The Devil’s Keepsake
by Somme Sketcher
My review:
“If I see it, I want it. And if I want it, I have to have it.
I see Poppy. I want Poppy. And I have to have Poppy.”
This perfectly sums up Lorcan’s personality, and Poppy’s big problem. They are the main characters in “The Devil’s Keepsake” by Somme Sketcher, which is book one in the ‘East Coast Devils’ series. It’s an age-gap, enemies-to-lovers stodevilsry full of angsty drama, twists and turns, and some well-placed moments of dry humor.
Lorcan is a deeply flawed man, who also happens to be the reluctant head of a mafia family. It wasn’t something anybody ever expected to see happen, but then again, nobody ever expected the tragedy that precipitated it. Poppy is the only child of a man who works as a mafia errand boy. For good reason, she has no respect for him, and something that happens when she’s 15 years old permanently severs even the teeny bit of a connection she ever felt to him. When as a result of her father’s incompetence, Lorcan comes for her, a life she has managed to wrench into place completely shatters again.
“The cocktail of expensive cologne and pheromones drift up my nostrils and swirl around my beating heart.”
I don’t want to reveal more about the plot because this is one of those books that you really should enjoy having revealed to you in the way the author wrote it. It’s a longish book because it has a long story to tell, so I didn’t have a problem with that. It’s written in dual POV, which is great for helping us understand the thoughts and feelings of the characters. The powerful chemistry between the two of them simultaneously excites and confuses them both. Lorcan is dominated by emotion more than I’ve come to expect in a male lead in this genre, and it totally lends credence to some of the crazy things that happen. Poppy is significantly younger than he is, although I don’t remember ever learning his age. She’s also a very strong, resilient heroine. After the climactic scenes in this book I sort of felt like it was very quickly over. I liked the epilogue and the future it showed for Lorcan and Poppy.
There are several secondary characters I’d really like to know more about. Since I’m already intending to read the next book in the series, I’m hoping one or more will appear in that story. This was a book I very much enjoyed reading.