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A review by katilew42
The Beast by J.R. Ward
4.0
The first time I read this book, I was between Mary and Jane…unable to have children due to a medical issue but also having made peace with it and confident I didn’t want them.
Fast forward a year and I found myself unexpectedly pregnant, only to lose the pregnancy days later.
Fast forward another year and I was shockingly holding my newborn son, conceived and born naturally, perfectly healthy and happy.
So needless to say, a totally different head space!
5 stars for the in depth portrayal of a couple coming to terms with not having children that one partner wants (though the jump to adoption would have been better served in a follow up book, after a little time); for the convo between V and Jane (though it needed a little more space and follow up!); for the character of Bitty getting fully fleshed out; for the unexpected death scene at the start of the novel.
4 stars for the intro of Jo Early and the quick reveal of her connection to Manny.
3 stars for Layla mooning over Xcor and having a labor/delivery scare that was told only through the eyes of others. Also for Assail and making him slightly more palatable by the end of the book, though the usefulness as a spy was cut unceremoniously short.
2 stars for naming a character Bitty. I get it’s short for Lizabette but still. Ugh. A teen named Bitty is too annoying for words. Also for no follow up for Throe and Naasha discovering what Assail did, especially nice it was pointed out that Throe realized Assail had vanished unexpectedly. Also annoying to layer in Assail’s bisexuality only to abandon it fully by the final scenes. Also for repeating Phury’s addiction story with Assail’s.
1 star for the unforgivable continuity errors in this book. Forgetting how Jane died, referring to the Virgin Scribe, V announcing she’s “dead” when she quite literally left a note that she was abdicating her role. Plus abandoning almost all mention of the training center when Rhage is a trainer and also narrating most of the book. I get it’s an off-shoot series for her to write but for the characters, it’s all the same world. Annoying.
Fast forward a year and I found myself unexpectedly pregnant, only to lose the pregnancy days later.
Fast forward another year and I was shockingly holding my newborn son, conceived and born naturally, perfectly healthy and happy.
So needless to say, a totally different head space!
5 stars for the in depth portrayal of a couple coming to terms with not having children that one partner wants (though the jump to adoption would have been better served in a follow up book, after a little time); for the convo between V and Jane (though it needed a little more space and follow up!); for the character of Bitty getting fully fleshed out; for the unexpected death scene at the start of the novel.
4 stars for the intro of Jo Early and the quick reveal of her connection to Manny.
3 stars for Layla mooning over Xcor and having a labor/delivery scare that was told only through the eyes of others. Also for Assail and making him slightly more palatable by the end of the book, though the usefulness as a spy was cut unceremoniously short.
2 stars for naming a character Bitty. I get it’s short for Lizabette but still. Ugh. A teen named Bitty is too annoying for words. Also for no follow up for Throe and Naasha discovering what Assail did, especially nice it was pointed out that Throe realized Assail had vanished unexpectedly. Also annoying to layer in Assail’s bisexuality only to abandon it fully by the final scenes. Also for repeating Phury’s addiction story with Assail’s.
1 star for the unforgivable continuity errors in this book. Forgetting how Jane died, referring to the Virgin Scribe, V announcing she’s “dead” when she quite literally left a note that she was abdicating her role. Plus abandoning almost all mention of the training center when Rhage is a trainer and also narrating most of the book. I get it’s an off-shoot series for her to write but for the characters, it’s all the same world. Annoying.