J.R. Ward’s Devil’s Cut Cuts to the Core

Fans of J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood will find some similar themes in the Bourbon King series: siblings with strong temperaments, romantic tension, hidden family secrets, and a complex, interesting world. But no vampires roam these pages; instead, the monsters are the mortal men and women themselves, and they hunt their prey with manipulation, greed, and lust as their ultimate weapons. In the previous books, The Bourbon Kings and The Angels’ Share, we met the Baldwine family: Edward, the eldest son, presumptive heir of their bourbon fortune, and man in love with their prime competitor, Sutton Smythe, of the Bradford Bourbon Company; Lane, the reformed playboy in love with their family’s gardener, Lizzie; Maxwell, the black sheep who left town to get away from it all; and Gin, the daughter who had a child out of wedlock as a teenager and never told the father—the man she still loves, but cannot marry—that she is his.
As if this family did not have enough tension to pull a hangman’s noose taut, the murder of their abusive family patriarch brings them together once more. In the aftermath of William Baldwine’s death, it is revealed that his business holdings were mostly fraudulent, and if they can’t find any assets of value, the company—and the lifestyle they’ve become accustomed to—will go with it. But Edward has confessed to murdering his father, and so the only one of them who had any care for the bourbon business is locked behind bars.

But Devil’s Cut revolves around a central question, revealed in early chapters: did Edward actually kill his father? He insists he did, but a crucial piece of evidence suggests that someone else may have done the deed. As they bury a man they did not love and fight for those they do, the Baldwine siblings are drawn further into a scandalous mystery that could end with freeing an innocent man…and condemning someone else close to them.
Of course, the various romances in Ward’s Southern epic are rugged, ruthlessly passionate, and read like candy. Lane has finally found happiness with Lizzie, but complications with his soon-to-be ex-wife threaten that joy. While Edward sits in prison, he wishes he could have made things work with Sutton, overcoming the competition between their families’ bourbon businesses. Gin married a rich, violent man to ensure her estate remains safe no matter the fate of the company, but is drawn to her childhood love—the father of her child—and their continued dalliances have disastrous consequences. Class issues, race relations, and the complexity of family legacy are explored as all of the Baldwine siblings yearn for someone they should not.

The plot is incredibly fast-paced, which is something the South is not known for being; it does not drawl or sit on the porch for a large glass of sweet tea—rather, Ward shifts from suspense to lust to deception to family and back again, ratcheting up the tension with each chapter. As each Baldwine sibling takes actions that complicate their personal lives, the truth behind William’s murder grows closer to being revealed, and while the consequences unite the family in the path they must take, other threats abound to tear them down.
A satisfying cocktail of a romantic family saga that concludes with equal parts romance, heartbreak, and redemption, Devil’s Cut is on B&N bookshelves now.