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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
I received an ARC copy in a giveaway. With glee, I tore into the packaging when the book arrived at my door. Since I received my Kindle, I had not read an actual book. That did not hinder me. I finished the book in 5hrs 29m. I forgot I was reading. The story was that amazing. You are transported away to a land that had me thinking Avalon was just beyond the bend. The characters are well rounded and likable. I found myself very sad when I turned the last page. I didn't want to leave the world that Ms. Sparks created for us.
The best thing about this book is the story is majority of it. The physical romance is limited and does not over shadow the rest of the story. That allows the wonderful writing to shine out bright. It's a welcome treasure.
My physical copy has made it's way to my sister. I am not sure she will give it back. That is ok. I bought the kindle version.
The best thing about this book is the story is majority of it. The physical romance is limited and does not over shadow the rest of the story. That allows the wonderful writing to shine out bright. It's a welcome treasure.
My physical copy has made it's way to my sister. I am not sure she will give it back. That is ok. I bought the kindle version.
CWs for child harm and death, including the threatened rape of a child; death by fire/burns; and unwanted sexual advances/threat of sexual assault
How to Tame a Beast in Seven Days
4 Star
A lovely and original retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
As one of the Embraced, children born during the convergence of two moons, Luciana Vintello is sequestered in a convent on the Isle of Moon until her father arrives with a shocking revelation - she must take the place of her deceased twin as the betrothed to Leo Benwick, Lord Protector of the Realm.
Leo, the Beast of Benwick, is a lightning magnet. Unfortunately, his "gift" makes it impossible for him to touch others. Bue when he meets Luciana, he realizes that she may just be the one person he can touch . . . if he can save her from the killers sent to assassinate her.
Both Leo and Luciana are very appealing characters and one cannot help but root for their romance given the sadness and loneliness of their childhoods. Moreover, Sparks thankfully avoids the annoying secret keeping trope that could have arisen from Luciana's secret identity.
The world building is very intriguing with all manner of supernatural creatures ranging from elves to dragons as well as a host of paranormal abilities from shape-shifting to harnessing lightening to seeing ghosts.
Overall, an excellent beginning to the series and I look forward to continuing.
4 Star
A lovely and original retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
As one of the Embraced, children born during the convergence of two moons, Luciana Vintello is sequestered in a convent on the Isle of Moon until her father arrives with a shocking revelation - she must take the place of her deceased twin as the betrothed to Leo Benwick, Lord Protector of the Realm.
Leo, the Beast of Benwick, is a lightning magnet. Unfortunately, his "gift" makes it impossible for him to touch others. Bue when he meets Luciana, he realizes that she may just be the one person he can touch . . . if he can save her from the killers sent to assassinate her.
Both Leo and Luciana are very appealing characters and one cannot help but root for their romance given the sadness and loneliness of their childhoods. Moreover, Sparks thankfully avoids the annoying secret keeping trope that could have arisen from Luciana's secret identity.
The world building is very intriguing with all manner of supernatural creatures ranging from elves to dragons as well as a host of paranormal abilities from shape-shifting to harnessing lightening to seeing ghosts.
Overall, an excellent beginning to the series and I look forward to continuing.
4 1\2 Stars
I received a copy of this book from netgalley for an honest review.
How to Tame a Beast in Seven Days is the first book I've read by Kerrelyn Sparks, and I was pleasantly surprised. The world in this book (and hopefully series) has similarities to Earth, including the name of Aerthlan, with five kingdoms, four that span the "mainland", and the last consisting of two islands, one small, Moon, and one very small, the Isle of Mist. On the island of Moon, they have a convent and then the rest of the island is filled with normal people. The convent worships the two Moons, Lessa and Luna. On the night the two Moons come together in an embrace, in what we would call an eclipse, any children that are born are considered Embraced. Both our hero and heroine are Embraced.
Leofric, the Beast of Benwick, is the Lord Protector of Eberon. He also happens to be Embraced, when he was five years old he got hit by lightening, and it's power stayed in his body until he touched his nanny and killed her. From then on, he had little to no physical touch with other humans, and usually only with a drought.
Luciana of Vindalyn, has been raised as an orphan at the Convent of the Two Moons. She's raised with four other girls, the youngest being 15 and Luciana was the oldest at 19. Mother Ginessa, the nun in charge of convent, encouraged the girls to spend time together when they weren't doing chores, because they couldn't stay quiet during meditation and prayer hours. Luciana had started to learn how to write and draw copies of certain books that the convent sells all over the mainland, since the nuns, and girls, are all fluent in all four mainland languages. Before Luciana can become too comfortable learning to make the books, a man shows up with two servants and a coffin. It had started storming on the island of Moon just before the stranger showed up, and it was raining very, very hard. One of the nuns came to get Luciana, to take her to Mother Ginessa's office, where she and the stranger waited.
Luciana learned that the stranger was actually her father, the coffin contained her identical twin sister, and she needs to leave with her father as soon as the raining stops, so that she can meet the Lord Protector of Eberon, as Tatiana, since they are to be married in two months at the king's residence. She's not sure if she wants to take the place of a sister she never met. At least, never met while her sister, Tatiana, was alive. Luciana, and Tatiana when she was alive, is able to see ghosts, to talk to them. That comes very much in hand later in the story, as she, Tatiana and their young ghost friend Chris hunt for the assassins the king has sent to kill Luciana and her father, and the Lord Protector if they are able.
Leofric, or Leo as his friends call him, started toward Vindalyn with almost his whole army, but shortly after, they're contacted by some of the troops left on the boundary with one of the other kingdoms, saying there was renewed fighting there. Leo sends some more of the army there. Then he stopped near another border and he walked right into some fighting with dragons, who'd stolen some kids from a border town. He ended up having to use his lightening power to stop the dragons and get all the kids back. He leaves a few more troops with this town, to help them rebuild and to ward off any dragons that might try to stop by again. From there he makes his way to Vindalyn and his betrothed. He sets it up so that it seems like only a small unit of troops make it there, almost like a scout team, with his best friend Nevis Harden as the officer in charge. Considering Nevis is the third highest officer, after Leo and Nevis' father, General Harden, he is more than qualified to lead a small unit of troops. This way, Leo is able to check out the lay of the land, so to speak. He tries to find out who the assassins could possibly be, check out the priests' rooms, and keep an eye out for security issues that Vindalyn might have.
From this point on, the action takes off, with Luciana and Leo meeting several times before she knows his name. He compliments her every chance he gets, which ended up twisting her up, since she found him so attractive but she knew she had to marry the Beast to save her father's life. She starts thinking of Leo as her dream man, all the way up until she officially meets him a few days later. Then she's not sure what she thinks of him. Soon after, assassins start attaching, poisoning, shooting arrows, and so on and so forth!! All within a couple days time. There really isn't a full moment throughout the book! Luciana's spies are helpful throughout most of the book, finding out about who had attacked them, once in enough time to get help for the poison. Through all of this, Leo has had suspicions about who Luciana is, but right before they leave Vindalyn to go to the king's court, he finds a letter that her foster sisters had sent her, calling her Luciana. What her father had done for years, hiding that his wife had had Embraced twins, was considered treason, as that both babies should have been killed as far as the king believed. Then when Tatiana died and their father asked Luciana to take over Tatiana's life, so that he wouldn't be killed by the king (death isn't an excuse for not being available to do the Kong's bidding, don'tcha know?). There's so very many reasons Leo could use to kill her and her father, if he hadn't already fallen in love with her. In a happy accident a day or so after he learns all her secrets from her, they find out he's able to touch her, even when his body is carrying much of the energy from the last storm he was caught in. For a man that's had very limited human contact, and that's only after an extended drought, he's very happy to find out he can hug, among other things, his beautiful wife.
Would I recommend this book? Yes! The only type of people I would tell to skip this, is the kind of people that everything has to be absolutely familiar to them when they read a book. If you don't mind the world is different, and really you could say it means Europe or Australia, which ever one your least familiar with; and the religions are different, they're more like Pagans. If you can overlook, or be excited by, those couple things, plus that pesky extra moon, then you're golden!! You're ready to check out an amazing new series, that I'm hoping will provide hours and hours of fun!!
I received a copy of this book from netgalley for an honest review.
How to Tame a Beast in Seven Days is the first book I've read by Kerrelyn Sparks, and I was pleasantly surprised. The world in this book (and hopefully series) has similarities to Earth, including the name of Aerthlan, with five kingdoms, four that span the "mainland", and the last consisting of two islands, one small, Moon, and one very small, the Isle of Mist. On the island of Moon, they have a convent and then the rest of the island is filled with normal people. The convent worships the two Moons, Lessa and Luna. On the night the two Moons come together in an embrace, in what we would call an eclipse, any children that are born are considered Embraced. Both our hero and heroine are Embraced.
Leofric, the Beast of Benwick, is the Lord Protector of Eberon. He also happens to be Embraced, when he was five years old he got hit by lightening, and it's power stayed in his body until he touched his nanny and killed her. From then on, he had little to no physical touch with other humans, and usually only with a drought.
Luciana of Vindalyn, has been raised as an orphan at the Convent of the Two Moons. She's raised with four other girls, the youngest being 15 and Luciana was the oldest at 19. Mother Ginessa, the nun in charge of convent, encouraged the girls to spend time together when they weren't doing chores, because they couldn't stay quiet during meditation and prayer hours. Luciana had started to learn how to write and draw copies of certain books that the convent sells all over the mainland, since the nuns, and girls, are all fluent in all four mainland languages. Before Luciana can become too comfortable learning to make the books, a man shows up with two servants and a coffin. It had started storming on the island of Moon just before the stranger showed up, and it was raining very, very hard. One of the nuns came to get Luciana, to take her to Mother Ginessa's office, where she and the stranger waited.
Luciana learned that the stranger was actually her father, the coffin contained her identical twin sister, and she needs to leave with her father as soon as the raining stops, so that she can meet the Lord Protector of Eberon, as Tatiana, since they are to be married in two months at the king's residence. She's not sure if she wants to take the place of a sister she never met. At least, never met while her sister, Tatiana, was alive. Luciana, and Tatiana when she was alive, is able to see ghosts, to talk to them. That comes very much in hand later in the story, as she, Tatiana and their young ghost friend Chris hunt for the assassins the king has sent to kill Luciana and her father, and the Lord Protector if they are able.
Leofric, or Leo as his friends call him, started toward Vindalyn with almost his whole army, but shortly after, they're contacted by some of the troops left on the boundary with one of the other kingdoms, saying there was renewed fighting there. Leo sends some more of the army there. Then he stopped near another border and he walked right into some fighting with dragons, who'd stolen some kids from a border town. He ended up having to use his lightening power to stop the dragons and get all the kids back. He leaves a few more troops with this town, to help them rebuild and to ward off any dragons that might try to stop by again. From there he makes his way to Vindalyn and his betrothed. He sets it up so that it seems like only a small unit of troops make it there, almost like a scout team, with his best friend Nevis Harden as the officer in charge. Considering Nevis is the third highest officer, after Leo and Nevis' father, General Harden, he is more than qualified to lead a small unit of troops. This way, Leo is able to check out the lay of the land, so to speak. He tries to find out who the assassins could possibly be, check out the priests' rooms, and keep an eye out for security issues that Vindalyn might have.
From this point on, the action takes off, with Luciana and Leo meeting several times before she knows his name. He compliments her every chance he gets, which ended up twisting her up, since she found him so attractive but she knew she had to marry the Beast to save her father's life. She starts thinking of Leo as her dream man, all the way up until she officially meets him a few days later. Then she's not sure what she thinks of him. Soon after, assassins start attaching, poisoning, shooting arrows, and so on and so forth!! All within a couple days time. There really isn't a full moment throughout the book! Luciana's spies are helpful throughout most of the book, finding out about who had attacked them, once in enough time to get help for the poison. Through all of this, Leo has had suspicions about who Luciana is, but right before they leave Vindalyn to go to the king's court, he finds a letter that her foster sisters had sent her, calling her Luciana. What her father had done for years, hiding that his wife had had Embraced twins, was considered treason, as that both babies should have been killed as far as the king believed. Then when Tatiana died and their father asked Luciana to take over Tatiana's life, so that he wouldn't be killed by the king (death isn't an excuse for not being available to do the Kong's bidding, don'tcha know?). There's so very many reasons Leo could use to kill her and her father, if he hadn't already fallen in love with her. In a happy accident a day or so after he learns all her secrets from her, they find out he's able to touch her, even when his body is carrying much of the energy from the last storm he was caught in. For a man that's had very limited human contact, and that's only after an extended drought, he's very happy to find out he can hug, among other things, his beautiful wife.
Would I recommend this book? Yes! The only type of people I would tell to skip this, is the kind of people that everything has to be absolutely familiar to them when they read a book. If you don't mind the world is different, and really you could say it means Europe or Australia, which ever one your least familiar with; and the religions are different, they're more like Pagans. If you can overlook, or be excited by, those couple things, plus that pesky extra moon, then you're golden!! You're ready to check out an amazing new series, that I'm hoping will provide hours and hours of fun!!
Read/Listened for Fun (Physical Book/Audible)
Overall Rating: 4.00
Story Rating: 4.25
Character Rating: 3.75
Audio Rating: 3.75 (not part of the overall rating)
Read for fun. It was fun and made me look forward to the rest of the series :)
Part of Read It, Rate It Reviews!
Overall Rating: 4.00
Story Rating: 4.25
Character Rating: 3.75
Audio Rating: 3.75 (not part of the overall rating)
Read for fun. It was fun and made me look forward to the rest of the series :)
Part of Read It, Rate It Reviews!
I love Kerrelyn Sparks' Love at Stake series so when I saw that she was starting a whole new series, I got super excited. And this book did not disappoint!
I was hooked from the very star. Luciana was raised as an orphan for 19 years and her dad randomly comes to her asking for a favor or and she find out she had alot more family than she thought. Also she can freaking see ghosts. Thats just cool. Then We have Leo.. who is just a big giant lonely sweetheart.. who you know can absorb the power of lightening and kills everyone he touches. No big deal.
I loved the connection the characters had. I loved the story line and I loved the world it was set it. The book was just fantastic overall. The only thing I didn't like was some of the dialogue was a little bit cheesy.
I was hooked from the very star. Luciana was raised as an orphan for 19 years and her dad randomly comes to her asking for a favor or and she find out she had alot more family than she thought. Also she can freaking see ghosts. Thats just cool. Then We have Leo.. who is just a big giant lonely sweetheart.. who you know can absorb the power of lightening and kills everyone he touches. No big deal.
I loved the connection the characters had. I loved the story line and I loved the world it was set it. The book was just fantastic overall. The only thing I didn't like was some of the dialogue was a little bit cheesy.
adventurous
hopeful
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
I have wiplash
It started off so great! It had promise as a good fantasy with romance aspects. Then suddenly it dove off a cliff of mysogyn and arrogant possessiveness.
Look. I LIKE asshat heroes. When I am prepared to read them. This did not set up the hero well, and his sudden 180 into chest beating and LITERALLY BRUSHING OFF WHEN SHE WAS ASSAULTED.
Done.
I'm done.
Okay. I picked it back up....
Can I rate this zero stars?
It started off so great! It had promise as a good fantasy with romance aspects. Then suddenly it dove off a cliff of mysogyn and arrogant possessiveness.
Look. I LIKE asshat heroes. When I am prepared to read them. This did not set up the hero well, and his sudden 180 into chest beating and LITERALLY BRUSHING OFF WHEN SHE WAS ASSAULTED.
Done.
I'm done.
Okay. I picked it back up....
Can I rate this zero stars?
*snicker* I just can't get over the lightning rod metaphor. But dick euphemisms aside, the world of this book as a whole was interesting, but the pacing of the story struggled big time for me. I won't be reading the rest of the series.