Judith Ivory - Beast

American heiress Louise Vandermeer has agreed to marry a European aristocrat. Her intended is rumored to be a hideously ugly man, a prospect that propels her into a reckless shipboard affair with a compelling stranger she never sees in the light of day. Unbeknownst to Louise, her mystery man is actually her betrothed, Charles d'Harcourt, whose romantic prank backfires when he becomes smitten with his own fiancee.

Comment: I've had my eye on this book for years because I've heard it was a version of Beauty and the Beast and that is my favorite Disney fairytale, therefore I feel curious about books with that theme and also because I've read another book by the author, which I liked and I wanted to get that idea again. Sadly, that didn't happen.

This is the story of Charles Harcourt, a wealthy aristocrat french lord that has interests in perfumes and fragrances and so on and after letters exchanged with a prosper American businessman, he decides to marry that man's daughter without having seen her before.

Trying to get an idea of his unknown fiancé, he travels in the same ship as her family does and what he learns isn't positive as Louise seems vain and not interested in him. He decides to play a joke on her by seducing her and seeing how far would she go. However, the two of them fall in love and Charles doesn't know how to fix things when do meet officially and marry. Will they be happy?

My answer to the question above is pretty much the reflex of my overall opinion and lack of interest in the story: who cares?

I felt disappointed in this story because it's almost idiotic how things progressed and I can't find any similarity in terms of narrative between this book and the one I've read before by the author, which was much better in any level.

This book has one of the themes, or is based on one of the themes I like the most but there's nothing remotely connected to the Beauty and the Beast idea except the heroine is considered gorgeous and the hero less so. Then the plot is one of the silliest in romance, I thought.

Basically, he story develops as such: hero hears heroine doesn't consider him a good party or someone she would like to married to because she heard he didn't look handsome and thought that a given fact. Hero then decides to play a game with heroine and prove to her attraction can exist without physical eye contact, which is absurd because he does see her that way. The best way to play a prank is to pretend to be someone else, never reveal his face and seduce his fiancé. When she obviously gives in, he thinks he should feel superior to have gained the upper hand with a 18 year old girl who appears to be vain and without much personality. However, in their little game - of which she has no clue - he falls in love with her and feel bad by having deceived her so what does he think to do? He will disappear as her unknown lover, be her husband and make her feel for him the same way she felt about the man in the ship where all this happened.

I feel really surprised this can be considered a love story because although the idea has some interest,, namely the not revealing who he is immediately, I can't go past the notion he was deceiving her on purpose for silly and selfish reasons!

Everything is even worse because, in reality, I don't even like the heroine, she's vain, silly, immature and nothing in her ways of thought, personality or attitudes made me care about her. Not to mention how easily she let herself be seduced, even if she thought she was "in love".

Overall, I consider this book silly. The characters, both the 18 year old and the 30 something hero behaved like children and I can't imagine how one can enjoy reading about such childish behavior and attitudes. I don't care about these characters, nor the challenges they face to be happy. It was all their doing, after all!

The personal characterization, their personalities and bond didn't appeal to me as romance reader, because I don't think they changed or grown or improved themselves by knowing the other or falling in love, nor did they get a new perspective of life and feelings because of that.

There's a HEA, there is a future to look for on their horizon and that's fine but I feel disappointed in the author's attempt to make this more important or special than what it really is by using the Beauty and Beast concept.

I think this isn't a good love story, the plot is silly, the characters not strong enough to be engaging and charismatic. The end is a mess and I was just eager to finish at that point.

One or two scenes are interesting enough but everything considered, this wasn't an appealing book to me.

I can understand why it works for some people and why many readers have enjoyed it, but I like some seriousness in my books, some notion of reality even in comedies. This was just silly.

Grade: 4/10

Judith Ivory - The Proposition

No man, gentleman or otherwise, has ever looked at Lady Edwina Bollash the way the brash, handsome man standing before her is doing now. Edwina has accepted the challenge to transform incorrigible Mich Tremore into a gentleman in just six weeks. And although the linguist is sure she can rise to the task, she isn't at all certain she won't swoon under his frankly sensuous gaze before her job is done.
Mick has lived outside of London society long enough to know that appearances can be deceiving. Edwina might look all buttoned up--the perfect English lady--but there is unleashed passion existing just below her placid facade (not to mention a great pair of legs!). And as she prepares him to take his place in society, Mick prepares Edwina to take her place in his heart...and in his bed.

Comment: This book was recommended to me by several people. They all said the story was good and then I saw the heroine didn't think much of herself and I was sold.
I love stories whre the heroine doesn't think she's good enough but with the hero's love she is proven wrong (oh the miracles of romance).
In this story we have Edwina, she's tall and has freckles and is getting old and is officially a spinster. Then there's Mick, he's poor, a ratcatcher and has several brothers and sisters to help feeding. At first they didn't think they could fall for the other but as time goes by they start seeing in each other the perfect person... Despite they start working together because of a bet, "My Fair Lady" style but in this case she teaches him, the feelings they start developping for each other are serious and ring true.
I have to say, this is such a romantic story. I loved the dialogue and the situations where the protagonists got themselves into and their thoughts felt real, I even felt like crying over a passage of two, such was the sentiment. Some sentences were very emotional, I believe the author has accomplished a great work in the protagonists characterization. There was plenty sexual tension and it was beautiful too.
I also loved the fact the man is the poor one, (although I prefer the opposite) and that his intentions were the best and he was a good person, happy with his life but happier with the heroine. Wonderful.
The end was rather huh? but didn't ruin the book for me, actually the last chapter made me smile because they were happy.
I spent a great time reading this and already recommended to many other friends as well.
It still makes me smile.