In USA Today bestselling author Julie Anne Long’s latest installment in the Palace of Rogues series, an estranged couple decide to fake their way through the London season to repair their good name… but neither are prepared for the genuine sparks that begin flying between them.
A blue-blooded beauty bartered to a Beast…
He would pay any price to possess her. But even though Alexandra Bellamy sacrifices herself to save her family’s fortunes, a shocking betrayal sunders her marriage to a taciturn brute of a war hero, Colonel Magnus Brightwall, before it even begins. Five years of icy separation later, a scandal—with Alexandra at the middle—reunites them, and Magnus issues an they will confront the ton, rescue their reputations, then Magnus will banish her to another continent—forever.
But alone in a suite at the Grand Palace on the Thames, a new battle begins—between pride and the unexpected volcanic passion stirring between them. The danger is Magnus rediscovers why Alexandra is the only woman who could ever break him. And even as she lays bare the beautiful heart beating beneath the battered hide of the near-stranger she married, Alexandra knows she may have already lost him—even as she finally falls fatally, irrevocably in love.
Review:
I can’t even with this series. How do the books keep getting better? The ones before them are already SO DANG GOOD it literally shouldn’t be possible!
The Beast Takes a Bride is somewhat misleading, since he’s already *taken* his bride, 5 years earlier–though because of a horrible misunderstanding on their wedding day, he didn’t actually TAKE her, ifyouknowwhatImean. 😉 Ms Long writes angsty longing and MCs who just can’t communicate effectively with each other for whatever reason like no one else–and this is from the reader who loathes the miscommunication/non-communication trope like no other. With her books I’m actively screaming at the MCs OMG, just TELL him/her! (and yes, I do mean actively–though fortunately not in public…yet) but am still reading with feverish intensity, because I NEED her characters to finally work everything out and I know she’s going to deliver.
But man, does she rip their–and our!–hearts out in the process!
Magnus and Alexandra’s story is absolutely everything I could have possibly wanted from a Palace of Rogues book–the aforementioned angsty longing and eventual HEA with the darkest of dark moments balanced out with absolutely delightful secondary characters–the honeymooning couple! More Dot and Mr. Pike drama! Mrs. Pariseau’s prudish childhood friend who just about had a heart attack every time Mr. Delacourte opened his mouth!–who, even though they’re not at all the focus of the book somehow manage to have layers to their personalities. When poor Mrs. Dawson finally opens her mouth to put Dot at ease I swear I just wanted to give her a grateful hug. I seriously feel like I know these people, and not just the ones who have been there since book 1. Ms Long has a gift for writing characters who feel genuine and are just so kind to each other.
Plus the angsty goodness and steamy scenes that are just so hot. What’s not to love here?
You absolutely could read The Beast Takes a Bride as a standalone, but why would you cheat yourself like that? Read them all–I promise you won’t be sorry!
Rating: 5 stars / A+
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
