Romance

I like Beauty and the Beast retellings but not this one. One of the biggest things going against it was a totally lack of any world building. I'm assuming it took place in England because of the main character's title and that it took place sometime before 1900 but that is absolutely all you know about the world. I need some sort of world building to explain why all the powerful witches and wizards are running around and no one seems the least surprised or frightened.

Also I think this was supposed to be angsty but I just didn't feel it at all. So just meh for e. ( )

Holy shit! Where the hell did this come from?! I have to keep pinching myself to believe that this was written by a 2 star max author! The hero, cursed by his mother in law to become the rutting beast she thinks he is, is slowly and painfully losing his humanity and transforming into a beast. It started with his face, than his arms until his entire left side is covered in hair and becoming an animal. In order to fulfill his fathers wish that the estate birth an heir, the hero marries a death row prisoner for the soul purpose of getting her with child. At first he's very distant and military in his goals to get his new wife pregnant but slowly her innocence and kindness towards him dare him to hope for the chance to experience love before he dies. The heroine is plucked from her cell and married to a total stranger in the span of a day. Her new husband never showed her his face and only comes to her late at night when it's complete darkness and her candles are extinguished. She's a very dutiful wife and eager to please him. She accepts his demands and caters to his quirks because she knows it's painful for him to talk about his affliction. Slowly she begins to crake away his walls and briefly they are about to live a semi normal happy married life, with a baby on the way. Then the curse begins to change the right side of his body and he distances himself from her again so the heroine chooses that she must defy him this one time and seek out the woman to break his curse. I really have no freaking clue why so many readers disliked this book. I found it poetic and sad and an epic take of beauty and the beast. Funny that most of this authors books I found to be lacking in the passion department received such high rates when this book, an absolute gem was paned. I can see why many woman who think this heroine to be weak and the hero to be chauvinistic but I actually found it to be the most realistic marriage set in historical times. I'm sorry to all you feminist out there but it's not normal for a woman to be sassy or disobey her husband. I loved the fact that this heroine was obedient because her compliance allowed for them to be happy! The only time she went against his wishes was to attempt to save his life. The hero did start out as just a rutting beast. He did his husbandly duty without joy or caring if she enjoyed it or not but that's how things were. Eventually, once he grows to love her, he takes his time to show her that love but never once did I cry rape or anything like that. Some women readers just need to lighten up. Oh my god. Hell has frozen over-I liked-no LOVED-an Amanda Ashley novel....end of days are upon us. ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: A retelling of Beauty and the Beast as well as Phantom of the Opera, this book – while promising – just didn’t work for me due to a slow pace and lack of character depth.

Opening Sentence: Erik Trevayne, seventh lord of Hawksbridge Castle, stood at his wife’s beside.

The Review:

When Erik’s first wife died, her mother placed a curse on him, telling him he would slowly turn into a beast. The curse is now halfway complete, with the left half of his body completely covered in fur. He still has a promise to keep to his father though: to produce an heir in order to carry on the family name. His plan is to marry, get his wife pregnant as quickly as possible, and then kill himself before the curse is complete. Erik decides to go to the prison to find a wife, thinking a woman saved from death would not care who she married. There, he finds Kristine, a woman literally hours away from the gallows. They quickly marry and begin the process of trying to beget an heir. Something unexpected happens though: Erik begins to care for her and she for him. The curse is still slowly making its way through his body though, and they are having no luck finding a way to break it. Is Erik doomed to become a beast now that he’s finally found the woman he loves, or will they find a way to break the curse?

I’m not always interested in fairy tale retellings, but the description for this book had me intrigued. Then, when I realized it was a retelling of Phantom of the Opera as well as Beauty and the Beast, I found myself getting excited. Unfortunately, the book never really delivered. It moved very slowly, the characters were not well developed, and there were many cases of repetition, which made reading feel very tedious. Needless to say, I was actually happy when the book ended because it meant I could move onto something else.

As I said, the characters weren’t well developed and felt very two dimensional. Kristine is the heroine who is absolutely beautiful and excels at everything she attempts. Erik is the tortured hero convinced that no one could ever love him. And that’s about it. Neither character is really developed much beyond that. Thus, the love story is very hard to get sucked into. In addition to the lack of character development, the love story was just hard to believe in general. I was given no evidence as to why Kristine was suddenly enamored of Erik. He visits her room a couple times, and all of a sudden, she’s fascinated with him. I have no idea where the love came from, and that made it very hard to enjoy myself as I was reading.

Overall, I’m very happy to have this book behind me. I wish I could find something positive to say about it, but I just did not enjoy it at all. I haven’t read any Amanda Ashley books before, so I can’t say how this one measures up to her other works. Unfortunately, due to my experience with this tale, I probably won’t be trying any of her other books.

Notable Scene:

“Look at me, Trevayne.”

Unable to resist the power in Charmion’s voice, he looked up, felt himself impaled by the hatred blazing in her witch-black eyes. Her heated gaze trapped his, holding him immobile so he could neither move nor look away.

“A rutting beast you were, a beast you will become. Not all at once, my selfish one. Day by day, the change will come upon you, until you have suffered for every tear my daughter wept, for every drop of blood she shed this day.”

“No!”

She nodded once. “As I have said it, so it shall be.”

FTC Advisory: Zebra/Kensington provided me with a copy of Beauty’s Beast. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )