Esmerelda Quinn has had a string of hotelier jobs but now wants to come home and run her aunt's villa in Puerto Vallarta, only to find that her aunt Constance is recovering from a bout of cancer. Doctors have advised her to stay away from Casa Constance business and retire. Taking their advice, Constance goes away, leaving Esme and Santiago Cruz in-charge of the villa for six months. From which three months Santiago will be in-charge and three months Esme, in running things. Whoever does the best job will get the Casa Constance.

Due to bad romantic history between them, Esme is not thrilled to have Santiago, a playboy surfer, there all the time for six months and in-charge of running the place. Add to that fact, Santiago's father has been after the Casa for years, she feels Santiago and his father will stick together and make the Casa into one of the Cruz Resorts by the end of the six months. She cannot allow her only home to be turned into a moneymaking heartless resort.

Santiago has his own personal reasons for wanting the villa, not for his father but so that he is not able to get it. Having Esme there is not a part of his plans, neither is the emotional involvement. However, to keep Esme from discovering his plans for the Casa, he proposes her a deal. The deal has their sizzling attraction coming to the surface and the demons from the past and the present come to haunt them. What is unexpected is Esme realizing that Santiago has grown in the years she has been gone, making her fall for him all over again and Santiago realizing that giving her up will be the most difficult thing he may have to do to move on.

The characters of this book, in my honest opinion, are not very defined. The initial conversations and thoughts give a very different impression then what progresses on. Esme sounds like a determined woman who wants to save her aunt's Casa Constance because it is her only home and provided solace after her parents died and now when she needs a home. Moreover, she also has an intense dislike for Santiago, whom she calls Saint his childhood nickname, but feels attracted to him too. They have a turbulent past that ended in Saint running away. What exactly happened in Napa, how they got there, what they were doing there left me confused and wanting to know more. Small bits are explained in some flashbacks and conversations but not enough to understand the underlying emotions on her side.

Saint on the other hand also seems to have definite plans about what he wants to do but soon after he is proposing and planning to re-kindle the romance with Esme. When asked blunt questions by Esme he sounds confused about what he actually wants or what he has planned. How things resolve between them, again left me feeling something is missing. It was too easy considering what Esme was thinking and saying before. I honestly felt more for Tobias and want to know his POV in his brief appearance then I did for either of the main characters. Overall, THE SAINT'S DEVILISH DEAL is a nice read if you want a light read.