Customer Reviews

When Beauty Tamed The Beast: Number 2 in series (Happy Ever After)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a fan of Eloisa James, having read her Desperate Duchess series (and loving them!) I had great expectations for this book, and it managed to fufil all of them.
Retelling such a well know story as Beauty and the Beast can be risky as it is hard to keep to the general story lines while making it yours enough, but Eloisa James managed it. Both her characters were warm funny and extremely loveable. There was several background stories which only added to the readers enjoyment of the romance between Peirs and Linnet. Piers' transformation from the hard hearted beast he is at the beginning to (not to give anything away) how he is at the end of the book, is truely magical, and the message that its whats inside that counts was well shown in the very moving ending.

I would recomend this book to anyone with a love of historical romance and fairy tales. You will enjoy it!

Beautiful Linnet Berry Thrynne is caught kissing the prince. Rumours start she is pregnant by him and he's disregarded her. But they didn't go further than kissing. Her father arranges for her to marry Piers Yelverton, the Earl of Marchant (not Montague as the Amazon synopsis says). Piers is a skilled doctor, treating various patients in his castle home. When Linnet asks about him, she learns he should agree to the marriage, as he's supposedly infertile after an accident in his youth, so would welcome the 'baby' she is carrying. He also has a bad temper and not regarded as the most handsome. But Piers doesn't want to marry this beauty, and when she turns up at his Welsh castle, he's instantly rude to her. He doesn't hate her, just hates the fact she's so 'beautiful' and that he's regarded as a 'beast'. However, he lets her stay, and in this time, he takes her swimming to help her learn and also because it helps his crippled leg. He maintains his rudeness, but over time, both begin to fall for each other. We learn the reason why Piers is against his father and why he's crippled. But when Linnet believes she's made him love her, he sends her away. Heartbroken she goes, but an incident occurs that makes Piers face up to his demons and win back the woman he loves.

Overall, the book was very good. This is the first book I've read by this author. The dialogue from Piers is funny, and even though he's rude and has a quick temper, you really can empathise with him.

4.5/5

But still great, the happily ever after series has a lot of great characters with a lot of depth. I loved it!

was very happy and i would buy more books from this company again as i had no problems am happy

as with all her books, just fabulous! well rounded characters, good storyline. I have loved everthing so far she has written.

Not so very long ago I reviewed the first of James' fairy tales series, A Kiss at Midnight, which I found OK, but not one to hang on to and read again, and I said that I always thought I should like her books more than I actually do. I have to say that it was almost as if someone was listening, as I liked this book a whole lot better. There is only a thematic connection with the other books; there don't appear to be any characters in common.

I liked this book as the two protagonists had personality and you could see what they would see in each other, which I found hard in the last book. The whole set up was maybe a bit far fetched, but it was quite an amusing tale - with a fair sprinkling of strong language. I smiled when the heroine had been reading Miss Butterworth & the Mad Baron - as I'm sure many readers of Julia Quinn will! A much more engaging and entertaining read, good protagonists and interesting supporting characters, giving enough interest but without detracting from the main plot.

I'm slowly working my way through Eloisa James books, and she is overall a very good writer of Regency romances. Whilst this book is the second in part of a series, it can still be read as a stand-alone novel. The main character the Earl of Montague is a doctor, a no-nonsense straight talking brillant phyiscan, who walks with a cane due to a leg problem...it sounded familiar to me straight away and this comparison to Dr. House, was a slighlty over shadowing feature to the novel. As soon as you were introduced to the Earl of Montague i couldn't help but think of House all the time. Eloisa James at the back of the book even credits House with giving her the inspiration for the Earl, but it was a little to close to allow you to think of anything else. Aside from this fact, it was still a good novel, an easy read, with both plenty of humour and romance, and the Earls counterpart Miss Thynne was a good strong female lead to counter the brusque manner of the Earl.

Another sweet fairy tale retelling with some humour and hot smexy times thrown in for good measure.

This time it's Beauty and the Beast. Beauty is as gorgeous as she sounds; practically perfect in every way. Except that she's been ruined by rumour and scandal, and her ridiculous father and aunt insist that the only noble who'd even consider wedding her now would be the dreaded "Beast", a man whose ruthless reputation and medical brilliance precede him. I was very interested to read the historical notes section to discover that this character has been loosely based on Dr. Gregory House from the T.V show House. Or at least the leg injury, the need for the cane and the grumpy demeanor were hints of him. My Beast certainly didn't look anything like Hugh Laurie (No offense Hugh).

Beauty and Beast, aka Linnet and Piers, had sizzling chemistry right from their first meeting and it never waned. I loved the development of their love story, Piers' grumpiness didn't make him any less appealing to me. In fact, I found it quite sweet because it was so obviously all bluster; a defense mechanism against his growing admiration for Linnet.

"She's like my other half," Piers said savagely, keeping his head down. "My other bloody half, like some sort of joke that Plato made up. Like nothing I ever wanted, and then, there she was."

I'm really enjoying this series. Next up is 'The Duke is Mine' which is the retelling of The Princess and the Pea (can't wait to see how they fit that aspect in), and then another book has just been added to the series called 'The Ugly Duchess' *snort* How can you not want to read that?

4 Stars! ''''

Linnet is known as the Season's most beautiful woman. But that doesn't help her when an ill-conceived gown and an overseen kiss brand her as a fallen woman. To protect her reputation she needs to find a husband and lay low in the country for a while.

Piers Yelverton, Earl of Marchant lives in a castle in Wales and has both a horrid temper as well as an injury that many say has left him immune to the charms of women. He doesn't want to like Linnet but there's something about her that appeals to him. But will he let her see the man beneath and let her love him?

From page one I was engrossed with this book. The characters jumped off the page and you couldn't help but love them, root for them and want them desperately to find a way to be together. Linnet was a very beautiful woman and while she was aware of that fact and used it to her best advantage you never got the impression she was spoiled and I liked her from the get go. Piers too could quite easily have been a character that was hard to like with his temper and grumpy demeanor. Quite the opposite was true and I loved him. Together the pair had chemistry and spark as well as fabulous banter and enjoyable sparring dialogue.

The plot was fast pace and kept you turning the pages. This is the kind of novel that you can't stop thinking about when you put it down and want to talk about with anyone that will listen. I was on the edge of my seat during the dramatic ending and I just adored the epilogue. If you're looking for an enchanting historical romance that you can lose yourself in for an afternoon then I would highly recommend this novel to you. 5 stars.

*This is part of James' Fairy Tale series. Each book is inspired by a classic fairy tale but do not have linked characters, situations or locations.*

My summary of the book - After being caught in a kiss with a Prince Linnet is pushed into marrying a man she has never met before. She agrees to go along and see if they would suit but she finds a man called a beast and they both decide there won't be a wedding. But can they get over the attraction for each other and stay apart.

Thoughts on the characters - Linnet is very amusing as she is strong willed but knows the trouble she is in especially as the rumours are out that she is supposedly pregnant with the Prince's baby. When she meets Piers she is not scared of him and she manages to stand up against him which makes her more amusing. She is also a beauty but she doesn't let that affect her but she knows how to work it when dealing with gentlemen.
Piers is very hard hitting and doesn't soften his ways for anyone so when he meets Linnet she is his match and he can't believe what he is feeling for her. But he dismisses it as it his estranged father that brought her to him and he doesn't want his father to be correct in his choice of bride for Piers. He is the beast with a limp and has to use a cane to get around which adds to his character and explains more about why he became a surgeon.

Overall thoughts - I absolutely loved this book. It had me smiling all the way through and Linnet and Piers are just prefect for each other even though he is determined to let her get away. He really proves himself when the illness affects Linnet and he saves her life and then pushes her back to best afterwards.