Review: To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt

CAN A WOUNDED BEAST . . .

Reclusive Sir Alistair Munroe has hidden in his castle ever since returning from the Colonies, scarred inside and out. But when a mysterious beauty arrives at his door, the passions he’s kept suppressed for years begin to awaken.

TRUST A BEAUTY WITH A PAST . . .

Running from past mistakes has taken legendary beauty Helen Fitzwilliam from the luxury of the ton to a crumbling Scottish castle . . . and a job as a housekeeper. Yet Helen is determined to start a new life and she won’t let dust-or a beast of a man-scare her away.

TO TAME HIS MOST SECRET DESIRES?

Beneath Helen’s beautiful façade, Alistair finds a courageous and sensual woman. A woman who doesn’t back away from his surliness-or his scars. But just as he begins to believe in true love, Helen’s secret past threatens to tear them apart. Now both Beast and Beauty must fight for the one thing neither believed they could ever find-a happy ever after.

This is the third book in Hoyt’s Legend of the Four Soliders series. Helen Fitzwilliam had been the Duke of Lister’s mistress for years. As her children start getting older, Helen finally fully grasps how being the bastard son and daughter of a duke will affect her children. The only problem is that she knows the Duke of Lister; he doesn’t let things go that he considers his possessions. Though he hadn’t come to her in over three years, Helen knows that he would never willingly let them go. With the help of her new friend, Lady Vale, Helen and her children head to Scotland where she will present herself as Sir Alistair Munroe’s housekeeper.

Alastair wants nothing more than to be left alone to his work. When a beautiful woman and two young children show up on his doorstep, he wants nothing more to turn them away. He finds that he it’s not so easy, especially with someone as determined as Helen. Before long, Alastair begins to enjoy the sounds of life within the castle that he thought would be forever dark.

Both Alastair and Helen are wary of trusting the other. Helen has been judged by her looks her entire life. Every time Alastair calls her “beautiful”, she cringes a little. Alastair can’t believe someone as beautiful as Helen could be happy with someone that looks as horrible as he does. The massacre at Spinners Falls is never far from his mind; he is reminded of it every single day.

I really liked this book. Helen was definitely an unconventional heroine, which I always appreciate. The whole plot of “the evil duke won’t rest until he punishes the woman that dared to leave him” is a little old, but because it wasn’t the focal point of the story, I was okay with it.

The best part of the book was reading how Helen went from a pampered woman to a servant. She is a mother that would do anything for her children, including doing something that she has no idea how to do. Her growth in this book was the best part of the book, imo. She wasn’t too arrogant to do what needed to be done. I can really appreciate that.

4 out of 5.

This book is available from Forever Publishing. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

Other books in the series:

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