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In When Beauty Tamed the Beast, Eloisa James’ second fairy tale based novel, our hero is Dr. Gregory House, the TV doctor with the crotchety brilliant medical mind. OK, so our hero isn’t actually Gregory House. He’s Piers Yelverton, the Earl of Marchant, and he practices his snarky, deductive medicine in a huge castle in Wales, but he’s essentially House complete with cane, problematic familial relationships, debilitating pain, and a very nasty tongue. Piers, like House, is a Beast.
The caustic Piers lives a life of self-imposed exile in his castle turned hospital in Wales. He was severely injured when young and suffers from chronic pain in his leg. He practices brilliant medicine on the locals — he is superb at diagnosing and treating their maladies. (He is not a surgeon — the cutting is done by his handsome French cousin Sebastien with whom Piers works.) Piers avoids anything resembling affection from others and has absolutely no plans to ever marry and produce an heir. In fact, all who know him believe his childhood accident left him impotent.
Our heroine, the beauteous Linnet Berry Thrynne, needs a hasty marriage. All of London, including her father, believe that due to a few kisses with a prince and a dress that made her look enceinte, she’s probably pregnant and definitely disgraced. Linnet’s father — desperate for a groom — and Piers’ father — desperate for an heir — devise the perfect solution: Linnet will marry Piers, call the prince’s child his, and give the Marchant family a legal, blue-blooded heir. Linnet, despite knowing perfectly well the prince did no more than kiss her, agrees to this scheme because her father is insistent, no one in London will speak to her and, well, she rather likes the idea of marriage to an impotent man — she found the whole kissing thing with the prince quite distasteful. So, off the Wales she heads, the Beauty heading into the lair of the Beast.
Ms. James does a nice job with her fairy tale. Linnet is as intelligent as she is gorgeous and she’s more than capable of standing up to Piers and his almost intolerable rudeness. The two learn to like and love one another and their interactions are witty and passionate (although it takes Linnet longer than it should to realize Piers’ impotency is the stuff of legend). They are surrounded by fabulous secondary characters — I loved Piers’ divorced parents and the marvelously named butler Prufrock. Best of all is the setting — Piers’ castle is a bona fide hospital full of interesting patients and staff and genuinely engrossing medical dilemmas. The last quarter of the book is a moving medical tragedy — an epidemic of scarlet fever strikes the area and Piers and his staff struggle to save as many lives as they can. Piers is an appealing hero — smart, entertaining, very sexy and, underneath all his barbs, a genuinely good man.
I enjoyed this book, but it was still a bit of a disappointment. When Ms. James is on as a writer, she writes with grace and insight. To me, her fairy tale series (the first is A Kiss at Midnight) doesn’t have the depth found in the best of her other romances. I liked Linnet but I didn’t find her memorable. (I felt the same way about Kate in A Kiss at Midnight.) Piers’ reluctance to commit to Linnet irked me; I didn’t believe the damage from his childhood had the power to keep him from grasping the joy he finds with her. When he sends her away, despite her avowal of love, I wanted to smack him. Frankly I found Robert and Marguerite (Piers’ parents) the more affecting couple.
However, these are quibbles. When Beauty Tamed the Beast is an interesting and satisfying read. By the end of the novel, Piers and Linnet have survived tragedy with grace. Their story is moving and often wickedly funny. Piers, unlike his TV doppelganger, gets the happily ever after he deserves. I am sure — and remember it is a fairy tale — Piers and Linnet will have long and loving lives healing and helping the people of Wales and will never once be sued for malpractice. The cranky Dr. House might call this tale implausible nonsense but I call it well-done romantic fiction.
Grade: B
Book Type: European Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 17/02/11
Publication Date: 02/2011
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
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I think this title may be a good example of what others refer to as a contemporary romance dropped into an historical setting. With the exception of Linnet’s father and aunt, I generally liked (or grew to like) all of the characters, I enjoyed the banter between many of them, and the book got stronger as it went on (a better 2nd half than first).
But no one spoke or behaved in ways that suggest any historical accuracy. James opens the book with one of the most convoluted plots I think I’ve ever read. Dabney did an admirable job in her review of describing it in a very appealing way. But, really: she wears a dress to a ball that makes her look pregnant (no one caught it when she was trying it on? dressing for the event?), is instantly rebuffed by the entire ton – including her father – during that single event, and the solution reached the following morning is to marry her off to a man whose father is so desperate for an heir he’ll take anyone’s child. And the man she has to tempt into marrying her is doesn’t want to be married at all. But since he’s impotent, she’s beautiful, and she isn’t interested in having sex anyway, she’s sure she’s got a 50/50 shot at making it all work. . . .
It reminds me of several of SEP’s more improbable (and squicky) setups. Given that I’ve been able to suspend my disbelief with SEP long enough to get sucked in and enjoy an otherwise fine romance, I did the same here. Except the characters continue to behave and speak as very contemporary people. As long as readers are happy with a fairy tale in pretty much every sense of the word, and not an historical romance, this is an amusing read. It has never made my own list of Top 100 reads, however.
Interesting that you brought up SEP’s books. My daughter and I were discussing them recently. I mostly enjoyed them, especially on audio, years ago although a couple did squick me out (woman raping sleeping man, anyone?). However, this spring when I tried to relisten to my favorites they really didn’t hold up for me. Heroes and heroines acting in ways that were absolutely not ok.
I also relistened to this books, and I agree with your take on it. Suspend disbelief and think “fairly tale” and go with it. I did enjoy it.
This is my absolute favorite Eloisa James book — I love the ending beyond all reason…it’s so emotional and over the top and I’ve broken the spine on my copy rereading it. I’m getting really excited about her next book, too — the last series didn’t work as much for me, so I’m hoping she’s getting back to the feel of the fairytale books.
From the reviews Wilde in Love sounds really good. I’m looking forward to it as well.
This book completely changed how I felt about Eloisa James, and that rarely happens for me as a reader. Prior to reading this book, I had tried a couple of other of her books and DNF’d them our of irritation. The irony, intelligence and and humor of the writing in this one though forced me to reevaluate how I was interpreting her voice as a writer. I’ve since gone back and read a couple of others and really enjoyed them as well.