WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE, WHEN FIRST WE PRACTICE TO DECEIVE...

Like his namesake, the Prince of Lies, Lucifer Deveraux is a Deceiver par excellence. Learning he has to be a settled, married man by his thirtieth birthday or lose a five million dollar Trust, he invents a wife and family; for five years he's deceived his grandfather into believing this. He's fooled every woman he's ever met into thinking he doesn't care for anyone but himself. Even his brother Michel is convinced that Luc seduced and abandoned the woman Michel now calls his wife. The truth is Luc is an insecure man-child who's afraid to love anyone, because all the people he's ever cared for have suffered tragic, violent deaths, and that fact has twisted him from a gentle, loving boy into a selfish, hell-bent womanizer.

Now, he's back at his grandfather's Louisiana plantation--with a woman who married him simply so he can get his inheritance. He'll divorce her as soon as the money's in the bank, giving her a tidy little settlement. The only trouble is...he's falling in love with his pseudo-wife, so much so that they're going to have a baby...and he wants both of them, as well as Julie's little daughter, to stay in his life.

There are several obstacles to Luc's happiness, some so dangerous the shaky sham marriage, desperately trying to transform itself into a real one, may not survive. One is Luc's inability to say those simple words, I love you, Julie. His brother has formed a strong emotional attachment to Julie and her daughter. The third is much more of a threat. Luc's former girlfriend Clarice is now Michel's wife, a fact both brothers have long since come to regret. Clarice never forgave Luc for jilting her, and now that he's back at San Souci Plantation, she's determined to win back the one man who dared to walk out on her. No one, including a pregnant wife, had better get in her way, because Clarice will stop at nothing--not even murder--to get what she wants.

Bargain with Lucifer is Icy Snow Blackstone's sixth novel. It was released today by Class Act Books. It is a contemporary romance, set in the bayous of Creole Louisiana. The sequel, Brother Devil, continuing the story and focusing on brother Michel, is scheduled for a May, 2010, publication.


9 comments

  1. Mary Marvella // November 1, 2009 at 3:10 PM  

    Sounds like a good read. Scarlet liked it!

  2. Scarlet Pumpernickel // November 1, 2009 at 5:19 PM  

    I did indeed! Very good story and quite made me think of 'Giant' with Liz Taylor.

  3. Mary Ricksen // November 1, 2009 at 5:28 PM  

    Oh that was a great movie.
    If Scarlet liked it it's good!

  4. Barbara Monajem // November 1, 2009 at 9:14 PM  

    This sounds like a very suspenseful story. I hope Clarice gets what's coming to her in the end! And that Michel finds happiness with someone better in another story.

    I think I visited the plantation you used in the video... long ago.

  5. Barbara Monajem // November 1, 2009 at 9:14 PM  

    This sounds like a very suspenseful story. I hope Clarice gets what's coming to her in the end! And that Michel finds happiness with someone better in another story.

    I think I visited the plantation you used in the video... long ago.

  6. Autumn Jordon // November 2, 2009 at 7:50 AM  

    Congrats on the release date. Yes, Giant. Big hit. This should be too!

  7. Jianne Carlo // November 2, 2009 at 10:50 AM  

    Wow, this sounds great. I love the name of the plantation, Sans Souci, so ominous.

    Are we going to get an excerpt?

    Jianne

  8. Judith Keim // November 2, 2009 at 4:04 PM  

    Toni, This sounds like a winner! I love stories like these...Good luck with it!

  9. Josie // November 2, 2009 at 8:13 PM  

    Wow, girl. Sounds like you have another great story.