Deal with the Devil: A Steamy Action-Romance for a Cold Winter’s Night
If you love reading about badass women who can handle themselves in a fight, care deeply about the world, and have fulfilling sex then this book is for you!
Kit Rocha’s Deal With The Devil is a fast paced post apocalyptic action-romance following a team of women and a team of men as their lives become interconnected. The women—Nina, Dani, and Maya—are genetically modified librarians recovering digital files of lost books several decades after a solar flare leads to the fall of the United States. The men—Captain Knox, Conall, Gray, and Rafe—are enhanced protectorate soldiers on the run from their former employer, “The TechCorps.” Together, these two unlikely groups team up to achieve a common goal.
The chemistry between Nina and Captain Knox is immediate and their relationship arc is the focus of the book. The world that Rocha sets up drives them apart and together in a perhaps predictable, but undeniably engaging way. And that mostly sums up how I feel about the book as a whole: it feels a bit formulaic overall, but each individual component is engaging and well thought through. I also liked how every chapter begins with a classified briefing or memo fleshing out the backstories and timelines of our characters.
One particular thing that I appreciate about the romance in this book is that there is explicit attention paid to consent and birth control. This allows the sex scenes (there are a few) to be enjoyed by all because the blocks that many people may immediately throw up are removed. Personally this was the first romance novel that I’ve read, so I’m not sure how it compares to others. It’s not my favorite genre, but I think that these scenes were well done. I got the feeling that Rocha is very experienced in writing this genre and knows the audience well.
Writing: 8/10. Rocha knows how to start and end a chapter with punchy description and dialogue to keep the reader turning the page. There are good descriptions and dialogue throughout, but I sometimes got tired of emotional emphasis communicated through italics: “And it hurt.” or “She’d seen him.” or “But what she hadn’t anticipated was that she would need him this much.” (all from the same page).
Characters: 7/10. Captain Knox and Nina are nicely rounded out characters with strong motivation, and internal conflict. The other characters, however, felt one dimensional to me – or two dimensional with sexy as the 2nd dimension.
Plot: 6/10. Though the premise of post apocalyptic librarians is brilliant, it mostly serves as a carrot to bring the story forward. The actual plot felt formulaic, and the mid book twist didn’t really grip me the way I think it was supposed to.
Setting: 6/10. Post apocalyptic Atlanta (where the story starts) felt so rich and full of interesting details to explore that I was disappointed when I found out this was a road trip story. For me the stops along the way didn’t flesh out the part of the world I was interested in.
Overall: 6.75/10. Deal with the Devil was fast paced and at times a page turner, but ultimately didn’t reach the character depth and interesting world that would bring me back for the sequel. I have an uncorrected advance reader copy of this book, even though it was published in July 2020 so some of my criticisms may have been cleaned up in the final edit. It seems to me that Kit Rocha intimately knows the audience for this book and I suspect that this audience will adore it.
Kit Rocha is the pseudonym for writing duo Donna Herren, and Bree Bridges. You can learn more about their other books at their website here.