Publisher: Avon
Pub Date: February 2011
Length: 372 pages
FTC: Purchased myself
Why it was in the TBR: picked it up during a Walmart excursion because I liked the cover. Yes, I am that shallow.
I used to be a rabid Eloisa James fan. Even when she was pilloried by readers and reviewers for writing wallpaper (and doing a substandard job with historical accuracy), I loved her. Especially the Essex sisters series.
But her Georgian romances left me cold and I drifted away.
When Beauty Tamed the Beast isn't set in any particular time period, but I can honestly say that the entire book felt anachronisitic. It felt entirely too modern for me, and I'm sure much of that was the dialogue. I like witty banter as much as the next gal, but not when it's hollow. And that's what much of the dialogue felt like to me: too modern, and without any emotion whatsoever.
This is one of the few books I've read recently that redeemed itself towards the end. I had to force myself to get past the first 2/3 of the book because...I hate House, the TV series James used as a basis for her hero. I really, really hate that series. So it stands to reason I wouldn't be all that fond of the literary version, either. It wasn't until the hero and the heroine had to finally stop acting so cavalier about everything that I became involved with the story.
There's some spoilery for why the book gets more serious (which I won't go into), but I did end up liking that final third of the book and the growth of both the hero and heroine that I revised my grade upwards.
My Grade: B
The Blurb:
Miss Linnet Berry Thrynne is a Beauty . . . Naturally, she's betrothed to a Beast.
Piers Yelverton, Earl of Marchant, lives in a castle in Wales where, it is rumored, his bad temper flays everyone he crosses. And rumor also has it that a wound has left the earl immune to the charms of any woman. Linnet is not just any woman.
She is more than merely lovely: her wit and charm brought a prince to his knees. She estimates the earl will fall madly in love—in just two weeks.Yet Linnet has no idea of the danger posed to her own heart by a man who may never love her in return.
If she decides to be very wicked indeed . . . what price will she pay for taming his wild heart?
I'd like to read this as well as A Kiss at Midnight sometime. I haven't been able to finish a book by Eloisa James but the two in her fairy tale series appeal to me.
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