Very well done!

I enjoyed this novel very much. The descriptions and emotions are great. Elliott is a wonderful man. The people in his village might see a ruined face scarred by the fire. But I see a good man who loved his family and put his life on the line in attempt to save his loved ones. Beauty is only outward and fades with the passage of time. The heart is forever. Excellent book, Ms. Barton. ( )

So I was in the mood for a beauty and the beast themed romance, and since I have a hard time finding queer versions of those, I had to go with het. This book was rated pretty highly on Amazon, so I figured why not?

Well...I'm not sure how it got such a high rating on Amazon, is all I really have to say.

The writing style is so stilted and disjointed that I never lost myself in the story; I was always completely aware I was reading a book. The conversations between the characters (and there were many) just rang so false most of the time. No one talks like they do in real settings.

I didn't care that much for Isabella, the heroine of the story; she just wasn't likable as a main character. I preferred Esme (her best friend) much more, and I think Esme would have been better suited to Elliot (the hero), although he too was pretty bland. I never really felt like I got to "know" the characters all that well.

And holy unfinished plot Batman! For playing such a large role in the story, we never find out what happened with Anthony the budding sociopath or Isabella's father. Did her father do something to try to rein in Anthony's murderous tendencies, or did he just remain silent? I don't expect that Anthony would face justice for what he did, but it was just like, oh, this happened, let's all forget about it now.

For the record, I also never really understood why Elliot decided to get married to a woman he'd never met. He spent most of the book trying to avoid his new wife and seemed completely uncomfortable that he was sharing his home with some strange chick he finds attractive. I kept expecting the author to explain why he decided to get married, and that really never happened. Oh, sure, she threw in an aside about how he had been lonely and Isabella's father had approached him about a wife for sale, but it didn't make any sense and I felt like there must be something more there. Well, if there was, it was left out of the story as well.

Why are all of these beast-esque dudes super hot on their non-scarred sides, by the way? Why can't a dude be average, or maybe below average, on his non-scarred side and still find love? It irritates me.

Meh. I was completely indifferent to this book by the end. ( )