Cross-posted at Book Chick City on .
Normally when I’m reading a book by Kathy Love, I start laughing like a hyena with the first sentence. Sometimes it doesn’t happen until the end of the first paragraph. Either way, I know that when I read a book by Kathy Love, I’m going to laugh and not stop laughing for a long time. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with her latest novel, Devilishly Hot. I think I only giggled once. Or it may have been a snort of derision.
Annie Lou Riddle had a plan: Move to New York City. Break into the fashion industry. Work her way to the top. Nowhere in that scenario did she expect to accidentally sell her soul in exchange for a job at Hot! Magazine. Oops. Demons, it seems, aren’t big on letting mortals off the hook. Now Annie is stuck working as assistant/personal slave to Finola White – diva extraordinaire, and glamorous she-devil. Whatever Finola wants, she gets, and she wants Annie to match her up with Nick Rossi, the gorgeous detective investigating shady doings at Hot! Frankly, Annie sees the appeal. Nick is effortlessly sexy, rugged, charming – and the one man Annie should definitely not be flirting with, or kissing, or…Oops. But some loves are too devilishly hot to resist…
One of my biggest problems with Devilishly Hot was that Finola wasn’t innately evil. In fact, I didn’t even think of her as evil at all. To me she just acted like a spoiled child, who simply didn’t know the difference between right and wrong. She would take away someone’s soul if they annoyed her because that’s what she thought was the appropriate punishment. Not only that, but she was stupid. She never knew when Annie was lying to her or when her demon assistant Tristan was manipulating her. It’s really hard to be scared of/hate a villain who is so…not evil. I think her actions (or her in-actions) were supposed to be funny. I found them more annoying than humorous.
Because there wasn’t much tension with Finola, it left the plot lacking. It meandered from point to point; not really dragging in any places yet not giving me any reason to devour the rest of Devilishly Hot. The sexual tension between Annie and Nick didn’t help the plot either because there wasn’t a lot of depth to it. Yes, they were attracted to each other but it was just that – attraction. I didn’t feel an emotional tie between the two; not even a really strong attraction, for that matter.
Separately, though, Annie and Nick were fairly strong characters. Annie was clever, able to logically solve nearly all of her problems. Her backbone, though, was basically invisible. She could get results for any task Fiona set for her because she had the power of Finola to back the request. Yet, when it came to getting anything for herself, Annie rarely, if ever, spoke up and would therefore get walked all over. Nick was intuitive and more in touch with his emotions than most men. He knew what he wanted and went after it with all he had. Whether it was pursing Annie or solving the mystery of the missing former assistants to Finola.
Overall, I was really disappointed in Devilishly Hot. It wasn’t nearly as good as any of her other novels and I can only hope that whatever she writes next will be much better.
Also reviewed by: Romancing-the-Book, Caught in a FAB Romance, Book Read N Makeup Done, The Reading Frenzy, I’m a Voracious Reader
