Devil's Bride (Cynster Series, Book 1)

by Stephanie Laurens

Devil's Bride (Cynster Series, Book 1)

book data

255 ratings, 4.20 average rating, 17 reviews (more data...)

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published

March 1st 1998 by Avon

binding

Mass Market Paperback, 416 pages

characters

Honoria Wetherby, Devil Cynster

setting

The United Kingdom

isbn

038079456X (isbn13: 9780380794560)

description

To have...
When Devil, the most infamous member of the Cynster family, is caught in a compromising position with plucky governess Honoria Weth...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 328)

All ratings | 5 stars (116) | 4 stars (85) | 3 stars (45) | 2 stars (6) | 1 star (3) | avg 4.20

all | this edition

Karam

Karam rated it:

04/03/08

bookshelves: romance

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Karam by: All About Romance Top 100 list

What? This book is apparently a favorite of many romance readers, but I didn't get the appeal. Sentence structure was definitely more sophisticated than most, but character development was not believable (even by romance novel standards). Disappointingly, it is not titled Devil's Bride because it is about the bride of Satan, Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness, lord of hell and all evil, but the bride of some jerk with "Devil" as an improbable nickname. The mystery was ridiculously obvi...more

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Katie

Katie rated it:

07/08/08

bookshelves: fiction, historical-fiction, romance

Read in July, 2008

I wanted to like this book. I really did. But while it was good enough from a technical standpoint, it was not the most wonderful read. The mystery, from the beginning, is painfully obvious. Horrifyingly obvious. It is as though the author is beating you over the head with a brick, telling you who the killer is. It was so painfully obvious, in fact, that I actually managed to convince myself that the obvious answer could not have been the killer - that this kind of painful lack of...more I wanted to like this book. I really did. But while it was good enough from a technical standpoint, it was not the most wonderful read. The mystery, from the beginning, is painfully obvious. Horrifyingly obvious. It is as though the author is beating you over the head with a brick, telling you who the killer is. It was so painfully obvious, in fact, that I actually managed to convince myself that the obvious answer could not have been the killer - that this kind of painful lack of subtlety could only mean that the author was trying to throw her audience off the scent.

I was wrong. The eventual revelation of the killer was anticlimactic and not at all satisfying.

The character development was dreadful. I found myself liking the Cynster family, but I can't imagine why. Stephanie Laurens is terrible at giving men nicknames, that much is certain. I likely only found myself liking them because they were cliches that I had already fallen in love with before - which is not a ringing endorsement.

By the end of the book, Honoria (another terrible name, in my opinion) barely resembles who she was in the beginning of the book. The fact that she was a governess is thoroughly discarded. Her various hopes and dreams for her life, which she had clung to as an excuse to refuse Devil's proposal (presumably for some kind of sexual tension - it doesn't work) are completely cast aside. It is one thing to have her dreams cast aside - it's at least realistic from a historical standpoint - but it's quite another that she should give up on those dreams so easily and suddenly become thoroughly content with life as a baby factory.

And let's be honest - I do not read romance novels for the character development or the original plots. I read it for the hot and sweaty smutty bits. These? These were terrible. For the first time in my life, I found myself skimming past the dirty bits to get to something interesting. As a highly smut-minded female, this is something of note.

There is a very small chance that I will read the next in the series, with some kind of faint hope that it will be better. This is not the most utterly terrible thing I have ever read, but I was nonetheless gravely disappointed....less

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S. rated it:

09/01/08

bookshelves: reviewed, traded

Read in August, 2008

I was hoping that Devil Cynster with his reputation with the ton as a wild rogue would actually have been somewhat of a bad-boy character. Instead he didn't do a thing in this book to earn the name "Devil" - I was disappointed. He wasn't a rogue or a hellion, and was actually quite boring. The mystery (if it can really be called that) is painfully transparent, especially since the author only gave the reader one likely option for a suspect. I know a lot of people like Laurens and her B...more

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Robin

Robin rated it:

04/29/08

Read in May, 2005

This is an author who I picked up based upon praise by another author who I've recently been reading, Julia Quinn. She enjoyed the characters in Laurens's books so much that she got permission to include a couple of them in her own books (which I also thought was a fun idea). It turned out to be a fun book, with wonderful characters (though not as well-drawn as Quinn's), but there was a really trying mystery aspect to the book that made me say, "X did it! Now get on with it already!" B...more

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Diana

Diana rated it:

05/07/08

bookshelves: historical-romance, owned, romance

Read in May, 2008

Stumbling across a shot man, Honoria, a finishing governess, meets Devil Cynster, a duke and the cousin of the dying man. Brought together to find the murderer, Devil immediately knows that Honoria will be his duchess, while Honoria must fight old fears to accept him.

I thought this was a great read. There are no misunderstandings, no loss of confidence, and no anger. Honoria is a very appealing heroine, who doesn't drive me mad with her vacillating. Devil is the epitome of the perfect hero. ...more

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Vicki

Vicki rated it:

08/08/07

Read in July, 2007

So my summer reading has consisted of an extraordinary amount of romance novels lately, and Stephanie Laurens is by far my favorite author in the historical romance genre, and about the only one I've searched out. Her female characters are sassy, her dialogue is often amusing, and there's always a subplot about some villain or other. This is the first book in the series about the Cynster family, but she also has a series of about 6 books about friends who used to be spies during the British wa...more

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Addicted2Luv

Addicted2Luv rated it:

07/24/08

Read in July, 2008

The hero was great, loving, handsome, and protective. He made up his mind right away that he wanted to marry the heroine. The heroine had an annoying habit of "haughtily" putting her nose in the air and humphing. There was too much humphing. Also, the men in this book have names like Devil, Scandal, etc. which is so silly.

I liked the way the relationship between the h/h grew in the book. There was a murder mystery subplot that I didn't like, and I did skim over those parts.

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Stephanie

Stephanie rated it:

04/09/08

recommends it for: Anyone who likes a good romance story

LOVED THIS BOOK! Brought the book so I could read it over and over... the part where he takes Hortina down to the "second ballroom" so he could waltz with her even though they were in morning was WONDERFUL so romantic!!!

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Jennifer

Jennifer rated it:

07/01/08

Read in July, 2008

The book was ok- started out interesting and then just kind of went flat. That being said I will continue to read the family saga (I think there are like 16 books) So hopefully it gets better!

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Nadia

Nadia rated it:

12/14/07

bookshelves: smut, stephanie-laurens

Read in December, 2007

Every once in awhile I like a romance novel to rest my brain. A good read that doesn't require a whole lot of brain power. That's when I whip out Stephanie Laurens' Cynster novels.

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Karen

Karen rated it:

03/21/08

AHHH The Cynsters, A delightful story about a family in Regency England again a series. I have read every one up to date and I love them all.

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Judy

Judy rated it:

02/10/08

This is one of my first romance novels....it is just lovely. It is the first in a very long series about the Cynster family.

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Carrie

Carrie rated it:

03/04/08

Read in February, 2008

Really steamy and descriptive sex scenes, along with a mystery love story makes for a good read.

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Kristi

Kristi rated it:

07/01/08

Read in June, 2008

I read this book again and again! It's just one of those books I can get lost in!

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Kristi

Kristi rated it:

04/03/08

Read in March, 2008

I keep going back to re-read these, so there must be something to them!

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Adel

Adel marked it as to-read

07/09/08

bookshelves: to-read

a good reading experience.

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Ladiibbug

Ladiibbug added it

10/18/08

bookshelves: wish-list

#1 Cynster series

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Carolina

Carolina rated it:

11/30/08

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Barbra

Barbra rated it:

11/29/08

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Jacqueline

Jacqueline rated it:

11/21/08

bookshelves: historical-romance

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