When Beauty Tamed the Beast

By: Eloisa James

Narrated by: Susan Duerden

Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

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.

If she decides to be very wicked indeed... what price will she pay for taming his wild heart?

©2011 Eloisa James (P)2011 HarperCollinsPublishers

I was hesitant at first

But the story was so charming and funny that towards the end I had tears. It was simply perfect.

Loved it!

This is the second Happily Ever After book. I am just loving this series. I thought it was going to be a typical regency romance with the Beauty and the Beast storyline, but James sensei adds so much more too it.

For example, I really don't care for unnecessary long sex scenes and IMHO the author has put in just enough with fun twists. In this series they were actually romantic as well as sensual and fits the story perfectly.

In this book the heroine Linnet(beauty) is almost faultless while the hero Piers is Dr.House of his time. He is a brilliant doctor but has no bedside manners, has horrible temper, is generally cranky and has a bad leg. I love the banter and battle of the wits that ensues between them.

Unlike the other regency novels there are no rivals, balls and the ton in this story. Instead there are sick patients, arguments and healing in the harsh but beautiful setting in Wales.

I just loved this happily ever after for adults! More please

Enjoyed this book very much.

I enjoyed the simplicity of the book. The story line was simple easy to follow and quite enjoyable. The narration was very good by Susan Duerden and I will be looking for more audio books that she narrates. I still think the narrator is the one who makes or breaks the workings of an author.

An adult version of beauty and the beast

Any additional comments?

What a wonderful story. I did not want to sleep because I needed to hear what happens next. The book is about a Lady who gets wrongly accused of being pregnant based on a gown that made her look pregnant. Once her good name is dragged through the mud, her future plans of getting married well goes down the drain and so her family has to come up with a good plan for an advantageous matrimony. Once armed with a plan, they approach a Duke with an eligible son and let him know their beautiful daughter can be a good candidate to save their dukedom. Since everyone believes the prince got her with child, the duke gets even more excited about the news of the possibility of having a grandchild who is related to the prince. Their only problem is to convince the duke’s son to marry her (well of course this all assumes the child to be is a boy). Very cute love story. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

What a great book!

Where does When Beauty Tamed the Beast rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

In the top 10, I'd say. It was such a great listen!

What did you like best about this story?

I really liked the characters. Even though he was supposed to be gruff, I never disliked him. I found them both quite likable and I rooted for them from the start.

Have you listened to any of Susan Duerden’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes. She's always great. One of my favorite narrators. She does different voices so well and it feels like you're listening to a movie.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The heart often sees more than the eyes ever can...

Any additional comments?

This was just a wonderful feel-good book. A great romantic listen. Definitely a keeper!

Sweet

What made the experience of listening to When Beauty Tamed the Beast the most enjoyable?

An okay rendition of the classic plotline....

Any additional comments?

A nice read, but probably won't read it again.....

Even better than the book

The narrator made this book come alive. I loved reading this book and didn't think it was possible to be even better in audio. Susan D. is incredibly talented. Her male voices are masculine and her repertoire of voices is almost unlimited. She and this book were a true pleasure to listen to for hours on the drive to work.

Good book

This is a very well written book even though the plot is hardly original - Dr House in Regency London. Still very well written entertaining and witty dialogue. Well developed romance and great performance.

19th Century Dr. House....I LOVED IT

I absolutely loved this book and I'm really enjoying this fairy tale series by Eloisa James. This is my new favorite romance book! This one made me cry, laugh, made me mad and happy. If you are fan of historical romance or of Eloisa James then I would suggest you get this book right now! You will love it too! A credit worthy listen. 5 stars all around!

Awesome book and narrator..

Any additional comments?

I loved every word of this book. Loved Piers and Linnet and hated to see the story end. Loved Prufrock, best butler ever. Loved Doctors Kibbles and Bitts, that was too funny. Loved Sebastien. Loved the story reguarding his parents and how that all worked out. I simply loved the entire story. It was sad, happy, intense, everything you'd want in a fairy tale. AND the sex was just beautiful and didn't overwhelm the storyline. I would recommend this book to all romance readers.

As to the narrator: Ms. Duerden did a perfect job! I couldn't have asked for a better narrator for this book. Every voice was perfect and individual. You always knew who was talking and THAT makes for great narration. IMO..

I would also like to say that the description tells us what the book is about or we can zip over to Amazon and look at reviews. This is AUDIBLE! What we need to review is the narrator. Does he or she suck? Why? Is he or she too nasal-y, too sweet for the kind of book he or she is reading, to gruff, too bland, too robotic, lacks emotion. Is he or she doing nothing but reading the book? Not changing his or her voice for the male and female voices? Is the narrator sounding the same whether she or he is reading a whisper spoken?
Most of us on AUDIBLE don't really care what the book is about. We want to know about the narrator! This is AUDIBLE, after all.