Cross post from my personal blog rabidgummibear.wordpress.com
I recently read the first book in this series even though each book is completely stand alone. I knew I’d probably be pretty fond of this book just because of the Beauty And The Beast references. Though that doesn’t mean I forgive it for all it’s faults.

The story takes place in the typical regency era of Eloisa James novels. We start by meeting a stereotypically beautiful girl named Linnet who has a bit of a very tame affair with the Prince. This ends up harming her reputation in the ton and her father rushes to marry her off to this grumpy man nicknamed the Beast or in reality the Earl of Marchant. The rest of Linnet’s marriage conspiracy with her relatives revolves around her attempting to use her typical immediate wooing abilities on the beast, but this of course does not really work. Eventually somebody in this story bends unexpectedly and there are some minor changes that begins to unravel a much deeper plot line. This book deals a lot with the psyche of the Beast and why he believes that he will never get married. The final twist is quite a surprise that I honestly did not expect.

I felt like this book was good and had better legs to stand on than the first one in this series. Linnet had a lot of wit and challenge towards the beasts more standoffish qualities. After first hearing the descriptions of how ‘perfect’ Linnet was thought to be I was surprised to find how likeable she became as the book carried on, but a lot of that for me was contributed to her wit. The Beast was a regency version of House and that was a bit off putting for me at first, but I quickly got over it with the looks into his psyche. I also found the end of the book to be a major emotional roller coaster which pretty much stunned me.

Overall 4/5 stars. It was a fun read and super quick. I recommend it if you manage to find it on the cheap (under $5). Realize that you probably won’t put this book down either though.