To Beguile A Beast by – Elizabeth Hoyt 

First line:  ”It was as the carriage bumped around a bend and the decrepit castle loomed into view in the dusk that Helen Fitzwilliam finally, – and rather belatedly, – realized that the whole trip may’’ve been a horrible mistake.”

Beast:  Man, disfigured in a terrible war he shouldn’’t have been a part of in the first place.

Beguiled:  A beauty whose need to hide is greater than her fear of the monster who opened the door to her and her two very tired children. 

Hiding from the powerful duke who fathered her two children,  Abigail, nine, and Jamie, five, the duke’s tentacles stretch as far and wide, as his money.

Abigail is a serious child with dark moods and deep introspection.

Jamie, however, is ruled by his stomach and stray animals.

I love how Ms. Hoyt’’s characters had to reach past a man’’s terrifying appearance to see his beauty.  How both children are still children, fearing the future, yet living in the moment.

Interesting twist for the heroine, as former lover of the duke.  How could you not be drawn in?

For:  Readers who want charm and emotion.  You will be swayed. -   Kathy Wheeler