Book Description:
It’s best not to answer the door when the Earl of Dunaway come’s knocking.
After learning this lesson by trial and error, as any good lesson ought to be learned, Miss Lilith Aberdeen fashioned a life for herself on the fringes of London society. She is the last lady likely to risk her independence or her heart on anything as fickle and frivolous as love. Or the waxing and waning of familial affection, for that matter. So, how is it she winds up journeying to the wilds of Cornwall to deliver the earl’s pampered, petulant daughter into the hands of the reclusive Baron Malleville?
Blame it on the scandalous, unscrupulous and downright dissolute earl.
Jasper Grimley has spent more than a decade living in self-imposed exile, tending his lands and waiting for his chosen bride to come of age. When his betrothed is plucked from his grasp mere months before the wedding, he sets in motion a plan to turn the Earl of Dunaway’s plethora of debts and profusion of daughters to his advantage. Unfortunately, when dealing with the earl, even the best laid plans have a tendency to fall to ruin, and Jasper soon finds himself beguiled by the wrong woman. Lilith is not the sweet, innocent, biddable bride he bargained with the devil to possess, but she just might be…
The lady destined to lead him down the primrose path to happily-ever-after.
I received this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
As you can tell from the name the book is a retelling of the story of Beauty and The Beast, this made me excited to read it because I like the spin people put on the retellings. I did see some similarities in that Jasper was mean and would have been the beast and Lilith was the beauty in the story and they have the romance, as for the rest of it I didn’t really feel like it was a true retelling of it. I didn’t really feel the magic that I felt with Beauty and the Beast. Also of course the sensual scenes and the lust are definitely not in the original.
I thought the book was pretty good, I did feel that I didn’t really connect with the characters as much as I would have liked too, but I did enjoy the banter between Lilith and Jasper I thought they were fun together. I do feel for Lilith in that she does not have a great dad (five daughters all different moms) and her mom isn’t around (is a courtesan), but it is obvious that she could hold her own no matter the situation, which I liked. One thing was that the romance was a little fast, I know that love can happen at first sight, but theirs was like this whirlwind of just meeting, lust, and love within just a few days and then straight on to marriage.
I liked that it was a historical romance though, I like reading about a story that takes place in history and especially when the author gives a description of the era and place it just makes it more real and fun. I thought man how horrible his dad is marrying off his daughters just to pay his gambling debt, but you know what it probably happened multiple times in history. At least in this story the girl, Sissy, doesn’t end up having to do that, instead her older sister Lilith falls for Jasper and instead of a forced marriage there is one that is wanted by both parties. I thought that it was a fun read, the writing was pretty well done a few things I thought could have been better but overall it was well written.
Book Rating: 3 out of 5
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