In Which I Review To Beguile A Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt

What else did I do this weekend?

I READ ANOTHER FREAKING BOOK.

This is very exciting for me.  The calendar and work are closing in on me like... something that closes in on people and makes them panicky and claustrophobic.  At this point in time, the most important thing for me is to seize the "ohmygodit'ssoquiet"moment when I can.  It's good for me.  It's good for Boy Scout.  And more importantly, it's good for all of the people who have to interact with me on a daily basis.

Sunday there was quiet time.  And it was very, very good.  For everyone involved.

At any rate, I plowed through the third book in The Legend of the Four Soldiers series like nobody's business.  Beguile picks up weeks after To Seduce a Sinner leaves off, with on-the-run-mistress Helen Fitzwilliam appearing on the doorstep of Castle Greaves with her two children and an assignment from Sinner's Melisande to be the new housekeeper.  Greeting them not-so-jovially at the door of the decrepit manor is Alistair Munroe, leading naturalist, master of the domain, seriously mutilated former solider.

Aside from the dudes who were burned alive at Spinner's Falls, it could be argued that Alistair Munroe suffered the worst torture: the natives cut off two of his fingers, took out his eye, and carved up the side of his face.  Beyond the understandable need to recuperate after such a traumatic event, Munroe has sequestered himself because his appearance tends to illicit obnoxious reactions from the faint-hearted ladies of the day.

Helen acknowledges that his scars are ugly, and it takes her a bit to get used to looking at him, but Alistair's looks are not the reason he is the Beast in this scenario.  Alistair has also spent way too long by himself in his dirty castle, and he has the attitude of a rabid hippo.  Fortunately he comes to terms with his new (and adamant) house guest and switches from "why won't you leave?" to "why can't I get you out of my head?" and "can we please make out?" fairly quickly.

The main conflict in the book is that Helen is on the run from her Sugar Daddy, the Duke of Lister.  Lister is a rather possessive man who, while never acting outwardly violent, certainly has enough peripheral thoughts of strangling Helen to make him an alarming villain.  Of course he comes for his children, of course he kidnaps them, of course Alistair has already grown into the role of father/protector and all but races off to fetch them from the bad man.

Ultimately this is beside the point.  What we have here is another lovely, sexy romance between two adult people who face their hopes, dreams, and fears as best they can in order to be together.  Could they stand to have a conversation or two more in life?  Sure.  But who can't?  To Beguile a Beast is an excellent addition to the Four Soldiers series, and it has made me all the more intrigued for To Desire a Devil.  I know who it's about (no, I'm not telling yet...), but I can't figure out how it's about that person.  I guess it's time to go find out!