To Beguile a Beast
Elizabeth Hoyt
Grand Central, May 2009,
Series: Legend of Four Soldier – Book Three
ISBN-10: 0446406937
ISBN-13: 978-0446406932
$6.99 (US) 8.99 (CDN)
Reviewed by Mary
May 2009
Helen Fitzwilliam became a mistress because she believed in love and thought the Duke of Lister would come to love her. Helen became a housemaid for a surly, disagreeable man needing an escape from the Duke who only wanted to own her like any of his other possessions.
What Helen finds at Castle Greaves with Sir Alistair Munroe is nothing she expected and everything she could have hoped for. He did not want her there despite the fact that his castle was suffering from years of neglect and misuse and did everything possible to drive her from his home. But Helen knew that this was the only place she had to go to and her desire to protect her daughter and son from their father’s cruelty was the only objective she had in mind. Helen knew that cleaning the castle and drawing Alistair into her life could happen and she was on a mission to make it happen.
Alistair is a victim of torture at Spinner’s Falls during the war in the colonies which caused more than physical scars, he suffers from nightmares and is unable to conquer and a loneliness he is unable to find relief from. He has kept to himself at Castle Greaves and written and illustrated his books on flora and fauna even though this was not the life he wanted to lead. When Helen and her children come to live in his home he finds that the small space he has allowed himself to function in is not enough and he experiences everyday they are there a warming of his long gone cold heart.
Even with one eye left to see her with Alistair knows that Helen is more than she appears to be and when all her secrets are revealed to him he believes not that he is her salvation but instead she is his. Helen knew love had been her undoing but could it be possible that Alistair can help her find that which she has always wanted but had been unable to have – love.
This book was highly anticipated and in no respect does it disappoint. While the first two were action packed and had numerous activities going on at several fronts this book focuses on these two people who have so much grief between them you are not sure they will be able to find the love that is right in front of them. But Helen has enough love for him to help him overcome his fear that she will do what everyone has done and leave him. Alistair shows in some many levels what he is capable of on larger scale when he helps rescue her children and with a tiny action of getting a new puppy for her children. Helen needed what Alistair was able to provide – the desire to love her for what she was not what she might have become.