A Dark Beauty Author: Clarissa Kae
Series: Victorian Retellings #1
Genres: Speculative Romance, Historical Romance
Format: eBook, Print
Pages: 214
Date: March 7, 2021
Publisher: Carpe Vitam Press
Bold and brilliant, Georgiana has a gift for fixing machines—from clocks to carriages—while her father has a penchant for finding trouble. In an accidental fire, Georgiana and her father scar the once handsome face of Lord Pichon, cousin to the queen.
Rumors of Georgiana’s gift raise her family’s status. Her incomparable beauty captures the eye of many gentlemen and the wrath of Lord Pichon. Abandoned by his peers and alone in his cold castle, Lord Pichon is determined to enact revenge.
When Georgiana’s father makes a terrible mistake, she sacrifices herself to pay his debt—as a servant in Lord Pichon’s castle.
Her wit and warmth begin to thaw Lord Pichon’s estate, making him question his version of the past. Will her kindness break the beastly lord or will he hold her family hostage forever?
A Victorian twist on Beauty and the Beast.
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About Clarissa Kae
Clarissa Kae’s professional career began as a freelance editor. Since her first novel, she’s explored different genres and has numerous awards to her name. She and her daughters founded Kind Girls Make Strong Women to help nonprofit organizations. She lives in California with her family and farm of horses, chickens, dogs and kittens.
“For love was not a misty, flighty thing. It was like a soldier— firm and ready to fight to the end, patient to wait, and swift to move.”
This is an enemies-to-lovers story, specifically a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I was first drawn to the book because of the more-than-gorgeous cover but I was quite disappointed with the writing of this one. Yes, I usually love retellings, and yes, the idea of one set in the Victorian Era was enticing, but otherwise a lot of things fell short. Please don'[t get me wrong, I really, really, REALLY wanted to like this book but it was just mediocre.
Firstly, I felt like the two main characters (Georgiana and Dominic) always think the same things over and over again and it gets more than a little boring and heavy after awhile. The reader doesn’t need like thirty reminders that Dominic Pichon was salty about his burns from the old fire to understand that Dominic Pichon was salty about his burns from the old fire. Now I will have to forever remember that Dominic Pichon was salty (yes, extremely salty) about his burns from the old fire.
I also wasn’t much into the relationship between Lord Pichon (Dominic) and Miss de Beaumont (Georgiana), either. I don’t know if shallow is the right word, but as a reader, it just wasn’t convincing enough. The climax was also not very exciting or worthwhile either and passed by in a blink, unlike most of the rest of the story, which dragged at times.
Some of the side characters actually interested me more than the main ones. Victoria was pretty amazing and Lady Pichon infuriated me. And Lord Rochelle was sooo annoying! Smith was funny and Georgiana’s memories of Phillipa was beautiful as well as tragic.
The writing itself was alright, some parts of it was really good but other parts weren’t so good. The author kept using the same adjectives, like she called females the “gentler sex” at least five times and called the noblemen and noblewomen of England “shiny” for some reason at least seven.
I did like the banter going on between Dom and Georgie when they were still enemies and I also liked how Georgiana treats Rochelle (she’s amazing in that way!!). The slight mystery and suspense elements were the main two things that made me excited with this book like with what was going on with Georgiana’s father (sorry for not being specific but I don’t want to spoil anything!), her feeling someone watching her while going through the city or the woods, the wolves howling, etc.
Many thanks to the author and Storytellers in Zion for my copy of this book! All opinions expressed are my own and I was not required to leave a review at all.