When I first read the excerpt for The Beast of Beswick, I was really excited. So much that when I learned I hadn't won a copy I immediately put a hold for the book at my local library!
After rejecting the advances of Lord Beaumont during her first Season, Lady Astrid Everleigh finds herself being shunned by her peers for her "indecency." But marring her image wasn't enough for Beaumont and ten years later, just before Astrid's younger sister's first Season, Beaumont returns and is determined to wed Isobel for revenge. With her Uncle and Aunt on Beaumont's side, the only solution that Astrid - unmarried, powerless, and ruined - can see is to marry the Beast of Beswick, the only man who can go head to head against Beaumont's societal position and temper
Lord Thane Harte, Duke of Beswick, has shut himself off from society after he came back from the war, a true Beast with the scars his face and body hold. And when beautiful and fiery Astrid Everleigh walks in with a marriage proposition, it takes all his will to not accept - not just because he knows she's hiding something - but who could, in their right mind, come to love a beast?
I decided to rate this book a 3/5. While regency books aren't my forte, I have read a couple of romance books of this style and have to admit this one dragged about one hundred pages
I really enjoyed the banter between both characters. Astrid is the type of woman who can't be dominated and will dish back as hard as she gets. You can tell she cares deeply for her sister, otherwise, she wouldn't be plotting so much just to keep her safe. However, once Astrid and Thane get married, the plot starts to matter less and sex becomes the priority. Both characters were clearly compatible in bed and sex-starved, but when it came to emotions, they were both tight-lipped, afraid to get hurt and expectant for the other to budge first. The book really took advantage of this lack of communication, not to develop their emotional relationship, but to get them hot and steamy. While it's nice to get some erotic moments, I often asked myself, "if Thane is so hard set on rejecting Astrid, why was he always so willing to bed her? Oh, because men are weak to the flesh, of course..."
There were a lot of nice things happening in the book but also a lot of things that felt incomplete and wasted because there were so many "explicit" sex scenes (like Isobel, Beaumont, the auction money, etc)
After rejecting the advances of Lord Beaumont during her first Season, Lady Astrid Everleigh finds herself being shunned by her peers for her "indecency." But marring her image wasn't enough for Beaumont and ten years later, just before Astrid's younger sister's first Season, Beaumont returns and is determined to wed Isobel for revenge. With her Uncle and Aunt on Beaumont's side, the only solution that Astrid - unmarried, powerless, and ruined - can see is to marry the Beast of Beswick, the only man who can go head to head against Beaumont's societal position and temper
Lord Thane Harte, Duke of Beswick, has shut himself off from society after he came back from the war, a true Beast with the scars his face and body hold. And when beautiful and fiery Astrid Everleigh walks in with a marriage proposition, it takes all his will to not accept - not just because he knows she's hiding something - but who could, in their right mind, come to love a beast?
I decided to rate this book a 3/5. While regency books aren't my forte, I have read a couple of romance books of this style and have to admit this one dragged about one hundred pages
I really enjoyed the banter between both characters. Astrid is the type of woman who can't be dominated and will dish back as hard as she gets. You can tell she cares deeply for her sister, otherwise, she wouldn't be plotting so much just to keep her safe. However, once Astrid and Thane get married, the plot starts to matter less and sex becomes the priority. Both characters were clearly compatible in bed and sex-starved, but when it came to emotions, they were both tight-lipped, afraid to get hurt and expectant for the other to budge first. The book really took advantage of this lack of communication, not to develop their emotional relationship, but to get them hot and steamy. While it's nice to get some erotic moments, I often asked myself, "if Thane is so hard set on rejecting Astrid, why was he always so willing to bed her? Oh, because men are weak to the flesh, of course..."
There were a lot of nice things happening in the book but also a lot of things that felt incomplete and wasted because there were so many "explicit" sex scenes (like Isobel, Beaumont, the auction money, etc)