I love a fairy tale adaptation and this is a good one. The setting is vaguely Scandinavian though not entirely defined, and it's a Beauty & The Beast story with some twists, a little dark but with a happy ending. The romance between the heroine and the "beast" is lovely and builds nicely, the sex scenes are hot, and the ending satisfying.

I will say the confrontation with the villains is a little underwhelming in the end and the whole conflict/risk aspect of the plot is maybe a little underdone. There's mystery as to who/what the villains are, and then how/if they can be defeated, but the heroine's suddenly awakening magical abilities (which is explained by the plot, but definitely convenient) makes it all pretty easy in the end. I don't really view this as a big drawback - the building relationship and the backstory and everything else are all easily good enough to make up for it, and you can assume a happy ending is coming, being a fairy tale and a romance - but I might have liked a LITTLE more tension/danger/doubt when the actual confrontation happens, for a bigger emotional payoff when they do succeed.

Overall though, this has quickly become a favorite that I've reread several times in the months since I got it. ( )