The Beast of Beswick

The Regency Rogues

Lord Nathaniel Harte, the disagreeable duke of Beswick, spends his days smashing porcelain, antagonizing his servants, and snarling at anyone who gets too close. With a ruined face like his, it's hard to like much about the world - especially smart-mouthed harpies (with lips better suited to kissing than speaking) who brave his castle with indecent proposals.

But Lady Astrid Everleigh will stop at nothing to see her younger sister safe from a notorious scoundrel, even if it means offering herself up on a silver platter to the forbidding Beast of Beswick himself. And by offer, she means what no highborn lady of sound and sensible mind would ever dream of - a tender of marriage with her as his bride.

©2019 Amalie Howard (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Take as old as time

It may have been a tale as old as time, but the way it was told warmed my heart to no end I rated this 555. The story was brilliant. The narration was Fabulous . The overall rating was miraculous. I am a sucker for Beauty and the Beast , the Disney version and this one. It was so good that I really did not even realize I was listening to the same story, very fresh , very enlightening and beautifully told.

Adore! ❤️

The best beauty and the beast retelling I’ve ever read! Delicious heat, strong heroine, brooding hero, all mixed into a brilliant love story that made my heart swoon!

Pretty enjoyable Regency romance

So I’m going to start with my issues with this book:
(1) the whiplash, Thane went back and forth between giving the romance a chance only to push his wife away time and again. On the one hand I loved that she didn’t give up, on the other, women who allow men to shit on them time and again kinda piss me off too: fool me twice sort of thing. I suspect that this back and forth was for more smecks on the page… I really dislike sacrificing story just for smecks, it should be organic and fit in the story, not fitting the story around the smecks.
(2) number 1 would not have been as big a deal with some better characterization and more showing than telling. We are told a lot about how damaged Thane is but don’t see it: we don’t get flashbacks of his injuries, residual pain, PTSD, rejection from ladies after his injuries. I think if we had gotten more of that it would have helped the story. Like for example: WHY didn’t he want kids? I literally have NO idea!
All that being said, and in spite of my suspicions about the term “patriarchy” being bandied about in Regency England, I did enjoy the book, it had a good pace and i was interested in the resolution. I loved the heroine for the most part and it had a good premise. The epilogue was lovely and satisfying.

Good overall.

Beauty and the beast trope is one I enjoy and I did enjoy this one. Full characters, awful bad guy, two lousy relatives and really smart heroine and hero, historical England and HEA. All boxes checked. I would have preferred a bit less repetitive internal monologue as it was, well, repetitive - the same over and over. See, needless extra words. Less is often "more" at least when it comes to fine writing. Nina Nato is new to me as a narrator and found her up to the task of many varied voices.

Fun, but nothing deep.

It definitely kept my attention going through it in less than a day and a half. Plot construction was limited. A lot of he loves me. He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me a lot, etc. But the hot sexy part was different every time with a new place and description for each time they got back together. I love the authors description of the wounded and scarred male character being ugly and beautiful and sexy all at the same time.