The Devil Who Tamed Her

Ophelia Reid is an extremely beautiful woman. But she is also cranky, surly and self-centred. She appears to be a rumourmonger and is, by her own admission, impatient, tells lies when it suits her and has difficulty controlling her temper. She is bitter because she feels that people only act like her friends because of her looks. Viscount Lynnfield, Rafael Locke is an extremely handsome man. He’s a rake, enjoying his bachelorhood and not planning to get married anytime soon. He likes to champion the underdog, and enjoys a challenge. Rafe looks upon Ophelia as a challenge. He is convinced that he can change her anti-social behaviour, that he can transform her from a spiteful, spoiled ice queen into a sweet person. And, although the 100 show more pound bet with his friend (and Ophelia’s ex-fiancé) is the impetus for this, he is motivated more by the noble idea that he can change her into a woman who will be happy, who will be loved for herself, find real friends and a husband during the Season in London. So he kidnaps her and takes her (chaperoned, of course) to his remote Northumberland property, intending to tame this hellcat. In doing so, he discovers, under the surface, a witty, engaging woman who enjoys laughter and simple pleasures. And someone with quite valid reasons for some of her behaviour. Having prepared her for the Season, he returns her to London, but then realises that he is not enamoured with the idea of another man marrying her. This is the first book by Johanna Lindsey that I have read, but I realised fairly early in the read that it would not be the last. Johanna developed a plot which seemed like it was going to be predictable, but a few twists kept the story interesting. The dialogue was witty and often funny, and there were some delightful scenarios. Rafe’s method of warming up the snow-bound Ophelia and later, defusing her temper tantrum were novel (ladies, try this at home if you have a Rafe handy!). Rafe was an immediately likeable character, and it was easy to empathise with Ophelia as her character developed from a spoiled debutante into a fuller person. This is a delightful book, very romantic! I really enjoyed reading it. show less

I really give this one 1 ½ stars. It definitely falls in the cheesetastic category. It’s been awhile since I’ve given any romance novel less than a two stars since I expect the cheese and lame plot lines by now, so I feel like I have to explain myself.

Ophelia Reid, the heroine, was damn hard to like. I was surprised her name wasn’t Narcissa due to her constant reminders of how beautiful she was and how hard it was to make friends due to her beauty. Ugh, really? I’m already reminded of how subpar I am compared to the celebrities and supermodels prancing around their perfectly tanned bodies in tiny bikinis on every media outlet available. I don’t need it in my reading. Plus, I’ve never been so beautiful that both men and show more women are afraid to approach me, so sorry I can’t sympathize with you Ophelia. Did you ever stop to think it could be that charmingly conceited personality of yours that throws people off? The author tried to justify Ophelia’s thinking by explaining that her overambitious rich father paid children to be her friends and made her into a “bauble” of sorts to further his career. But it was just too much of a stretch for me to believe or even sympathize.

Raphael Locke, our brave hero who sets out to teach our conceited heroine how her behavior towards others is appaling, is also unlikeable. His scheme is to essentially kidnap Ophelia and take her to his isolated countryside estate to teach her manners, because someone has too and he’s the man for the job. Besides being the best friend of MacTavish it’s not really explained why Rafe feels that he needs to fulfill this role. Of course a bunch of cheesy things occur leading Rafe and Ophelia to fall for each other. Some of these cheesy things were quite funny and these are the points that I enjoyed hence the ½ star. However, I did not appreciate Rafe using sex as a teaching agent…a way to calm our conceited heroine down. This was another stretch, especially since Ophelia genuinely felt like she needed the sex to calm her down. It seemed like her whole character change occurred because of the sex and not because she actually changed her behavior or really fell in love with Rafe. This was a huge turn off to me since I like my heroines strong.

I don’t know if my not knowing the back story affected my whole take on this book. Apparently, the book before this one, [b:The Heir|412963|The Heir|Johanna Lindsey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174519579s/412963.jpg|998931], explains the scandal that leads to Ophelia being hated by every character in this book. You need to read [b:The Heir|412963|The Heir|Johanna Lindsey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174519579s/412963.jpg|998931] in order to get the full picture, because the scandal is never fully explained in this book. The reader is given snippets of dialogue through arguments and flashbacks that ensue in the beginning of this book, but you can’t really piece together enough of it to justify the character behavior and actions in this book. I won’t be reading [b:The Heir|412963|The Heir|Johanna Lindsey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174519579s/412963.jpg|998931] though, because I just didn’t care enough for these characters. show less

I ordered both books at the same time since I like to read series in order. After reading "The Heir", I was not looking forward to reading Ophelia's story. The author had created such a mean spiteful character, that I actually considered not reading "The Devil Who Tamed Her". But to the credit of Johanna Lindsey's writing, this turned out to be a very enjoyable journey into the restoration of Ophelia's character and the love story between her and Rafe. I really liked this series. I definitely recommend that you read "The Heir" first or you will miss a lot of the background of these two characters, and besides "The Heir" is another good read.
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The Devil Who Tamed Her almost seems to think it's Taming of the Shrew, but Ophelia knows she's deliberately being difficult. She has her reasons for being the way she is. Then Raphael comes along and decides to show her the error of her ways for her own good. He realizes that she's not the person she presents in public but he still tries to change her. I never came to really care for either of the main characters. They seemed more like uninteresting bickering children rather than potential lovers. The book was still a fun read, but don't expect to become emotionally invested in the characters.

Disappointing coming from Lindsey. The hero's actions are completely unbelievable and the heroine's glib response to self-examination is annoying. The dialog sometimes rang false. Twice the heroine says "Don't go there." It was jarringly modern sounding phrase and it broke the spell of the historical atmosphere. Not Lindsey's best effort.

I liked the book before this, so I was actually looking forward to this one. I'm really glad I didn't actually buy it.
Basically, the plot of this book is, attracted to a shallow, bitchy woman? Kidnap her and give her orgasms, and her disposition will improve.
I really wish I was kidding.

Interesting premise but the nonconsensual sleep sex was not cool.