THE DEVIL IN HER BED is the third book in Kerrigan Byrne’s “Devil You Know” series. Unlike many of Kerrigan Byrne’s other books, while this hero and heroine excel at deception and disguises, the villain in THE DEVIL IN HER BED is relatively easily spotted. I was eager to read this book after the author teased the reader in the previous book and hinted at a possible attraction between these two characters. In the opening of this novel, Kerrigan Byrne does what she does best – weave together a story that starts as a fairytale but ends up going horribly and tragically wrong. The fragments of that story are clues for the reader to piece together as THE DEVIL IN HER BED progresses. Needless to say, I read this book straight through without stopping.

The Devil of Dorset aka Vincenzo de Flor, the Count Armediano of Italy aka Lord Brendan Murphy aka a million other aliases, is a spy but one who usually does more good than anything else. When he comes across the Countess of Mont Claire, Francesca Cavendish he is somewhat spellbound. In addition to a visceral attraction, he is intrigued for deeper reasons. Francesca aka Pippa Hargrave is in a similar vocation to the Devil, but she is motivated solely out of a sense of vengeance rather than anything else. Unbeknownst to both, they have the same target – the evil Crimson Council. They initially think they are at cross-purposes and have an unusual flirtation and sexual tension, not unlike that between Batman and Catwoman. Francesca is pursuing leads to destroy the council members, and the Devil of Dorset isn’t sure whether Francesca is a good guy or a bad guy. Either way, he is beguiled by her and compelled to follow her. I like how Francesca uses her wits and skills to entrap the wicked, while keeping herself relatively safe.

THE DEVIL IN HER BED is about two people who are surprised to find love and light while battling the forces of evil. The parallels and juxtapositions in this story are interesting – like the virtuous and female Red Rogue Society as a contrast to the supremely evil and mostly male Crimson Council. Kerrigan Byrne does a phenomenal job of putting a gothic spin on the “second chance at love” trope. The dark themes and male malevolence in THE DEVIL IN HER BED are reminiscent, for me, of the kind found in an Anne Stuart story.

I have voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this title given to me via NetGalley. Wow what can I say about this title it was just an awesome read. This book was just something so wonderfully different I’ve never quite read anything like this. You should read to find out you won’t be disappointed. I’m definitely going to read more by this author.

Francesca, Countess of Mont Claire, has a secret. She's not who she seems in more ways than one. Not only is she set on a path of revenge, something that she shares with her fellow Red Rogues, but her real name is Pippa. When Francesca's path crosses with the Devil of Dorset, aka Declan Chandler, he immediately knows that she's an imposter. Declan is intent on uncovering Francesca's real identity, but falls for her fiery personality.

These two really badass characters had a ton of chemistry, but when Declan discovers that Francesca is really Pippa, he becomes the biggest asshole. I honestly wished that her identity was revealed sooner and Declan didn't lash out at her so much. It boggles the mind that Declan would only care about Francesca surviving the Mont Claire massacre and be disappointed that Pippa lived. Why did Francesca mean so much to him when it was clearly stated that he and Pippa had the better relationship?

The Red Circle plot barreled to a close so fast and I wish we had a little more time to wrap it all up.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave. When first we practice to deceive," This! This describes The Devil in Her Bed in a nutshell. And I was down for all of it!

Pippa or better known as Francesca Cavendish had her entire world turned upside down in a single horrible moment. From that day on her life was dedicated to revenge and oh boy what a life she leads. The last of the Red Rogues finally gets her due.

The Devil of Dorset, a man better known to the shadows than any actual person, has built himself quite an unexpected infatuation with the scandalous and enigmatic Francesca Cavendish. The independent and mysterious woman keeps surprising him at every turn. When the mystery he has strived to solve for nearly his whole life plus a long-held wish coincides with the object of his desires he finds himself struggling to come out from the shadows and finally be seen.

The Devil in Her Bed is a huge cat and mouse game with multiple personalities and secret societies... and I loved it. Now, normally I tend to stay away from books that have long drawn out themes of deception, but this one worked (mostly) for me. I do get so tired of screaming at my iPad "Just tell him already!" but I digress. I loved our secondary cast of characters including the Red Rogues and their respective mates. I really enjoyed the multiple identities- on both sides- and the whole overarching mystery secret society- Love! I did want to smack Chandler around a bit at the end because, well he was being a typical thick-skulled male- but he redeemed himself.

Now, I haven't read the first two, and I will say I would probably have understood the significance of certain aspects of the story more, but I don't feel like I was out in the cold. I am definitely adding both How to Love a Duke in Ten Days and All Scot and Bothered to my TBR pile.

I very much enjoyed this and definitely recommend it for those that love a good mystery with their historical romances.

*ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I love Kerrigan Byrne and this series has been so great! I was really looking forward to the final book and was very interested in how Francesca's story would go. She was certainly the toughest of the three and I was curious how her love story would go as well as how they would solve the mystery of the Crimson Council. I'm sad to say this was my least favourite of the three. Getting the backstory of Francesca and Chandler was great and watching her soften with him was nice, there were some super steamy love scenes too. However, there was also some "jumped the shark" type scenario's that I had to roll my eyes at.

However, I still enjoyed it. It was super fun and I will continue to read all of Kerrigan's books!

I enjoyed parts of this romance, but I couldn’t get past the whole identity thing. I couldn’t buy into Chandler really loving Francesca in the present, because he believed her to be someone else for just about the WHOLE book! Would he have felt the same way about her if he knew that she wasn’t [the lofty heiress Francesca, but Pippa the servant’s daughter, a girl he didn’t seem to think much of other than her being a “sturdy thing, on the brink of portly”? (hide spoiler)] That’s what I kept wondering and then [when he finally found out at 91% (!!!) he was pissed! (hide spoiler)] What a hypocrite after hiding so much from her as well! I didn’t feel like there was proper groveling to make up for this.

Sadly, this was not a hit for me. I can take this scenario a little easier if the secret is revealed sooner and I don’t have to stress out over it or question the hero’s feelings for the majority of the story.

The Devil in Her Bed is the final installment of the Red Rogues and it was amazing! Francesca is badass and Chandler is the perfect match for her.

Like Alexandra and Cecilia, Francesca had had traumatic childhood event that changed who she was. Her life from that point onward was about nothing except revenge. She has been working for years to determine who was responsible for the death of her family and she is finally close. Now that she has identified those in charge of the Crimson Council, things are getting very dangerous. Little does she know another person is out for the same vengeance.

I thought Francesca and Chandler were a great pair for one another. Both went through the same traumatic event and are seeking the same revenge. Chandler is a bit heavy handed with Francesca which was annoying. However, Francesca holds her own against him. When her secret is finally revealed, I was hoping Chandler wouldn't be such an ass. I was then hoping he would make a grand gesture to win her back. I was disappointed. But, this was the only disappointing thing about the story!

Fans of historical romance with non-traditional leading ladies will enjoy The Devil in Her Bed for sure!

Surprise, surprise but the biggest problem I had with this book was Francesca, not Declan (or the other 5,000 names he goes by). Francesca knows she's not who she says she is but never tells Declan though he knew two girls in his childhood and she's pretending to be the one she's not. She sleeps with him multiple times without ever confessing!! There was a time to bring it up and she's an idiot for not doing it sooner. This is my least favorite book of the series. I was not a fan of the orgy mystery.

Francesca Cavendish is on a mission to find out who killed her family and exact her revenge. Everything she has done for the past 20 years has kept her moving forward. Her friends are beginning to worry about her. With no balance in her life, what will she do once this is done? Chandler Declan is on the same mission. He works for the secret service and has many names.. Yet when the questioning is through, they can't believe either has come through the massacre and now bent on revenge. While they know who the head of the cabal is, they need proof. A bargain is made and Francesca has lost. It seems the Tiger and The Dragon aren't meant to be. Or are they? It seems Ramsay's has a word or two to say. Will Chandler listen? Loved the ending to this series!

The Devil in Her Bed by Kerrigan Byrne is a fantastic story. From the first chapter until the last chapter, I was drawn into this story and loved the ride. This is Francesca’s and Chandler’s story. Francesca is posing as a countess to discover and punish the ones responsible for her family and friend’s deaths. She is strong both physically and mentally and is an amazing heroine. Chandler is a secret service operative who is also seeking the evil of who killed his family. They are a match in strength and purpose and share great chemistry. The story was full of emotional twists and turns, as well of plenty of surprises along the way. I loved the author’s writing style and the exciting plot.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this story, so I could provide my honest review.

I always enjoy Ms Byrne's historical romances. They always more than just one trope or sub-genre'.
There's mystery, intrigue. suspense. Secrets. Secrets upon secrets.
Francesca is the 3rd of the 3 friends to have her story told. She loses her family early in her life. It's mentioned in previous books. In this book, there is much more detail- especially in the opening chapters. It's very dramatic and brutal.
Declan was Francesca's childhood crush.
Years later. Present day, Francesca and Declan meet again.
Declan and Francesca are grown. They each have their secrets.
Their chemistry grew, but Francesca was holding back. Declan is suspicious, but Francesca knew so much about their childhood.
I love the writing and the really romantic and sensual scenes.... All while waiting for the other shoe to drop. I had sympathy for the heroine and Declan (Chandler) had my attention.
This was a very good ending. My favorite book was Alexandra's (book 1) , but I really recommend this entire series. Each book is so different. Alex, Cecil and Frankie's journey was so different.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ out of 5
KB does it again! She absolutely killed this book and I just now wish I hadn’t read most of her work because I want MORE. Now we all know that KB is the queen of dark heroes but this book gave us a heroine just as dark and absolutely kick ass!

Our heroine has prepared for more than half her life to find the people responsible for the death of everyone she ever loved and deliver her revenge. Our hero is a spy and when he finds out the heroine is investigating the same secret society he is he plans to get close to her to figure out what she knows and let’s just say they are very drawn to each other 😉.

This book has it all- dark and tortured hero, dark and kick ass heroine (she also quite literally kicks ass), a secret society, an orgy, steam that leaps off the page, and a sweeping romance that is not always easy. As much as I loved the hero’s journey, to me this book was all about the heroine’s journey- she spent most of her life leading up to this point but also had she really been living? This book was amazing and I’m just sad it’s over.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5 rounded to 4
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖 4 books
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋 4 butterflies
Romance: 💞💞💞 3 hearts
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋 4 kisses
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔 4 broken hearts
Sexual Tension: ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ 4 lightnings
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑 5 peaches
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥 2 fires

This is the third book for the Devil You Know series. I highly recommend this series is read in order. The character overlap, character development, and the building of the plot over time in the other books I think is important.

The Devil of Dorset works undercover for the crown. His past is a secret, for good reason, and he’s attempting to take down the Crimson Council. His path crosses Francesca’s, who is hunting the same enemy as him, but just as many secrets.

If you’ve read KB before, you have an idea what you’ll get. Emotional scenes, violence, gut wrenching angst before closure, and hot sex. If you are sensitive to content warnings, please beware. (Mine are at the end)

Give this book a try if you:
- Love a book with secrets! Secret plots, secret identities…
- Love an alpha male. He’s a touch jealous and can be a bit of a jerk in some situations.
- Victorian time period – prologue 1872, main story 1892
- Prefer a dark and gritty story
- Childhood love trope
- Moderate steam – this falls in at 2 on the steam scale but there’s also kisses and tension and Byrne writes very explicitly and detailed.

So this was my least favorite of the series. I really loved the heroines from the first two books. They were strong and brave, with just enough backbone when it comes to holding their own with their heroes. But there was something about Francesca I didn’t connect with. She was very forceful and even with trying to understand the pain of her past, she was a touch too cruel and a bit stupid for me in some situations. She was also physical to Chandler on multiple occasions, not a problem to me necessarily, but the way it was done just made her seem unhinged. Although with what she experienced in her past and life, this was probably understandable. As Ramsay says, “She’s stubborn, argumentative, crass, bossy…” And I can’t disagree except he makes it sound like a good thing. I feel like she was very focused on power and was determined to have it over Chandler. She was always fighting him instead of working with him as a team.

Chandler wasn’t without his issues for me too. Maybe it’s because his story was mostly developed towards the end of the book, when I was slightly annoyed, but I didn’t get as attached to him as I would have liked. I don’t mind jerk heroes at all, but some of the things he said were so hurtful and I don’t think he really made up for them. I also hate when another character has to go about setting things right for the couple in the end and that’s rather what happened here. Get it together, Chandler! Figure it out! But, I also loved his obsession with his heroine, I loved his intensity. He literally picks a man up and throws him across the room to get to his heroine. I will always love that.

But the WORST for me were the secrets. Mainly her secret. I am always annoyed when I have to yell at the book “Just tell him/her!!!” and that happened to me for most of the book. I was so disappointed it was left off the very end and even more sad there wasn’t an intimate scene with all secrets revealed. And in a way I felt like I didn't get full closure on all the issues with the Crimson Council too.

Still, this is Byrne and I love her. She has set the bar so high for herself with me. I was still engrossed in the story and enjoyed it. Just not my favorite by her.


Content warnings for violence, physical violence against hero by heroine (she pistol whips him in the face and she punches him full in the jaw), death (on page), murder, arson, torture, child abuse, child death (remembered

I struggled to get into this book as the beginning was a bit daunting. Once I got into it, I became more intrigued to see how the story would progress. It’s an interesting story, but it doesn’t quite meet expectations.

Wonderful story development, rich characters, and a plot that hooks you and never lets you go. I love it when I can immerse myself within a book and just forget about real life for awhile and “become” a part of the story. This book totally delivered!

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this novel. I thoroughly enjoyed the series from Kerrigan Byrne, the highlight of this series is the strong female characters (Alexandra & Cecilia) and their friendships. All in all, it was a satisfying read!

A great ending to this trilogy. The twists and turns of Chandler’s connection to Francesca and his identity and their work in taking down the Crimson Counsel kept me turning the pages. I’ll miss the Red Rogues.

This is the final book in the Devil You Know trilogy featuring the last single woman standing from the Red Rogues trio: Francesca Cavendish, Countess of Mont Claire. Technically, this book can be read as a standalone, but I would highly recommend reading the previous 2 books in the series before this one as there are recurring characters, some history, and hints about the H/h from this story in the other installments.

With both Alexandra and Cecilia in possession of their HEAs, Francesca is feeling a bit like an outsider, but her goal has never been to form relationships: she has been set on avenging the death of her family and closest friends since she escaped the massacre that took all of her loved ones when she was a child. In the pursuit of her goal, she has developed a reputation for being a notorious seductress that occupies many men's beds, but only for one night before moving on to the next. In reality, however, she has been gathering information that has led her to the men she believes were the perpetrators of her family's demise: The Crimson Council triad. The men she has "seduced" (in reality, these are men she has basically roofied and left believing they were intimate) have narrowed the field considerably from where she started, and Francesca is very close to getting the answers she has long sought. But once she achieves the retribution she has sought, what will she have left for herself? And can she even be herself as she has hidden her true identity for most of her life?

The Devil of Dorset is no one and anyone... He is part of the unofficial secret service to the Crown, and his ability to become many people has made him invaluable. In the last book, we knew him as the Italian Count that pretended to pursue Cecilia to learn whether or not Ramsay was corrupt, but at the end of the book, he tells the couple that he is actually Devon Chandler... the boy that showed up on the Mont Claire estate barely alive who became a trusted and dedicated worker for the Cavendish family. But no one knows his true identity, and he plans to keep that to himself, at least until he brings justice to the ones that destroyed the family that took him in, including his sweet Francesca. He doesn't believe that the woman that claims to be her truly is that same young girl he remembers, and he is determined to uncover her secrets, but he cannot seem to control his reaction to her that has become nearly all-consuming. Will he expose all of the secrets and lies that have haunted him since childhood? And what will happen when he falls for the woman he believed was dead all these years?

What I liked:
--- Likeable yet flawed MCs that definitely belonged together; they had incredible chemistry that felt palpable
--- The elements of mystery/intrigue were fun to explore, and there was some pretty kinky stuff happening; though I figured everything out along the way, it was still well done in terms of the reveal by the author as things unfolded
--- The plot moved quickly, and I flew through the book
--- Steamy goodness! (Though it was a bit of a slow burn.)

What I didn't like as much:
--- I felt like Chandler was a little too stubborn once everything came to light (I could have understood a few days to sort through things, but a few months was excessive and felt like unnecessary angst which is a pet peeve of mine); also, it was entirely hypocritical since he was angry with Francesca for things he was equally guilty of
--- There were a couple of plot holes... ***MAJOR SPOILER***Chandler survived the drowning of his siblings by his mother; why did he run away from his home and not return if his mother was dead? His father didn't try to kill him, so he was at least safe from that threat, though we know his father was a massive a-hole, he was a child at the time so he was unlikely to really know and understand what all that was about. So then why did the knowledge of his presence at the Mont Claire estate lead to the massacre that kicked off his and Francesca/Pippa's life-long pursuit of justice? Did I totally miss that c0nnection aside from the fact that his father was a power-hungry perv?***END SPOILER***

Overall, this was a solid ending to a fun trilogy about three lifelong friends who never lost sight of themselves and found men that appreciated their intelligence and independent spirits, and ultimately accepted them for who they were.

Plot --- 4.25/5
Main Charac2ters --- 4.25/5
Supporting Cast --- 4/5
Steam Level* --- 3/5
Violence --- nothing graphic
Language --- some
POV --- 3rd

*Note that steam level is not a rating so much as a how hot was it: 0/5 - clean; 1/5 - mild (nothing descriptive); 2/5 - 3rd base action/1 home run; 3/5 - now we're getting somewhere (a couple of full-on steamy scenes); 4/5 - yes please! (erotica territory); 5/5 - they did EVERYTHING in this one, y'all

The Devil in Her Bed by Keriigan Byrne is a fun and romantic novel that is sure to keep you reading all night. I read this book in a couple days only because I had to go to work during the day. I would recommend this for a fun weekend read or to take it poolside this summer. #netgalley

This was an intense sexy spy romance that I was not really prepared for when I started. It is full of angst and intrigue.

I found the heroine fascinating and the romance was ultimately satisfying. And they had very steamy sex scenes.

This is the third book in the series, and I really wish I had read the previous ones (now I need to go back and do so). You can enjoy this on its own, but I think the friendship between the heroine and her two best friends will mean more with context.

Trigger warning for threats of assault and a lot of violence. There is a violent cult with sexual elements as the big bad in the series, so keep that in mind when you read.

I received an advanced readers copy of this book from the publisher and Net Galley in return for a fair review