Beast

Beast & Beauty, Book 1

By: Clarissa Wild

Narrated by: Tegan Bourke

Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

He has a beastly instinct to devour everything in his path...until her.

I am the giant, menacing monster, known only as the Beast.

Sold to the mafia as a kid and trained to hunt, my life revolves around brutality and carnage.

My home is a cell made of concrete and iron bars.

And there is nothing I won't do to be free.

Until her.

The innocent black-haired girl with pretty pink lips, whose father I was supposed to hunt, dares to get in my way.

But when I grab her and look into her eyes, I can't bring myself to finish the job.

She makes me feel hope. Greed.

And a frenzied desire to touch her.

Taste her.

Make her mine.

I was supposed to destroy everything in my path.

Instead, I took her...and consumed her whole.

Beast is a smoldering new Dark Mafia Romance by New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Clarissa Wild. Warning: This book includes scenes that may be disturbing to some listeners.

©2022 Clarissa Wild (P)2022 Clarissa Wild

A duet narration would have made this much better.

This mafia-style book is based on the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. It's definitely told a bit differently. I am not really that fond of mafia smut, mostly because I got too burnt out on it. This didn't ruin it yet.

The story was pretty good. The writing was ok, but just not perfect. The character-building aspect was missing something. I just couldn't put my finger on it. And I wish the writer had opted for duet narration since the chapters switch back and forth between characters.

It ends on a cliffhanger, so beware.

3.5 stars rounded down. And perhaps the next book will be a little better?

Made me laugh

The plot is decent, the villains are villainous, and the spicy scenes are spicy.

The main characters, though- a strange mix of naïve and yet using language that someone of their education/experience level would never. For the male lead in particular it gives the feeling of swinging back and forth between a dark brooding protector figure and a feral preteen, though I think what was intended was more like a Tarzan figure (raised to be wild and strong, but is a quick learner with a good heart)

Once I started viewing it as a spicy dark comedy, it got much easier to finish. I did actually laugh aloud several times at the absurdity of some moments, even when they might not have been meant as comedic.
Choices that would've been obvious to accomplish the protagonists' goals were completely ignored in favor of more dramatic options, which left me laughing and shaking my head.
Like in a horror movie, when the character sees a scary shadowy figure and comes out of their hiding place to call out their friend's name, effectively painting a bright red target on their forehead.

The voice actress isn't bad, but the voice chosen for the main character does make her sound like a child (the voice wouldn't have been out of place in an actual children's cartoon) and that's mildly off-putting.
The voices for the characters were different, though, so there was no issue of characters blending together or their genders getting mixed up, which has happened with some other books I've listened to.

Overall, I'm not sure if I'd listen again, but I did finish this book and I'm not left upset about it.

Really?? Don’t bother

Maybe try reading the book. The voice/narration is so freaking bad… the heroine was whiney & stupid but the voice she’s given just makes it worse. I hate wasting money/credits… they need a return option if you don’t finish it.

Will Try the Book

Sorry, but I just couldn't finish. I couldn't see a dark story with this voice.

Ummm

Hmmm well this was not what I was expecting. Very cheesy and predictable and the ending... WTF?

PAINFUL

This was the hardest listen EVER. Teagan Bourke should not do reads where she has to voice more than 1 character. Between the whining MC voice and the mispronounced words, i dont know what made this book worse. Definitely a miss!

Not for me

I am usually not one to dnf a book, especially one that I’ve paid for but the narration for this book was so incredibly awful. Aurora sounded like a nasally whiny 13 year old.

Not worth the $ or a credit

Honestly, I heard raves above this duet & I’m SO disappointed. For one, this should have been a female/male duet narrative — the female character is such a whiny bitch! I can’t stand her. She is so naive & so weak! Why would beast put any effort into her.

Ends with cliff hanger

I don’t mind a cliff hanger.. but when you’ve been waiting the entire book for something, and you STILL don’t know what’s gonna happen to beast.. it almost makes me wish I didn’t start it. Also the narrator was good for the most part. But her male voices were horrible and the wining was ear splittingly high

Lacking

The story has potential, but it’s predictable overall. The narrator gives a decent performance, but her portrayal of Aurora is very high-pitched and whiny at times, which makes the character irritating. I haven’t listened to anything else by this narrator, but I’m hoping she takes a different approach with other projects.