I love historical romance, and this one certainly stood out for me. It was a fantastic Beauty and the Beast retelling. I loved that Thane was physically marred to make him beastlike and that his treatment by the rest of society was what caused him to behave so beastly. It was a great way to turn the fantasy tale into something that fit inside of reality. Astrid was a great heroine. I really love when an author takes a female character and makes her really fierce and feminist in a time period where that would've been extremely rare to see. I also really love the marriage-as-a-business-contract romance trope. Thane also had a lot of character redemption and learning how to love, and oh my goodness, there was so much to love about this book. The love scenes were sexy and delicious. If anything negative were to be said, the villain wasn't all that villainous. There was a lot of threatening and posturing on his part, but he was all bark and no bite. Also, I would have loved more of a comeuppance for Astrid's uncle. Overall though, it was a great romance novel!