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It’s #StepbackSaturday! Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas is the third book in the Wallflowers series, so there are some spoilers ahead! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Evie and Sebastian were the couple in this series I was most looking forward to, but having just finished It Happened One Autumn, I wasn’t sure how Kleypas planned to redeem our villain-hero. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ But, as @books_ergo_sum’s husband pointed out in her review, he only kidnapped a person ONE TIME so I guess we’re supposed to just let that go 🤣 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Evie is a total badass who is always being underestimated, but she came out of the gate swinging at the end of It Happened One Autumn and I loved getting to see her get her HEA, because she has been THROUGH IT. She never sees Sebastian as the villain he’s trying so hard to convince everyone he is, which makes it easier for us to root for him, I think. I love a marriage of convenience and it was done really well. Evie and Sebastian just *work* together. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Ultimately, I had more mixed feelings about this book than I expected to — it reminds me a bit of how I felt when reviewing Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean, although Ewan is less likeable and more villainous than Sebastian so it makes it easier to say he’s irredeemable. I was glad to see Westcliff and St. Vincent begin to repair their friendship, though! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Devil in Winter is a cult classic Kleypas novel and I enjoyed it, but I have to say that it didn’t surpass books 1 and 2 for me. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ CW: sexual content, domestic violence, use of a slur to refer to a Romany person, questionable consent ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ID1: I’m holding a mass market paperback of Devil in Winter. ID2: I’m holding the same book, open to the stepback. via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CcsjYZgLoqJ/