Devil in Winter

Not everyone buys the redemption. A vocal contingent argues Sebastian's turn into a doting husband glosses over how he treated Evie in the previous book, and one reviewer doesn't mince it: “You should not be writing books that argue rapists are redeemable.” Others say the reformed version is simply duller, describing him as having “felt like a wet noodle” next to the sharper-edged villain he used to be, and flagging an early scene in the marriage, where he initiates sex while Evie is still half asleep, as tender on the page but troubling in practice. Evie herself reads thin to some, and the subplot with her scheming relatives never builds real suspense. One reader, primed by the book's reputation, asks, “Colour me baffled. Why does everyone love this book?” and another says it simply “left a really bad taste in my mouth.”