The Devil Comes Courting

By Courtney Milan

Description:

Captain Grayson Hunter knows the battle to complete the first worldwide telegraphic network will be fierce, and he intends to win it by any means necessary. When he hears about a reclusive genius who has figured out how to slash the cost of telegraphic transmissions, he vows to do whatever it takes to get the man in his employ.

Except the reclusive genius is not a man, and she’s not looking for employment.

Amelia Smith was taken in by English missionaries as a child. She’s not interested in Captain Hunter’s promises or his ambitions. But the harder he tries to convince her, the more she realizes that there is something she wants from him. She wants everything. And she’ll have to crack the frozen shell he’s made of his heart to get it.

Review:

I had a feeling Courtney Milan was going to hook me in with this book, based on her last year’s release of The Duke Who Didn’t, and I was one hundred percent correct. From the start, I was enamored with both Amelia and Grayson. Amelia, especially, is a stand out heroine. She is Chinese but raised by an English family. She can’t remember people’s names, including the hero’s, and is basically a genius. Grayson is our hero and he is just as complex. He is biracial and after fighting in the American Civil War and losing his brothers, he is working on laying the cables for a trans-Pacific telegraph. And after much convincing, he hires Amelia to essentially create a telegraph communication using Chinese characters. I’ll admit, a lot of that went over my head but I loved the importance both Amelia and Grayson see in this communication. The way of connecting families throughout the world is especially poignant for both. For Grayson, he has complicated relationship with his family and is still working on processing his grief over the lost of his brothers. For Amelia, it’s the hope of finding her birth family.

The emotional depths of this book is simply stunning. It doesn’t shy away from serious issues like racism and the negative impact of Europeans into China. Both Grayson and Amelia have painful moments relating to those issues. This is also definitely a slow burn romance and Grayson and Amelia do spend a lot of the book apart. They have adorable ways of communicating over that distance though. But honestly, the slow burn just added to the book. It allowed for both characters to grow and overcome, organically, apart, and to rely on each other for support throughout that growth but to essentially grow on their own. That made their coming together and the times they could support each other, even more sweet and poignant. This book was the perfect mix of serious and sweet and funny, adorable moments.

*Received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Published by SomewhereLostInBooks

I’m Melisa! I’m an avid reader. I love romance novels and decided, hey, why not write about what I love and hate about the genre. And my favorite books. And when I get to meet authors. And all round why romance novels are awesome. Expect a lot of fan-girling, laughter, and some tears. View all posts by SomewhereLostInBooks