When Beauty Tamed the Beast - Eloisa James

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.
Yet Linnet has no idea of the danger posed to her own heart by a man who may never love her in return.
If she decides to be very wicked indeed . . . what price will she pay for taming his wild heart?

When I read Eloisa James first book in this Fairy Tale series I enjoyed it and thought the humour was well done but I thought the story could have been stronger. A few days later I decided to pick this one up and see how she adapted the beauty and the beast story to the romance format.

I am very happy to say that I enjoyed this one even more than A Kiss at Midnight. While the other felt part historical romance and part fairy tale this one feels definitely fairy tale material with outrageous and lively dialogues and a set of main characters that are delicious to follow while they dance around each other.

Linnet is the Beauty who needs to find a husband. Piers is the Beast who does not want a wife, especially one chosen by his father whom he dislikes intensely. But Beauty won't be ignored and the Beast finds himself pretending to be unaffected by her. Unlike other stories, where the heroine and the hero, immediately feel attracted to each other Linnet and Piers don't immediately fall in each other’s arms or feel tremendously attracted to one another - even if Piers acknowledges her beauty to himself. It is only after they spend a lot of time together, discover that they share a similar humour and develop a friendship of sorts that feelings start to be developed.

Even so Piers is quite decided not to agree to his father's wishes and for a while it does seem that Linnet, for all her beauty, has been unable to convince him. Which might mean that just beauty is not enough and one might need a bit more to conquer one's heart's desire.

I was intrigued when I first read, in one of her newsletters I think, the she was writing a book with a House type doctor. Because that's what Piers is, a bad humoured doctor with a limp who makes brilliant diagnosis! And while I did enjoy that side of the story, what really made me love it was the relationship between Piers and Linnet. I hope her next book is as good as this one!

Grade: 4.5/5