Beast by Judith Ivory

Rating: 4

Synopsis: An exquisite American heiress, Louise Vandermeer is beautiful, brilliant. . . and bored-which is why she has agreed to a daring adventure: to travel across the ocean to marry an aristocrat abroad. Rumor has it her intended is a hideous cad-a grim prospect that propels her into a passionate, reckless affair with a compelling stranger she never sees in the light of day.

Though scarred by a childhood illness, Charles d'Harcourt has successfully wooed Europe's most sophisticated beauties. For a lark, he contrived to travel incognito on his own fiancee's ship-and seduce the young chit in utter darkness. But the rake's prank backfired. It was he who was smitten-while the hot-tempered Lulu, now his wife, loves only her shipboard lover, unaware it was d'Harcourt all the time! And Charles will never have her heart-unless he can open her eyes to the prince who hides within.

Review: This is one of those books that i have mixed feelings about. Love the writing, love the love scenes, love the hero, love the setting and beauty and the beast theme. It was very much like Woodiwiss's A Rose in Winter, which I just adored. The only thing that kept this book from being a 5 and favorite was that silly twit of a heroine. She's 18, and it shows. I felt her immaturity in every scene, and it just really detracted from the story for me. But I must say that I was really pleasantly surprised with this author. I have never read Judith Ivory before, and this will certainly not be my last, because she really is a fabulous writer! She is both easy to read and intelligent, which is harder to achieve than you might think. Over all I would definitely recommend this book -- the heroine wasn't bad enough for me to dislike it.