull in the book at times, but then Pandora and Gabriel would pick up the story again. I also enjoyed Dragon Pandora's “footman/bodyguard”. He was a good character.

Mary Jane Wells did a FANTASTIC job narrating. She has such a wide variety of voices and accents and it truly made the story come alive! LOVED her performance!

~Paragraphs and Petticoats~

This book is a continuation of the Ravenels’ family story, following the intelligent, stubborn and awkward twin, Pandora. The book can stand alone but readers should follow the family story from the start to understand the twins. The focus is entirely on Pandora and other characters we’ve come to know are briefly mentioned. There is still teasing about mysteries yet to be revealed with the secondary characters that pop up for a moment or two in each book.

I didn’t notice any filler material like I had last time, and there were still “steamy scenes” that Kleypas does so well, but less than the “romance porn” of the prior book.

Kleypas is very good in this genre. It is a romance novel that I enjoyed and read quickly.

I will borrow the next book in the series.

Format: Borrowed eBook

I did not like this one as much as I liked the first two Ravenel books. This one I felt dragged on too long and the last minute plot at the end of the book (won't give any details so I do not spoil things) seemed rather like it was stuck on at the last minute. To me the book really should of ended after the honeymoon when they returned to London. I think that the situation at the end of the book in the last three chapters should of, if it had to be in the book, have happened earlier. It just seemed odd farfetched and unrealistic to me. Like it was just added on to add to the drama of what was already a fine story. Or perhaps it was needed to tie in the plot for the next book.

I love Victorian romances and I've enjoyed all the books in the Ravenels series, so far. They can be read as standalones, but the Ravenel family and friends keep popping up in each other's stories, so if you enjoy one, you'll want to read them all!
Book 3 is about Pandora is clever and independent young girl who doesn't want to marry and give up her business projects and lose her financial independence, but when she is accidentally compromised by Gabriel, Lord St Vincent, an infamous rake, everything changes. Delightful and steamy.

This one is definitely my favorite so far. The drama aspect of this story did nothing for me, I was neither here nor there with it. Their romance, chemistry, and the bantering... that's where it's at! Gabriel is perfect for her. He takes her quirks in stride. They have some of the best bantering sessions. They go back and forth. Neither one lets the other off easy, and they are hilarious. We also get some appearances from characters in the previous books in this series, so we can see how those couples are doing.

What a WONDERFUL read. My fave of 2017 so far. Gabriel was a dream. Pandora a delight. Ida was a scene stealer and to revisit the original Devil and Evie was the icing on the cake. I loved Pandoras efforts to help women by having them produce the board game. The absorbtion of Gabriel and Pandora into one another was just breathtaking. And I have so many questions. Who will Cassandra marry? What about West - he deserves a good woman. So glad Dr. Gibson was back with a major role in this book - will Ethan Ransom end up a Ravenel and the good Dr. end up with him? So many questions!! I will be adding this to my personal library. I need to revisit these people often!!

I sincerely hope this is the only Lisa Kleypas book I rate 2 stars because she's one of my favorite historical romance authors. When I heard that Sebastian and Evie's son had a book, I jumped at it but realized I still hadn't read the other three wallflower books (oops), so I put it on hold. Finally, I was ready to read Devil in Spring! By the third chapter, I was already done with the book. Pandora has got to be the worst heroine I have ever read about. She's childish, insensbily stubborn, and just plain stupid. Like another reviewer said, I don't understand why Gabriel decided he's in love with her (mind you, he decided this about halfway through the book with nothing to back it up other than the fact that she's gorgeous and different). I'm all for women's rights, but I think Kleypas pushed it too much in this book. I wanted something fun not to read about some girl's refusal to marry the perfect boy, who has no flaws except his married mistress, because women can't vote yet and because she would have to surrender her business to her husband. Pandora is a 12 year old child stuck in a woman's body and Gabriel is just too GOOD that he's ridiculously BORING. I have never disliked a heroine so much before. Additionally, I have never spent more than 3 days reading a Kleypas HR but I'm going on week 3 and am still trying to finish the last 50 pages; I was just too angry, that I had to write a review hah.

If anyone's reading this, I recommend you skip this book unless you're reading it just for Sebastian and Evie, which is the only reason why I gave this book 2 stars. The 4 wallflower books (especially Devil in Winter, my favorite book of all time) and the second Ravenel book, Marrying Winterborne, are AMAZING. I'm not a fan of Cold Hearted Rake, the first of the Ravenel, but it's definitely a lot better than this book. Hopefully, the rest of the series won't disappoint. I'm super pumped for Phoebe and West's book and to dig into the Hathaways while I wait!

Devil in Spring was an autobuy for me. Like so many Kleypas fans, I have an enduring fondness for the Wallflower series, and Devil in Winter is my absolute favorite. Papa Devil was such a complex, layered and naughty fellow well matched by gentle, kind, implacable Evie. The entire novel focused on unraveling the knots in their relationship and reweaving them into passionate, devoted whole. Unfortunately, Pandora and Gabriel are afflicted with sadly inferior knots cobbled together by extended and extremely detailed bouts of sex. Forkulate early and forkulate often as Pandora might say.

I have to say that the writing and research is well up to Kleypas's usual high standards. It was also so much fun to revisit the Challons and the Ravenels. However, Devil in Spring left me feeling sadly flat. Maybe my expectations were unrealistic or I'm just spoiled, but this book let me down on a number of levels.

Actually, Pandora is a great heroine. Her issues are serious, believable and unembellished by whining, making her a particularly appealing character. She is funny and clever and devastatingly honest. Her passionate desire to operate a successful and creative business without surrendering all she is or owns to a spouse immediately engages the sympathy. Her arguments are emotional yet fundamentally logical. And, amazingly, Gabriel (Devil Jr.?) accepts the logic of her arguments.

Never the less, Gabriel is a major problem for me. He is too freakin' perfect for words. Once he decides that he wants a marriage to Pandora, he does everything possible to adapt to her needs. He takes delight in her unconventional ways, accepts her as few others do, and pursues her with single minded intent. He even attempts to free her from the legal obligations of the marital property laws of the time. All this is served up with lashings of mutual insta-lust. The problem is there is no devil in all of this. Gabriel is a devoted son and brother, an upright businessman, and a dutiful member of the community. He's also pretty like his da. Junior likes sex and has a married mistress who caters to his mysterious needs, but that is the sum total of his libidinous excess. Fortunately, Pandora "kisses like a pirate," and that's enough to make Madame Mistress redundant. Said mistress turns out be little more than a plot device in the last quarter of the book and that was pretty irritating too.

I mention the sexytimes, not because I have any generic objection to literary licentiousness, but because many of these encounters seem to be used as a diversion from the real potential problems in the relationship. I would happily have read through dialog between Gabriel and Pandora that covinced me that he was doing more than humoring her. Sometimes conversation is way more important than a cunning tongue, shall we say.

My final problem is with the book's ending. It's hard to avoid spoilers in discussing this, but I'll try. The beginning two-thirds of the book are actually a pretty conventional romance plot, with all obstacles swept away by the typical I can't live without you epiphany. Then, suddenly, elements of danger and mystery are introduced. To me, they seemed to come out of nowhere. Characters are introduced and disposed of within a few chapters. One character is introduced who is clearly sequel bait. The assorted dangers are tied into the main conflict between hero and heroine, but all is resolved in *spoiler*
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bed. *end spoiler*
The shift to an adventure/suspense plot seems artificial and rushed, and while there are no actual cliffhangers, I can't help but wonder if there will be related plots in later books. That would be fine, but I'd hate to think that this one was sacrificed to set that up. I will certainly buy future books in this series, but I can't honestly give this one more than three stars.

Lisa Kleypas has done it again. DEVIL IN SPRING is a refreshing treat! Full of humor, adventure, tenderness, scalding chemistry, witty banter - and did I mention the humor? Lisa Kleypas is the queen of turning a phrase, this story was a literary delight!

I admit I was nervous about this new book, “Devil in Spring”. Mainly I was nervous because “Devil In Winter”, book three of the former Wallflower series, is my favorite of that quartet of books. I loved Evie and Sebastian’s story and Sebastian was a favorite of mine in every book he was in. How was Lisa Kleypas going to take the beloved and charming Lord Sebastian, and make him older and then give us a story about his grown son?

Well, I should not have doubted for a minute. GET THIS BOOK NOW, either in print or audio. I bought it in print form and then listened to it on audio and still could not get enough.

Lisa Kleypas, what happened to your writing mojo? Every single book in this series has been a downright disappointment. The premise of the story is highly unbelievable. Heroine gets stuck in a piece of furniture, is rescued by the hero and this constitutes a "compromise" requiring marriage of two people who don't even know each other's names. Right.
Then both their families conspire to bring them together. Hero falls madly, deeply in love not even really knowing heroine. They have zero exchanges that establish a remote connection except a contrived one. This book is like a bad, predictable romcom. This is sappy fluff at best. Gone is the Lisa Kleypas who could weave a story like Again the Magic or the wallflowers series. This whole Ravenel series is boring,

Typically, before I purchase a book, I tend to read the one. two and three star reviews first. I already know what the four and five star reviews are going to say. But in this case, the one - three star reviews didn't really do this book justice. The author clearly defined the heroine as 'untamed'. A child left to her own devices growing up who grew into a wild thing. Perhaps if Kleypas had added Pandora's sun sign, Aquarius - obviously, reader's would have had a better understanding of the poor child's detachment. It was so nice to see Evie and Sebastian. Their story was my favorite of the Wallflower series. Hence the four stars.

I enjoyed the writing and wanted to enjoy the characters and plot more.

Spoilers ahead:

Gabriel tried to accommodate Pandora's issues (her legal rights within the marriage) but Pandora didn't seem to care about his concerns about her role as a duchess. I would have like to seen her bend a little (as one does in marriage) or assert herself to have the role fit her. Perhaps instead of Ida becoming the shop forewoman, she became her Social Secretary and Pandora attempts to be in his world. She seems selfish.

The Irish rebels came out of left field and seemed tacked on to provide drama.

Board game production quibbles: #1, To hand tint color on 500 games boards would astronomically raise the price (even at sweat shop prices). Printed lithograph would still be expensive and she could still have women glue the boards, assemble them, I am assuming there will be cards, money, playing pieces all could be done by women without the tedious and time consuming hand tinting. #2. The game is called "Shopping Spree", would boys and men play this game? Only for women? #3. No mention the designer for game? Is Winterborne financing it? (I can't remember)

She has known Dr. Gibson a year a half (I think that's when the epilogue takes place) and it's the first time they talk about her hearing/balance issues?

Loved seeing Evie and Sebastian!

I really enjoyed it but...you must read the original Devil in Winter book and the ones in the Ravenel series to fully appreciate it. Someone else mentioned it and I am glad I followed. Without it you might get lost or loose interest and decide its three stars. Also I loved. pandora in all the books leading up to this one. She was a bit annoying but hilarious. In full disclosure, I listed to this as an audiobook and I think this really helped. I loved Pandora’s narration and you get that it’s meant to be more funny than annoying.

(Rated: R for detailed intimate scenes)

This was definitely my favorite book of the series so far... Lady Pandora is full of life and energy, and I couldn't help but laugh out loud at times as she found herself in scrapes or voiced her unfiltered thoughts.

I also appreciated that the majority of the intimate scenes in this particular book of the series happened within the context of marriage, unlike the previous two books.

I'm eager to read the next book when it is released!

I really really wanted to love this book.
It wasn't until I finished it that I realized how absurd it was. First, they "court" for six days, and three days in Pandora tells him she "can't not marry him" and "can't live without him" and he's calling her "darling" and "love"? 3 days? 6 days doesn't even cut it?

Also the forced gender roles and the annoyingly political backdrop just had me rolling my eyes.

It's almost a 4. This was written so much better than the previous two books in this set, which isn't too hard. It still isn't up to the same standards of her earlier books, including the Wallflowers, but it was a lot better than Marrying Winterbourne and Cold Hearted Rake. For one thing, the characters are much less annoying. It was also nice to revisit one of the Wallflowers and see them still happily married 30 years later.

This book started really strong, but fell off at the 60% mark. I had to make myself finish. The heroine and hero are essentially happy at this point, and the ensuant conflict feels forced and shoe-horned in. The conflict regarding Irish nationalists isn't even mentioned prior to this point in the book. The actual technicalities of the heroine's board game business take a back seat to detailed medical procedure descriptions, which feels odd for a book with a board game making heroine for a hook. Kleypas writes a great meet-cute for the lead couple, but fails to cash in. They establish relationship bliss too early.

Loved both of the Devil books and can't wait for Devil's Daughter

I am reading my way through all of Lisa's book - The Ravenels, The Hathaways, The Wallflower series, The Bow Street Runners. All wonderful stories full of history and romance.

Her imagery is outstanding. I love the way she always includes such vivid aromas as well as visual descriptions.

She is the Queen of the sex scene, One of the poorer reviews mentioned Gabrielle's sexual preferences, and how she didn't find anything usual about his proclivities. What I read was he enjoyed bondage which most ton wives wouldn't have tolerated.

Fantastic writing! Keep it up Lisa.

While I enjoy Kleypas' writing, this story was one of her weaker offerings. The beginning was promising, but about halfway through the book everything became oddly disjointed and I wasn't sure which plot I was supposed to care about or be invested in. If Kleypas had just focused on the struggle of Pandora attempting to be a businesswoman while balancing her new role as a peer's wife I think she would have had a much more interesting story with much better developed characters. Gabriel and Pandora both were fairly stagnate throughout the entire series with neither of them really experiencing any real or long lasting character growth.

Furthermore, the political plot was so hamfisted and so hastily shoved into the last third of the book I though the publisher had mistakenly mixed up half the manuscript with some other novel. Another issue was the constant taunting of the other woman, Mrs. Black, and it turned out to be such a none issue that I wish Kleypas had just left Mrs. Black out. There was literally no real plot or character reason to have her there, and she turned out to be less than a cliche.

While I enjoyed the cameos by Evie, Sebastian and Westcliff, even they couldn't save this book from being a jumbled mess. It's almost as if Kleypas wanted to write a different book halfway through. The prose itself is lovely, but the plot is terrible and the characters are stagnate.

I loved this book! After reading it last year I find myself re-reading parts of it or almost the entire book again. The characters of Pandora and Gabriel are a joy. Pandora is an independent woman who has already planned her future with no plans of ever marrying. Sebastian doesn't want marriage either at the present time. But due to him being caught compromising her, marriage seems to be necessary. During a week away visiting Gabriel's family with her family they begin the adventure of getting to know each other and falling in love. The secondary story line is interesting and dangerous.

This book made me laugh more than any book I have read in a while. I loved the heroin's character. She cracked me up and who wouldn't love the hero. I wish the marriage would have happened a litte quicker though. I also felt like the mistress thread was left hanging and would have liked some wrap up with that. Some of the sex scenes were just a little to drawn out. Those complaints are not major and only enough to take it from a 5 star to a 4 star for me. I would highly recommend this book!

I loved it. I loved it all. I loved how Pandora's story explained so much of her behavior from previous novels. I loved bringing Sebastian and Evie back into our story. And Gabriel, such an admirable fellow.

This is one of my favorite books by this author and I have read all of her historical novels and a few of the contemporary ones. I loved the fact that the hero was the one who had to work for his HEA. So often it is the female who falls right away for the male character's great looks and she is putty in his hands. The heroine may have been a bit vague and unconventional but that is what had her so lovable. Great job Lisa! I have already reread this book. It is a keeper.

4/4.5 Stars | Hot Steam

Loved it! So romantic, entertaining, and incredibly sexy! Pandora & Gabriel's wonderful story is the finest of the series so far. This extraordinary couple's unputdownable novel truly (finally!) marks Lisa Kleypas' triumphant return to historical romance! The Queen is back!

Evie & Sebastian are one of my favorite couples so I had high expectations for this book.
Gabriel is just how I expected a child of theirs would turn out. I loved his personality and sense of humor. His journey from resistance to madly in love and "dark" sexual need definitely could've used more exploring/explanation. Pandora is better here than in previous books. I see complaints about her distractedness but I think it might be ADHD. Spontaneous story telling & board game creating require a lot of creativity, plus many entrepreneurs admit to having a million things swirling in their minds, so her personality makes sense to me.
The cameo appearances are wonderful. However, I do not appreciate how rushed the plot feels when it comes to the "dangerous conspiracy." This is probably due to this book being shorter than its predecessors.

Devil In Spring by Lisa Kleypas was released in 2017. This Victorian tale of Pandora and Gabriel was interesting. They don't immediately fall for each other. Also the historical touches seem accurate. Fans of Lisa Kleypas will like this the most.

I can't stress how much I LOVED this story!
Ms. Kleypas gave her historical readers the utmost treat by having Sebastian St. Vincent Devil in Winter and Marcus Westcliff It Happened One Autumn make appearances in this story, in fact, the male protagonist is none other than Evie and Sebastian's son Gabriel.

Wonderful writing, story, and characters!

Thoroughly enchanting!

Pandora has been my favorite character through all of this series, so I was eager to read her story. I was pretty sure I would love it or hate and thankfully love it won. I read it almost in one sitting.

Gabriel was handsome and charming and saw how special Pandora was. Pandora, was Pandora, which is always awesome. Fun, funny and sheep balloons!

The very first historical romance that I read a few years ago was Devil in Winter, with the characters Sebastian and Evangeline. It was with great delight that I read of their son, Gabriel in ‘Devil in Spring’ and Lady Pandora, cousin to Devon Ravenel from ‘Cold Hearted Rake’. Kleypas has woven such a great story with so many passionate characters, I was fixated from the start. I just loved the characters of Devon and Sebastian so Gabriel had large shoes to fill and once again, Kleypas has developed a strong male character who has still such an innate sense of goodness. Pandora, in her unique way, is also endearing, and by the end of the novel, had grown on me. I so look forward to hearing about other characters especially Garret Gibson and Ethan Ransom and hope that Kleypas stays with her winning formula for historical romance novels.
I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Charming story. The Wallflower series is one of my favorites and like that Kleypas has continued on with the series. Wish there had been some interaction with the original Wallflower characters. Only a very very brief interaction wth Westcliffe at the beginning.

At first I loved the fact that characters from previous books were all throughout the story. I then felt it was taking to long for Pandora to commit to Gabriel. But then it happened and I could not stop reading the story. The only break I took was when I had to sleep. My kind of historical romance, ballroom and sensuous sex.

It was well worth the purchase! It may even top Marrying Winterborne for me, which I didn't think could happen. Pandora and Gabriel are delightful and I loved seeing a heroine who wanted a career (not that wanting marriage and children is lesser or bad) and to make something of her life.

This book was fun! I loved the dialog throughout the book, the characters were likeable and interesting. This is a romance people and a little different in that the couple was in love quickly but how can you not like a woman who makes up words:)

I was so excited about this book since it featured the son of Evie and Sebastian. My great excitement turned to great disappointment. Gabriel was likeable, but his character was not fleshed out well. Pandora was very immature and did not improve as the book went on. The most enjoyable parts of the book involved Gabriel's family and they were supposed to be secondary characters.

Worst lisa kleypas book. Especially after reading the great Mr Winterborne!! What a disappointment Devil in Spring was. Pandoras character was cringe worthy and completely idiotic. She was naive, excitable, clumsy and i was constantly embarrassed for her. Not sexy at all. Not believable that such an amazing man would fall for her. I would not recommend this to anyone. Thank God I didn't give up on Lisa Kleypas after this book because her other books are amazing! Dont waste your time reading this ine when you have so many others.

Consider this a protest review. I've read this book in paperback. It's good (as is typical with this author) and I was actually toying with getting it in eBook form too. Then I saw that they charge $2 more for the eBook than for a paperback. I can't for the life of me understand how that's anything but gouging eBook readers, as it's got to be less expensive to produce an eBook than a paperback (no ink, paper and glue, if nothing else). As a result, I'm not buying the eBook version now.

So, for the book itself? An easy 4 stars. The kindle rating? 3 stars after substractung 1 in protest for price gauging.

Pandora may be my favorite Kleypas heroine so far--and I believe I've read all of her books. Pandora's "oddities" make her especially interesting and charming; and I found myself laughing out loud many times while reading. Gabriel was charming as well, and I give him much credit for wanting to support Pandora's dreams while still being the protective male he thinks he should be. I so hope there will be another book in this series. IF you've read Marrying Winterbourne, you know about Dr. Garret Gibson. I would be quite happy if her story was the next one. There were also a couple other characters in this book who deserve their own story. Write on, Lisa!!!

How I LOVE Lisa Kleypas books! This is the 3rd in the Ravenel Series and happily brings back characters from her Wallflower Series that have grown older and their children take up the tale. It is so delightful to read about Sebastian and Evie's son who is the hero in this story. Also a fleeting reference to Lord Westcliff who is my all-time favorite hero of all her books. Great story and cannot wait for the next one.

Another great read by one of my favorite historical romance authors! I loved this couple, especially Gabriel, as it takes a special someone to be with Pandora, especially in times where being an independent-thinking female isn't always easy. I'm really hoping Dragon gets a story and am excited to read Garrett and Ransom's story now!

I would be hard-pressed to determine which of these characters I love the most. Gabriel would be the man of any woman's dream come true. My heart however was touched by the strength of the women in this story and how grateful I am to be raised in this timeframe. Kudos to the author for reminding the reader how important our past is and how far women have come and how grateful we should be to our ancestors.

I waited forever it seems for this sequel and I was well pleased indeed! It was splendiporous!

The characters were just as they should be. Gabriel was absolutely a product of his parents. He was the perfect foil for our perfectly imperfect wild and wonderful Pandora.

I highly recommend this book.

This is a new series! But still in the family of her other books!I loved Winterbourne and this one is just as good! I love Pandora she's so quirky not your average heroine. she's just so unique and he's so great you just wanted it to work for them. I enjoyed this book so much you must get up!

Loved the tone and the speed of the action. When Pandora meets Gabriel in an "I Love Lucy" situation it reveals a wonderful pair of characters that make their story a lovely and challenging one. It also presents her medical issues with precise descriptions and historical references that were very enlightening.

Part of a Series: bk3
Setting: England 1876/77
Hero: Gabriel (Lord St. Vincent)- avoiding the marriage mart,
Heroine: Lady Pandora- Quirky, endearing, Lovable and independent.
plot/storyline:4.5* - Marriage of convenience because he helped out of situation. She was Extremely hesitant (more like hated the idea of marriage). He after getting to know her was liking the idea of marriage.
Ending-4.5*- An engaging HEA.
Reading Enjoyment:4.5* I enjoyed reading and Loved the Wallflowers series cameos in this book (The Devil in Winter, and It Happened one Autumn) I liked the fact that the H and h were true to their personalities in the way when opportunities arose there was no games of jealousy or flirting with other people.
Overall rating:4.5 - I am confused on the date it began with spring of 1876 , it didn't state another year past as it end in Dec 1877??
(out of 5*)

I love Victorian romances and I've enjoyed all the books in the Ravenels series, so far. They can be read as standalones, but the Ravenel family and friends keep popping up in each other's stories, so if you enjoy one, you'll want to read them all!
Book 3 is about Pandora is clever and independent young girl who doesn't want to marry and give up her business projects and lose her financial independence, but when she is accidentally compromised by Gabriel, Lord St Vincent, an infamous rake, everything changes. Delightful and steamy.

Loved both of the Devil books and can't wait for Devil's Daughter

I am reading my way through all of Lisa's book - The Ravenels, The Hathaways, The Wallflower series, The Bow Street Runners. All wonderful stories full of history and romance.

Her imagery is outstanding. I love the way she always includes such vivid aromas as well as visual descriptions.

She is the Queen of the sex scene, One of the poorer reviews mentioned Gabrielle's sexual preferences, and how she didn't find anything usual about his proclivities. What I read was he enjoyed bondage which most ton wives wouldn't have tolerated.

Fantastic writing! Keep it up Lisa.

I sincerely hope this is the only Lisa Kleypas book I rate 2 stars because she's one of my favorite historical romance authors. When I heard that Sebastian and Evie's son had a book, I jumped at it but realized I still hadn't read the other three wallflower books (oops), so I put it on hold. Finally, I was ready to read Devil in Spring! By the third chapter, I was already done with the book. Pandora has got to be the worst heroine I have ever read about. She's childish, insensbily stubborn, and just plain stupid. Like another reviewer said, I don't understand why Gabriel decided he's in love with her (mind you, he decided this about halfway through the book with nothing to back it up other than the fact that she's gorgeous and different). I'm all for women's rights, but I think Kleypas pushed it too much in this book. I wanted something fun not to read about some girl's refusal to marry the perfect boy, who has no flaws except his married mistress, because women can't vote yet and because she would have to surrender her business to her husband. Pandora is a 12 year old child stuck in a woman's body and Gabriel is just too GOOD that he's ridiculously BORING. I have never disliked a heroine so much before. Additionally, I have never spent more than 3 days reading a Kleypas HR but I'm going on week 3 and am still trying to finish the last 50 pages; I was just too angry, that I had to write a review hah.

If anyone's reading this, I recommend you skip this book unless you're reading it just for Sebastian and Evie, which is the only reason why I gave this book 2 stars. The 4 wallflower books (especially Devil in Winter, my favorite book of all time) and the second Ravenel book, Marrying Winterborne, are AMAZING. I'm not a fan of Cold Hearted Rake, the first of the Ravenel, but it's definitely a lot better than this book. Hopefully, the rest of the series won't disappoint. I'm super pumped for Phoebe and West's book and to dig into the Hathaways while I wait!

I loved this book! After reading it last year I find myself re-reading parts of it or almost the entire book again. The characters of Pandora and Gabriel are a joy. Pandora is an independent woman who has already planned her future with no plans of ever marrying. Sebastian doesn't want marriage either at the present time. But due to him being caught compromising her, marriage seems to be necessary. During a week away visiting Gabriel's family with her family they begin the adventure of getting to know each other and falling in love. The secondary story line is interesting and dangerous.