
Even as a child Katala felt a deep attraction to David Stringfellow, one she neither understood nor indeed, knew what to do about. Despite the pair hardly ever seeing each other after their childhood both still retained the memory of their deep affection and attraction. When David’s father dies and leaves his immense wealth to his only son, the will has some strange stipulations that will forever change the lives of Katala and David. In Devil’s Claim, authors Dariel Raye and Muffy Wilson bring us a tale that spans the generations and cultures. They take us back to the old west, where Native American’s are being forced from their land and African-American’s, even the free ones, are consistently captured, rounded-up and forced back into slavery and subjugation. David and Katala’s forebears set in motion a chain of events that will see a curse follow the Stringfellow clan down the generations until the present day. Can David and Katala finally break this horrific curse that has held his line in its thrall for so many years?
Devil’s Claim was a veritable romp through so many different and new ideas; black magic, curses, witchcraft, Native American traditions and customs, spirits, and demons. Author’s Dariel Raye and Muffy Wilson have crafted a wonderful romance that links Karma across the generations and requires the two main characters to break the Karmic cycle somehow. Although in its early chapters the story felt slightly disjointed and as a reader I struggled to come to terms with the connections and more importantly the effects of the Karmic events, through the ages, the more I read, the more entranced I became, with the story. Both Katala and David were wonderfully drawn characters who exhibited the difficulties and challenges of different cultural histories living together, in harmony, in the 21st Century. The clash of their cultures and beliefs with modern life was one of the keys to the success of the story. This certainly isn’t a book for the young and the relationship scenes between the two were exciting, frank, and hot, without crossing that invisible line into smut. The sex scenes were intrinsic to the understanding of the depth of their relationship across the generations and were beautifully handled by the authors. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and if a love story with an esoteric and magical background is your thing, you will love it too. I’ll give big “up’s” to these two authors.
