Sara Craven combines several familiar Harlequin Presents themes in Sup with the Devil:
- Semi-forced marriage to bail out family member
- Revenge
- Enemies to lovers
- Reprise long ago almost-romance
- Age difference
- Family trauma
- Wanna be other woman and other man
She uses all of these in a fresh way that feels natural, unforced, with the romance flowing as though it were obvious. This takes skill to pull off, especially to make the story readable and as enjoyable as Sup with Devil.
Characters
Courtney is our heroine, young, realistic, hard-working, patient. She grew up in a ritzy country mansion with her dad and brother Robin, went to boarding school with lots of friends including Kate, had a deep regard for her dad’s business partner whom she called Uncle Godfrey and an uneasy relationship with Godfrey’s nephew Blair.
Two incidents abruptly shift Courtney’s life when she is 17. The first happened when Blair meets her in the garden, gives her a rose and a kiss and promises to return. She realizes she could love him.
The second is serious. Her dad accuses Godfrey of embezzling funds, has him arrested and refuses to countenance bail. Blair is furious and confronts her dad, she gets in the middle, throws an ashtray at him, he leaves. Her dad has a major stroke and she and Robin discover they are broke even after selling the house. Courtney is heartbroken. Her dad is seriously ill and in a nursing home, Uncle Godfrey dies in prison, Blair disappears and she has to organize a new, small home for Robin and herself, quit school and get a job. She does these without self pity and is the family stalwart.
Three years later Blair returns home, buys her old home, pursues Courtney and says she belongs to him. Courtney believes Blair is driven by revenge, that he wants own her, to make her family dependent on him as payback for killing his uncle. This leads to the usual Sara Craven heroine confusion; Courtney realizes she loves Blair and is pretty sure he does not love her.
There are several minor characters who add to the story, their dialogue and actions drive the plot to show Courtney’s uncertainty and longing and Blair’s ruthless streak.
Robin thinks he deserves the best, misses more days than he works, gets in trouble gambling then shady characters embroil him as their catspaw. Neither Courtney nor anyone else can depend on Robin; Courtney has only herself.
Robin’s evil associate Monty lures him to act as his front man to purchase the family’s old home at auction. When Robin loses the auction to Blair, Monty threatens him if he doesn’t pay up – or Courtney could win Robin some leeway if she is nice to him. Luckily Blair walks in while Monty is demonstrating just what “nice to him” entails and throws him out. He offers to clear Robin’s debts and get Monty out of their lives if Courtney marries him.
Robin thinks Courtney should have gone along with Monty (huh??) and should have/could have convinced Blair to loan him the money without marriage. Robin is bitterly angry at Courtney for marrying Blair and leaves, doesn’t attend the wedding or contact her.
Courtney thinks Blair is having an ongoing affair with Kate, based on Kate’s comments and attitudes, and Robin tells her that Blair pays Kate’s rent. Courtney gets even more worried, believes she faces a future of countless heartbreaks watching Blair love everyone except her. (This is typical Sara Craven heroine behavior.) She gets Blair to promise to leave her alone physically.
Blair is pretty intense at the beginning of their honeymoon, says and shows he loves and wants Courtney. Unfortunately she learns that Blair inherited the money to purchase the beautiful Caribbean villa they stay in from a relative. She is horrified that Blair used the money Godfrey embezzled.
When they get home Blair installs Courtney’s dad upstairs even though her dad can barely walk. When her dad falls down the stairs Courtney accuses Blair of wanting him to die, just as his uncle did. Blair realizes that he allowed Courtney to believe he is a villain and he will lose her forever if she continues. They sleep together and admit they love each other.
More drama ensues – it was not Godfrey who embezzled and Blair inherited his money from his mother’s family – and we have a happy ending.
Author uses dialogue and actions to display characters. Courtney thinks Blair might love her until she finds or hears something that makes her doubt and she’s not confident enough to believe he truly can care for her. Blair is pretty sure Courtney loves him but he’s not entirely sure either and he pushes things right to the edge by playing games about her dad and money.
Robin is weak and unpleasant, appalling that he would think Courtney should be “pleasant” to creepy Monty. Kate, who wants to be the Other Woman, is nasty in a superficially pleasant way. She is a plot device that makes Courtney doubt her own attractions and distrust Blair.
The other minor characters make cameo appearances that serve to show the widening rift between Blair and Courtney. Clive, whom Courtney had casually dated, finds her in tears, and Blair walks in when he comforts her. Blair’s friends in the West Indies walk in during the honeymoon and insist on staying, then rope them into social activities. Had they butted out we might not have had a story!
Family Drama
Sup with the Devil has two stories, the romance between Courtney and Blair and family drama between Blair and Courtney’s family. Courtney believes her beloved Uncle Godfrey embezzled so much money that her family suffered, that Blair upset her father so much that he had a stroke, that Blair inherited all that money that he’s now used to semi-force her to marry him.
This is a recipe for tension, dislike, distrust, fear and Blair doesn’t help himself when he moves her invalid dad to a room upstairs, then telephones to ask whether there have been accidents. All these convince Courtney that Blair is unscrupulous, wants her father to suffer and only married her for revenge.
Setting
Sara Craven includes settings in her novels but in a quiet way; she does not write travelogues nor spend page count describing scenery. The action moves from Courtney’s small cottage to local pubs to her old home to a West Indies island and back to England.
Courtney spends time in the rose garden at her old home. This is where Blair first promised her – something – and where she realizes how Monty would despoil the landscape, and where she finds peace after marriage.
Rating and Rationale
4 Stars
I love the way the author sets up the story and uses the family drama background to explore and hinder the romance. I emphasized with Courtney and felt along with her when her feckless brother betrays her and himself and when Blair pushes her into marrying him. She wants him, she loves him and she has good reason to believe the whole thing is an elaborate revenge charade.
Sara Craven tends to write highly emotional novels, especially with marriages based on something other than love, whether revenge or business merger, or family necessities, marriages where the guy is usually in love with her but has somehow made himself look anything but loving. The heroine suspects motive, fears a terrible hurt because she does love him, and does everything she can to hide her feelings and pretend to him (and to herself as much as possible) that she doesn’t even like or trust him. Toss in family drama and hurts and an Other Woman and you have a story that pulls at our emotions too.
I got my copy of Sup with the Devil from Thriftbooks and Amazon also has paperback copies. You can likely find copies on eBay and other used book sites or you can borrow a copy from Archive.org and read for free.
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