The Devil You Know by Louise Bagshawe, 0752849840, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

More of the same

I have been reading Bagshaw novels since those garish covers with cover girls and the movie, and i have to admit i am a fan of her work.
And if you want a light read not very challenging just somethingt to distract you then this is the book for you
The problem with is however as with all authors if you read so much of their work you know where they are going and how the charactors are going to develope. I belive that this was my first problem with this book.

The second was the comming together of the triplets. It was way too short and they hardly knew each other before they went half way around the world to take revenge. I know that this type of sibling is surposed to have a connection but after 26 years of not knowing someone i think it takes longer than a month!!!!!!!!!!

However my main problem was the main revenge. It should have been a sequel, that sort court case would last forever and take forever to get to court in the first place i think that Bagshaw has missed an excellent opportunity there!!

Mildly distracting

I am a novice to Louise Bagshawe novels and picked this at random, without knowing what to expect. Although I enjoyed the story overall and it evoked all sorts of Jackie Collins/'Dynasty'/'Thornbirds' memories, something was missing.

I thought the story would focus much more on the triplets' revenge on the man who killed their parents. Instead, the story focused more on the triplets' love lives - and even that felt like it was lacking in direction and depth and loose ends are tied up too quickly and conveniently. For example, Daisy's 180 degree turn in who she thinks she loves. And how could Rose just suddenly let go of all the hatred she feels for Jacob's family? I admit, I wanted Rose and Jacob to end up together eventually but, when it comes to it, it doesn't feel like she gives the arrogant so and so one fifth of the dressing down he deserves.

I felt somewhat let down by the ending, but this will keep you occupied as train/tube reading material.

Brilliant

This is the first of the Louise Bagshawe books that I have read and I loved it. I definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good read. Couldn't put it down!!

An intriguing read

Although this book has is a bit melodramatic and unrealistic it is still a great read. There are three triplets who have been separated at birth and whose lives will intertwine at the end. Firstly there is Rose who is very similar to a Lita in `When She Was Bad' as both are wilful & determined and manage to transform their lives. Instead of transforming it through modelling like Lita Rose becomes the crÃ¨me de la crÃ¨me of estate agents.
Then there is Poppy the bored rich girl who lives for sneaking off to rock star gigs. She becomes infatuated with one who sleeps with her and then dumps her motivating her to become a manager for bands and upcoming talent.
Lastly there is Daisy who is shunned at boarding school and spends her time writing love stories. Consequently she goes on to become a bestselling author.
All these stories are interesting. Bagshawe writes in such a way as to leave a climax for each story. For example I was just enjoying reading about Rose and then just as it gets to an exciting, page-turning bit Bagshawe moves on to Poppy's story. This is clearly a motivation to keep you reading on and it worked since I spent my time reading this book when I was supposed to be doing an essay for uni.
I like Rose's love story the most as it was intriguing to read about her falling in love with `the enemy' and the passive-aggressive insinuations launched in verbal combats between the two whilst the both of them try to fight their growing attraction to one another. Rose is definitely the toughest, sharp-tongued of the sisters.
Poppy's story was okay, good at first but loses steam after a while. She is a likable character but not my favourite sister. Plus she is a bit naÃ¯ve when she is dating the rock star.
Daisy's story was excellent. I felt really sorry for her at first since she was either ignored or mocked at school, only gaining pseudo-popularity when other girls wanted to read her stories at school. The crux came when Daisy steps off the bus to go to the school dance, really excited and the boys at other boarding school dub her `the ugly, fat one'. I really felt sorry for her then but the thing I didn't like about her story was how shallow it was. She was dubbed `ugly & fat' until she sheds the pounds by eating less and suddenly she is `stunning' now she is slim. It does not give a positive view of body image. Surely if she was truly ugly losing weight wouldn't automatically make her beautiful. Thus she must have been stunning to begin with by since she was `fat' this was overlooked. In Louise Bagshawe's other books characters are always described as `curvy' not stick-thin but in this book being thin seems to be a pre-requisite for beauty. Her love story dragged on a bit only for her to then have an epiphany and decide she didn't love him after all but her story is still great. Her rise to success is defiantly worth reading.
The moment when the sisters all meet is the best part of the book as readers have read all about these sisters, care about what happens to them and then they finally meet. So overall, I would recommend this book as it is a worthwhile read.

Okay, quite unbelievable but still a good adventure!

I really enjoyed this book and do recommend it for a bit of escapism. The book isn't perfect by any means and I agree with a lot of what the other reviewers have said. However, you can't take it too seriously - this sort of thing would probably never happen, but that's the beauty of it!
It's very similar to Bagshawe's other stuff but as long as you don't read one after the other, it doesn't become tedious.
I liked her characters and couldn't put this one down, although I thought she abandoned Poppy's story a bit towards the end. It did seem to end very quickly and easily, another criticism! I was reading it constantly to get to find out how they'd eventually meet, but it was a bit of a let down. It finished abruptly and left things too open-ended...the girls' relationships, for example. Whether Rose and Jacob ever got revenge on the Rothsteins - originally a main conflict of the book! Yet we're left wondering.
Still worth a read though. Bagshawe has infectious glamour, fantasy and ambition in her books and you'll come away wanting a little slice of what the characters have!

View more reviews or product details from Amazon.co.uk