Devil’s Rock, Book 1

Synopsis: There are bad boys and then there are the men of Devil’s Rock . . .

Some men come with a built-in warning label. Knox Callaghan is one of them. Danger radiates from every lean, muscled inch of him, and his deep blue eyes seem to see right through to Briar Davis’s most secret fantasies. But there’s one major problem: Briar is a nurse volunteering at the local prison, and Knox is an inmate who should be off-limits in every way.

Knox feels it too—a shocking animal magnetism that drives him to risk his own life to protect Briar’s. Paroled at last, he tries to resist her. She’s too innocent, too sweet, and she has no idea what Knox is capable of. But a single touch can lead to a kiss—and a taste . . . until the only crime is denying what feels so right . . .

Review: I had heard a lot about Sophie Jordan without having read any of her books. But here, the release of this new novel intrigued me and I was curious to see what the author was going to present.

I found it nice enough to have a slightly different setting for this story. In fact, we follow Briar, a nurse, who goes to a prison to help taking care of the sick since the previous doctor left. However, her arrival will upset the life of the prison and even if she does not realize it, all the prisoners dream of coming to see this woman. But we also have Knox and his brother in these prisoners. They have been serving their sentences for years and still hope to be able to leave but this does not seem to be the order of the day. When Knox meets Briar after a fight, his world is also upset down. He has not seen a woman for a long time but he knows that this nurse is too naive and innocent for this type of life. And when a riot breaks out in the prison, Knox will have to decide whether to deal with it or to leave Briar to this problem.

I had a good time with this story. I found it interesting to have this atypical couple. I wondered if Knox was innocent but it is true that we realize that there is a reason for everything. This is not a very simple relationship, especially when you know that Knox is guilty and thinks he does not deserve happiness and yet Briar could be this change. We easily understand Briar who did not necessarily expect what will happen to her, who remains suspicious and yet wants something more. It’s rather frustrating to see Knox wanting something while hurting everyone. But things will evolve little by little between them and they will learn to know each other.

In the background, I confess that I was surprised to see a story launching on another prisoner towards the end without knowing more but I think precisely that is what we will find in the sequel of the series. I’m also curious to learn more about Knox’s brother who seems to be a very interesting character too.