37 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a fairy tale of the best kind., April 28, 2009
This review is from: To Beguile A Beast (The Legend of the Four Soldiers) (Mass Market Paperback)
This book had me laughing, crying, flying through the pages, and left me with that warm and fuzzy feeling only a truly great romance story can.
Our heroine is fleeing London (an escaping mistress) with her 2 children and goes to a filthy castle in Scotland where she meets the tall, well built, but scarred (inside and out) 1 eyed hero.
The bits of fairy tale that start each chapter, the tension of the children's father hunting them down because they are his (as is she, his former mistress he won't let go), the 'beast' coming back to life after so many years shut away in solitude...
just holy wow and fantastic reading all around. The romance has time to build into lust and then love, the children and supporting characters are charming, and the pace is great. Elizabeth Hoyt has a way with story telling and words that had me flying through each page. I'm not a big historical fan, but I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!
re-read potential for sure.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Just needed a little more....something (and SPOILER ALERT!), March 7, 2011
This review is from: To Beguile A Beast (The Legend of the Four Soldiers) (Mass Market Paperback)
WARNING: FULL OF SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, lemme get this straight. Sir Alistair is a scarred recluse, hiding from the world in his family's filthy castle, interacting with as few people as possible. Then, like a present left under his tree by Santa, comes a beautiful woman fleeing from her emotionally abusive and controlling lover. Sent by a friend to be Sir Alistair's housekeeper, Helen literally drops into the man's lap.
Before you can say "facial disfigurement", Helen is sprawled naked over his desk like a teenager's homework, giving him the first sex he's had since before he lost half his face to a vengeful Indian tribe. He has been cringing from the the gaze of the world, only venturing out when he has to, yet we're supposed to believe that all of a sudden he's going to be flirting and pursuing this gorgeous woman? I'm not saying a man like him wouldn't be attractive to me, or probably 90% of the thinking female world. But this book makes him sad and lonely, hating the world and hiding from it. All of a sudden he's found the confidence to pursue this babe in a fairly short time, despite the fact that the only sexual pleasure he's had in years is from himself?
Ok, they find a lovely little world of hot sex and mutual passion, so what does he do when he finds out the truth about Helen's life? He rises to the occasion once again in more than the physical sense, but not before he chastises her for getting pregnant out of wedlock twice AND calls her a whore. More than once. Not just a whore, but a common whore. Let me remind you that this is supposedly a man who makes women scream with horror when they take a gander at his face. Let me also remind you that this is a guy who took at stab at having a "common whore" and she wouldn't even lie down for him without more money. Helen has spent several weeks lying down, sitting down, standing up, kneeling down for him, of her own free will, because she finds him sexy and attractive...and he repays her that way. Most women would have slapped the eyepatch right off his face and found someone else to help her out of her dilemma. But sweet Helen forgives him, and even loves him.
He (occasionally) gives a thought to her beauty, his ugliness, and how it will feel to face the inevitable moment when she smacks herself on the forehead and says, "Good God, are you ugly!" But he never speaks to her about his fears, using their time together merely to nail her in a number of innovative ways that, to me, show a higher degree of confidence than you'd think from the theme of the book. And she never explains to him that, ok, a small part of his overall looks are slightly awry, but he more than makes up for some scars and missing body parts with his phenomenal brain, incredible talent, bulging wallet, gorgeous hair, fabulous body and highly glorious manhood. To read this book, you kind of wonder why he didn't just slap a bag over his head and wander the streets of Edinburgh naked as a jaybird--he'd have had a woman in 20 minutes.
And when she tells him she loves him, words that the average scarred, misanthropic recluse (his words) would love to hear, does he tell her his fears? No, he just lies there like a lump, letting her walk out of his life. (Granted, after that degree of hot sex, maybe he was merely asleep, like a normal man would be). It takes his sister showing up to smack some sense into him. Now, this is the sister he hadn't seen for a number of years, remember? But all of a sudden, when he has a woman, she is regularly riding in to save the day.
This was a really good book, and I enjoyed it for the most part. I've only just discovered Hoyt's books and they really are a cut above the average sensual romance. But I'd have enjoyed it a lot more if his behavior bore out the emotionally damaged guy he was being portrayed as, and if they had shared their weaknesses and needs as much as they shared their lust-engorged body parts. Then I would have felt that this book was as perfect as it could have been.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well crafted historical romance, May 19, 2009
This review is from: To Beguile A Beast (The Legend of the Four Soldiers) (Mass Market Paperback)
I never seem to tire of the old Beauty and the Beast plot lines. I'm not sure why, but I find it--and the Ugly Duckling stories-- to be redeeming in some way. Perhaps it is my innate distaste for the way modern society focuses on appearance, but I really enjoy it when one--or both--characters don't follow the 'they're so beautiful' mold.
This is the first book by Elizabeth Hoyt that I have read, and I must say I wasn't disappointed. She has a fresh approach to historical romance and her characters are well developed--from the servants to the heroes. Every single one of them is memorable.
I particularly enjoyed the fact that the heroine was a 'fallen' woman who didn't fit the 'perfect' heroine mold either.
To Beguile a Beast was a very satisfying book with an even more satisfying theme.
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