"Combines Western romance with BDSM erotica."

Viola Ross was raised in privilege, but marriage to a man her father despised got her disowned. When she was left a widow, she was forced to go into business with another widow, running a laundry for the citizens of Rio Piedras -— but when her friend betrays her off to pay off her debts to Paul Lennox, the man who owns the Golconda silver mine and most of the town, Viola is left with nothing. She could, of course, marry Lennox, the man she believes killed her husband -— but she has no interest in accepting his proposal of marriage, after turning him down two dozen times. He makes yet another proposal, and presses his suit more ardently than is proper, and Viola is forced to resort to fending him off with a broken bottle.

Where can she turn for help?

Desperate, she pays a visit to the best parlor house in town, where the madame offers her a position, asserting Viola should have no problem attracting a man to keep her as his mistress. This gives Viola an idea. Earlier she'd heard the girls discussing the prowess of William Donovan, who runs a shipping company that supplies the town and transports silver. A man who can leave hardened working girls dreamy-eyed and fulfilled has to be better than a fat miner. And if he hires her as his mistress, he'd be saving money, since he seems to be keeping the parlor house solvent single handedly when he's in town. So she confronts William, the Irish Devil of the title, with her improper proposition.

William is shocked but delighted with her offer. After all, he's been suffering a permanent case of blue balls since he first laid eyes on the delicate blonde. Not that a well- bred lady would be interested in an Irish immigrant, even a wealthy one. Her offer is a dream come true, and he eagerly accepts, after explaining that his desires are unique and that she must agree to acquiesce to any demands. Knowing that William is an honorable man and a little awed by someone who can reduce hookers to happy puddles of sexual satisfaction, Viola agrees to his terms. William is enormously relieved. Not only will he have Viola in his bed, but he will be able to protect her from the loathesome Lennox.

Safe within the walks of William's compound, Viola begins to learn there is a lot more to sex than the hasty couplings (always in the dark, always clad in nightclothes) she'd suffered through with her late and very much unlamented husband. But William is more than just a talented lover. He is also a dominant, trained thoroughly by an English noblewoman in the arts of bondage and discipline and role-playing. He introduces Viola slowly to his interests (his careful introduction of Viola to kinky sex reads like a chapter on how to introduce a vanilla lover to more esoteric pleasures) -— only to learn that Viola's fantasies of being a captive maiden march well with his own. Even if he only has her for the three months they agreed upon, he will have the memories to hold within his heart.

But Lennox isn't willing to give up Viola. He knows her brother is looking for her, and that she has inherited a quarter million dollars from her grandmother -— a tidy sum which will help him regain his position in society, whose respect he'd lost after rumors of massacres of innocent civilians during the Civil War, finally reached New York. He needs Viola's family name and her fortune to restore his reputation. And William Donovan stands firmly in his way, an obstacle he msut remove.

I am not much of a Western fan -— but this book might persuade me to try a few more in the genre. Whiteside has carefully researched the nuances of life in an 1870s Arizona mining town, including such fascinating details as the fact that fallen women were restricted to the north side of the street, and she brings them vividly to life. You can almost smell the unwashed, sweaty miners --- well, frankly, I think we'd all rather not -— and hear the noisy shouts from the saloons. She does an equally impeccable job with recreating William's Irish past, from the mean streets of Cob to the grand estate of Lady Irene to the treatment of Irish farmers during the Famine. If you can make it through William's tale of his parents' eviction and his pregnant mother's death in childbirth on a cold and rainy night, you've got a heart much harder than mine. Whiteside doesn't set a foot wrong when it comes to the Irish, and as a lover of Victoriana, though not of the Wild West, I can vouch that her portrayal of Victorian manners is dead-on. Such accuracy is rare in romances these days.

Viola, fragile in appearance but stout of heart, is a memorable survivor who manages never to allow the difficulties she faces to break her spirit or quell her sense of humor. Her keen delight in exploring her sensuality with a willing teacher is sexy as all get-out. William is equally unforgettable, a man with a tragic past whose past experience has taught him to be wary of the well- born yet not turned him into a snob in reverse. If you like stalwart, honorable, very masculine heroes, William will win your heart with his Irish charm and his keen sense of honor. I'd be happy to let this guy tie me up any time (well, my husband might object, I suppose), and the sexual games he indulges in with Viola are romantic, candlelit delights intended to enhance pleasure for both of them. Lennox makes a thoroughly despicable villain, a man whose reaction to a mine collapse is to worry about losing money, rather than the lives of his men. He's a classic sociopath to whom others aren't real, just pawns in his ruthless games. And he gets his in a very satisfying way. YAY!

Diane Whiteside combines the Western romance with bdsm erotica in a beautifully researched novel with believable characters who will linger in the memory long after you close the book. If you've shied away from bdsm erotica before, this is the book to try. If you like your love scenes tender and a tad kinky, you'll love this book -— and it's hard to imagine a woman who wouldn't want to spend three months in the Irish Devil's bed. I can hardly wait for the sequel, rumored to be about Viola's tall, blond riverboat captain brother (from the glimpse of him that we get in this book, he promises to be just as appealing as William). This is a keeper. As a matter of fact, this is a book I'll pass on to my husband...I only recommend the very best romances to him, and this certainly meets my criteria. So hurry up and read it already.

Sensuality Rating: monogamous heterosexual sex, using condoms; consensual bdsm play including use of dildos and anal beads, light spanking bondage, role playing and light consensual whipping -— all designed to enhance the heroine's pleasure and all of it consensual.

Reviewed by Gillian Fitzgerald
Courtesy Sensual Romance Reviews
Posted October 16, 2004

Read an Excerpt

Brava's first western, coming August 2004...

Summary

She fought for survival...
Born to wealth and privilege but now widowed and betrayed on the unforgiving Arizona frontier, Viola Ross finds herself forced to choose between starvation and marriage to her husband's murderer. Instead she takes a scandalous risk: to turn her back on polite society and become the mistress of sensual William Donovan. Donovan, a wagonmaster and panther of a man, is fully capable of defending her with his bullwhip and Bowie knives. She has no idea what else he can do with those big, callused hands—but she's going to find out...

She was a dream who could destroy him...
Donovan is stunned by Viola's offer since he's always seen her as a fairy princess far beyond the reach of any self- made Irish immigrant. Women like her might enjoy an affair with a man like him—and he's more than proven himself in that capacity—but they always reject his offers of marriage. But how will Viola react when she discovers the darkness of his erotic hungers? And once he's sampled her shy beauty, can he bear to let her go? ...

While the killer marshals his forces ...
Even as passion flares to life between Donovan and Viola, a killer seethes in rage. He has other plans for her and summons his allies, including the men who once destroyed Donovan's family. For no Irish Devil is going to stand in his way...