Irresistible Devil by Jenny Nordbak is another installment of the Black Rose Auction anthology, a collection of books all written by different authors, featuring the same high end, high stakes auction. I’ve reviewed some of the other books in the collection, and loved most of them.
Irresistible Devil is a mafia romance retelling of the Rumplestiltskin fairytale. The author references the Once Upon a Time version of the Rumple character in the dedication, and given the chokehold that show had on me in my early twenties, I was immediately intrigued.
After a paparazzi scandal compromises Juliet Bryson’s good girl image, her father decides it’s time for her to get married, leaving Juliet no choice in the matter. It’s her job to secure the man her father has chosen or risk her eighteen-year-old sister being sacrificed to the marital chopping block.
To get the job done, she makes a deal with the devil, a sexy, dangerous, tattooed keeper of secrets who shows up at her father’s estate at just the right time. But everything comes with a price.
Juliet agrees to Reaper’s deal, and finds herself wrapped up in a world a sheltered princess could hardly have dreamed of. Her mind should be on securing the alliance with her intended, but all she can think about is Reaper. The Black Rose Auction is just the opportunity she needs to secure her freedom and everything she truly needs.
Juliet and Reaper are two characters that are so fundamentally different. A privileged mafia princess and a sex worker with power he amassed all on his own couldn’t be from more separate worlds, but they complement each other so well. I feel like I really got to know them, even in such a fast-moving book, and I can’t get enough of them together.
Reaper has appeared in other Black Rose Auction books, seeing as he’s the auctioneer and the kinky game that takes place afterwards, two things that are obviously important to the entire anthology. His character had me so intrigued from these glimpses, so I was very excited to get his story.
The book is written in the first person, entirely from Juliet’s perspective, and while I would have loved a front row seat into what was happening in Reaper’s head, the author does a great job of letting the reader in through his friends and his dialogue with Juliet.
Irresistible Devil is a fast-paced read, with a plot largely driven by sex in a way that works beautifully. The author doesn’t make us wait. The attraction is instant and the spice starts fast.
The book explores BDSM and sex clubs, with Reaper reminding me a bit of a punk pleasure dom version of Mark Trevena. And here at The Nora Theory, we fucking love a pleasure dom. In terms of spice, this couple is utterly delectable.
The sex scenes have a lot of tension, the tension of a dom and his brat, but also the tension of two people afraid of how much they want each other. I ate it up like Ben and Jerry’s.
This, in some ways, is such a classic romance. The choice between a morally grey man who respects her fire and puts her pleasure first and a completely selfish asshole who’s terrible in bed and wants her to give up her career, but is what her family wants is such a fundamentally familiar tale. This book gives it all sorts of dramatic and kinky bells and whistles, which I love.
I’ve loved so many of these Black Rose Auction books, and this one is just phenomenal. 10/10 recommend, especially for my romance lovers that appreciate a good kinky mafia moment.
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