JoRead

Abigail Vautille is a woman that might have been beautiful once but after having been tortured by an awful criminal, feels beastly horrible. Inspector Michael Strickland of the Metropolitan Police is a rake that cannot turn down a proposition from the beautiful Abigail even though he knows of her tragic past.

The premise of the story was actually good. As an avid fan of the beloved Beauty and the Beast, Disney’s or otherwise, I could not turn this one down, however and much to my disappointment, it was not what I hoped for. At first, the story felt confusing, liked I’d missed a lot from the previous installments. I can understand that as a series and for one’s benefit, a reader must start with book one but I was hoping I didn't have to, as in other series that can be read as a stand alone.

The personalities of the main characters were sort of confusing at the beginning, Abigail most of all as she would act one way one minute and change her attitude the next. For example, she was a virgin, supposedly had no sexual experience, but then she made a sexual innuendo like “I’m sorry Strickland for not remembering my place. Do you need to punish me?” Huh? Where did come from? Oh, and right after they became acquainted she became aroused just by talking! It wasn't clear until way in into the story why she was so bitter, resentful, and cynical.

It was sort of like a lot of telling and not enough showing with their emotions AND the rest of the story because there was too much of the same, page after page, with the story going no where, except giving a detailed description of the settings, what they were wearing, and the few secondary characters that didn't add much to the plot, not even the villain. Not to mention that, overly descriptions notwithstanding, somehow it missed that historical feeling mark :( 

Now, I'll give Ms. Monroe props because this is not your usual titled hero and she does know how to write a “beautiful prose.” As a matter of fact, there were times I applauded the way it was written more than I did the story itself. It was an ok story, unfortunately it was not for me.

*** I was gifted a copy of this story by the author in exchange for an honest review ***