A free installment
Lauralynn Elliott
Contemporary Romance/Fairytale
Published in 2011
H/h - Christopher/Rose
Setting: Present time.
Read in Jan, 2012.
My rating: 
[spoiler alert]
Another twist of the classic “Beauty and the Beast” tale and in another contemporary is how it’s told. After reading Skye Warren’s novella Beauty Touched the Beast, I thought to give this a try. This book is also a free novella but very short, about 9 pages or so and no love scenes. I know. Bummer, that was!
Christopher has been cursed by a witch 3 yrs ago and been living in the ruins of a mansion/castle (?), not sure. He’s filthy rich I got that and used to be a playboy. But karma had befallen on him and life hasn’t been the same. No one knows he still resides in his place and a recluse without a doubt. Every day, he’d see Rose, a girl who has inhabited the nearby cottage very recently with her parents, from the shadows. She’s sweet and an artist but there’s something about her that calls out to him. So, to gain her attentions (somehow without showing himself), he carves beautiful pieces of woodworks and leaves them for her.
Rose is intrigued by this place. She loves paining in these ruins and feeling the environment. One day, she felt like exploring it. It was shadowy and kinda creepy, yet she still found the rose woodcarving on the very 1st day of her exploration. She immediately fell in love with the artwork and wanted to know the artist. The next day, she gets lucky but he won’t show himself. He would talk to her from another room. He says he’s badly scarred and not ready to reveal himself. But, Rose has found a kindred spirit and she’s up for taking a chance on him...
Honestly, I really liked the premise. If you can suspend your beliefs about a few things and don’t question about certain stuffs, I think you’ll like it. I’ve never read anything by this author before but it was a good one IMO. My few complaints were: 1st, the paragraphs of the story should’ve been formatted well. It bugged me a bit. 2nd, definitely I wanted more on the ‘hours’ of conversations Rose and Christopher apparently had. It would’ve given me a whole lot of information about the depth of their relationship because ultimately, when she said ILU to him, I was still kinda vacillating about it all. I’m not complaining about the lack of love scenes but I would’ve loved to know about the depth of their passion for each-other as well. For 9 pages, I guess it was ok and worth my 20 mins.
Honestly, I really liked the premise. If you can suspend your beliefs about a few things and don’t question about certain stuffs, I think you’ll like it. I’ve never read anything by this author before but it was a good one IMO. My few complaints were: 1st, the paragraphs of the story should’ve been formatted well. It bugged me a bit. 2nd, definitely I wanted more on the ‘hours’ of conversations Rose and Christopher apparently had. It would’ve given me a whole lot of information about the depth of their relationship because ultimately, when she said ILU to him, I was still kinda vacillating about it all. I’m not complaining about the lack of love scenes but I would’ve loved to know about the depth of their passion for each-other as well. For 9 pages, I guess it was ok and worth my 20 mins.
The ending was funny, actually. It had a little twist I found good, wasn’t expecting it. 3.5 stars and I would’ve certainly given it a higher rating if I got a few more pages of romancing the beast, or so to speak. ;) lol
“The Beast in the Mirror” is a free installment and can be downloaded from smashwords.
2 comments:
Thank you for your review! :)
You're most welcome Ms. Elliott. Thanks so much for dropping by. :)
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