The Irish Devil Book

Oh, Lordy!

The town laundress, widowed Viola Ross, looses her house and business because of a friend's greed, the man she's refused to marry time and again just won't take the hint, she will not remarry, because let's face it, marriage is overrated, but since she get's an ultimatum along the lines of "Marry me or go homeless, because no one will give you shelter" and she refuses to join the flock of parlor house ladies, she decided to seek protection as the mistress of an intriguing Irishman. The same "Irish devil" the girls at the parlor house claim to be so virile (he actually took two girls to the room on his last visit), they need to sleep late into the afternoon to recover. Hey, what do you know, maybe the guy will finally show Viola what the fuss about carnal relations is all about.

William Donovan, enamored of the lovely widow, readily accepts her proposition of being his mistress for the next tree months, they have a lovely bout of carnal relations in his office, he chases away her persistent suitor, they have a lovely bout of carnal relations at his place, he pays her in advance the next morning, they proceed at having lots and lots of carnal relations (which they both more than enjoy) interspersed with flashback scenes, Viola's suitor's multiple attempts at getting rid of William and acquire Viola's hand in marriage (it's all about the money), more carnal relations, scenes of Viola's brother searching for her and more carnal relations.

Finally, two chapters before the end, Viola gets kidnapped, her brother, having heard she's been living in sin with an Irishman, attempts to defend her honor by punching the guy she's been living in sin with, get's punched back (men and their displays of macho-ness), joins the rescue party, they save Viola (rather quickly and without much trouble), the bad suitor dies, Viola realizes she's in love with William who promptly reciprocates, she proposes, he accepts, they get married, get their own shivaree and have one last carnal relation. THE END


Despite the "historical romance" classification there wasn't much history involved (beside mentioning the anti-Irish feel of the West and the fear of the Apaches). This book read more like a sex manual than anything else, complete with trinkets (dildos) and light to moderate bondage. There wasn't much of a story (Viola and William were too busy having carnal relations), not much suspense (everything was revealed early on), the flashbacks were redundant and page-count fodder, the characters were uninteresting and without much personality.
And the "sweetheart" uttered in (almost) every single sentence quickly lost its endearment properties and showed only that the guy uttering it probably didn't remember the woman's name.