To Beguile a Beast

By: Elizabeth Hoyt

Narrated by: Anne Flosnik

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Can a wounded beast trust a beauty with a past to tame his most secret desires?

Reclusive Sir Alistair Munroe has hidden in his castle ever since returning from the Colonies, scarred inside and out. But when a mysterious beauty arrives at his door, the passions he’s kept suppressed for years begin to awaken.

Running from past mistakes has taken legendary beauty Helen Fitzwilliam from the luxury of the ton to a crumbling Scottish castle—and a job as a housekeeper. Yet Helen is determined to start a new life and won’t let dust—or a beast of a man—scare her away.

Beneath Helen’s beautiful façade, Alistair finds a courageous and sensual woman. A woman who doesn’t back away from his surliness—or his scars. But just as he begins to believe in true love, Helen’s secret past threatens to tear them apart. Now both Beast and Beauty must fight for the one thing neither believed they could ever find—a happy ever after.

©2009 Elizabeth Hoyt (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“There’s enchantment in Hoyt’s stories that makes you believe in the magic of love.” ( Romantic Times BOOKreviews)

Beautiful, Brilliant, Enchanting. A+

It's unnecessary to read the other books of this series. I did not like the first book. I knew this particular novel was highly acclaimed, so I got this one. Oh wow. I can't do this novel justice, it's extraordinary.
It's a true fairy tale. Like Jane Eyre with beautiful bedroom scenes included. My god don't miss this novel!!

Beauty and the Beast

I love listening to Anne Flosnik read historicals -- and "To Beguile A Beast" is no exception. This title is well worth the time and use of a credit and I look forward to more of Elizabeth Hoyt's work. "...Beast" has exactly and right amount of plot, emotion and intimacy.

The aftermath of war

One of a four part series involving men who served the English king in what the US knows as the French and Indian War, were betrayed by an unknown person, and each suffered a different kind of torture by the indigenous people there. The books are interconnected, but the story of each man and the woman who was able to help him out of his pit of despair is complete in itself. But. Every reader that I know was urgently self motivated to read all of them. Which is why I finally resorted to getting audio, as my paper copies kept getting feet.
This man had one eye put out, severe facial scarring, and two fingers chopped off. Bad enough for anyone, but he was a noncombatant there to illustrate a volume of flora and fauna of North America, much like Audubon. He became a hermit in his musty old castle, not even answering letters from most people.
Enter a frightened but beautiful woman with the two children born to her from the abusive and overbearing duke who had kept her as mistress long after he had tired of her. She was helped to escape by the wife of another of the war victims, and is to be housekeeper at the castle, even though she is clueless.
The plot moves along from there, including the predictable erotica, ending with hope for recovery from each of their forms of anguish. Lots of plot twists as well as clear descriptions for easy reader visualization.
Characteristically, there are a few sentences of a fanciful morality tale at the beginning of each chapter.
Anne Flosnik does the narration in her best overdramatic style.

Not an honest rating..Narrator is awful, sorry.

I cant give this an honest rating since I couldn't finish the book. The narrator is so bad it ruined the book. I am sure the story is good because Elizabeth Hoyt is a great author. I haven't read the book myself to rate the story, but the listen is not good. Amazon has some good ratings for this book, so I would recommend reading and not listening.

fun romance.. very sweet

If you could sum up To Beguile a Beast in three words, what would they be?

intriguing and kept me hoping for these two lovers to come together.... sweet story

What three words best describe Anne Flosnik’s performance?

awful! so nasaly! accents were ok but could barely listen to it... read the book!

It took a while but...

It took some getting used to Anne Flosnik's voice, but I finally got into it. Her voice is a bit grating, in my opinion. However, after about a third of the book through I got used to her, and her style of reading. She sometimes got her characters 'mixed up' in a couple places (she gave Helen the same 'accent' as Alistair's sister) which confused me, but all-in-all it was an enjoyable 'read'.
The story itself I thoroughly enjoyed and have requested some more titles from Elizabeth Hoyt through my local library.

So Touching...So, So Touching....

Because of all of the positive reviews on this book, I just knew it was going to be an amazing reading/listening experience. Yet, the experience was beyond expectations. This book is touching on so many levels. It is now one of my favorite Elizabeth Hoyt books.

I have to say, I struggled with some things in this book. That is, I did not like the idea that the hero was so badly scared. I mean, I like to read to escape reality & to encounter such a traumatic, inhuman, terrible experience that the hero went through was just sad. But, this aspect is part of the reason Elizabeth Hoyt is a freaken genius-author. She has an ability to allow the reader into a character's world of pain, but brings redemption and wonderful outcomes that leave you cheering and crying for that lead....this is the case with Alistair Munroe.

What a gentle man! I had assumed that he was a soldier, but he in fact is a scientist (naturalist) who accompanied the army when they went oversees in order to further his research and study the terrain and animals etc. Yet, he became a victim of vicious enemies who tortured him (and others who were captured). Despite this tragic life-altering experience, his nature never changes. Alistair is an intelligent, beautiful man...so worthy of love, despite his scars.

I was so happy with his destiny in meeting Helen Fitzwilliam. Or, I should say, I'm so happy she knocked on his door and brought love and color to his life. She was such a lovely and perfect gift to him. Although Helen is beautiful she was able to look beyond his scars and open her hear to an unconventional love. And, who would blame her? She was seduced as an early age to be the mistress of a jerk of a Duke. It really made me angry at how much power that animal had over her and her children. Children he fathered but cared nothing for. Helen deserved a beautiful, unquenchable love like the one Alistair offers her.

Also, Helen's children were just adorable....they were very sweet aspects of this story. I love how Alistair treated Helen's children. He treated them with dignity, respect and affection. Alistair's relationship with Helen's children was such an endearing part of the story--melted my heart.

One of the reasons I enjoy Elizabeth Hoyt's books, and this one in particular, is because she creates very intelligent & compelling leads and characters. This book is full of lively, interesting and intelligent conversations between the leads & their family. I also like the flirtations between the leads & their steamy, HOT love scenes...whoa....steamy indeed!!!!

Overall, a great listening experience. I'm not sure when I will start with the other books in this series. I think this series can be heavy because of the trauma & torture the "four soliders" experienced together. But, I do want to find out who the traitor is & I ruthlessly hope he/she pays big time.

Ann Flosnik, narrator did a great job. I enjoyed her performance.

enjoyable listen

This was an enjoyable book, a nice twist on the 'beauty and the beast' story line. I like stories where characters have made mistakes and yet still find happiness. This female lead was a strong woman, which always appeals to me in these historical romances. Not sure how realistic some of those characters are for their time, but it is fun to read about them. I thought the narrator did a good job, not perfect, but certainly easy to follow the different people. Would like to listen to others in this series.

Nice read!

The story was nicely paced and the plot was believable. The inner conflict of the characters was expressed very well and both characters were worth cheering for. The resolution came at just the right time...something that seems to be a struggle for many authors. I loved this story!

So good to hear about second chances in life!

This was a great story and the one I been waiting on. I love the characters and the children and even puddles the dog. Great job looking at the second chances in life and true love.