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    Beauty in the Beast
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    Beauty in the Beast
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    Beauty in the Beast
    Ebook117 pages3 hours

    Beauty in the Beast

    By Christine Danse

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Journeying by steam-powered sled to London's Frost Fair to perform, Tara and three friends are trapped in a blizzard in the woods. A gruff, handsome stranger offers them shelterand wants one thing in return. Stories.

    The travellers are glad to oblige. Their host, Rolph, is especially captivated by Tara's story of an orphaned girl raised by the Fae in the world of the spirits. Equally intrigued by Rolph, and aware of an electric pull between them, Tara encourages him to share a story of his own. When Rolph weaves a tale of a man who is doomed by his own folly to turn into a wolf at the full moon, Tara suspects there is more than a grain of truth in his words.

    When the veil between the mortal and spiritual worlds is parted, and danger threatens, will Tara make the ultimate sacrifice to save Rolph?

    29,000 words

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCarina Press
    Release dateMar 5, 2012
    ISBN9781426893360
    Unavailable
    Beauty in the Beast
    Author

    Christine Danse

    Christine Danse writes science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal romance. She lives in Salem, OR, with her writing partner.

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    Reviews for Beauty in the Beast

    3.5/5

    11 ratings5 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Wonderful. It is very, very badly served by the YA/Romance-Novel/PNR cover; it's attractive in its way, but in no way fits the book. The girl is wrong, the guy is kind of gray, and the flower is wrong; the composition isn't very good. It led me to jaded expectations of all sorts of things that just aren't the case. What it is, in fact, is a simple story of a theatrical troupe - a puppeteer, a thespian, a storyteller, and a musician - who are caught in a blizzard and seek shelter in the first place they can find. The inhabitant of this cabin is a strange man, gruff and standoffish, but he opens his home to them, offering food and shelter if not exactly a bon-vivant atmosphere, and from the first sparks fly between him and the storyteller. In return for the not-quite-grudging hospitality, and partly to break the heavy silence, the troupe decides to thank him with a display of their abilities. Tara - the first-person narrator of the book - tells a story, Beth tells a story enacted by her puppets, and Miles tells a story in dramatic fashion, all accompanied by Frederick on his lute. And their host, Rolph, is inspired to tell them - or perhaps to tell Tara - a story in return, a dark story about transformation and a good man struggling against evil. Each of these tales is brilliant. I was riding the current of the book to that point very happily, and was reluctant to see it interrupted by the stories, thinking it would disrupt the narrative. I underestimated Ms. Danse. The entertainments flow from and into the book effortlessly, move the story forward, and - apart from being new and unique and wonderful in and of themselves - shed a little light on each performer, and on Tara telling of the telling, and on the listeners. This is not urban fantasy. Fantasy, yes: lycanthropy and functional alchemy and faery settle in firmly in that genre, and comfortably. It's steampunk, by virtue of the technology lying here and there in an otherwise Victorian world (embodied in the little troupe's wonderfully steampunk conveyance), but the blizzard and the limited glimpses seen of the setting outside the snow-isolated cabin make it simply other. It could be anywhere, anywhen. The steampunk elements are neither indispensable to the plot nor awkwardly grafted on; they are happily explored in so far as they touch on events, and otherwise as unregarded as other commonplaces in the characters' universe. This is not Paranormal Romance (PNR), in the much-degraded sense of the phrase. Paranormal? I suppose; Rolph is cursed, and Tara is not what she seems, and magic flows through the story. Romance? In an almost old-fashioned sense, definitely: there is no RomanceNovelese in this, but instead the romance of eyes meeting and looking away quickly; of hands touching and not pulling away quickly; of flirtation and saying the exact wrong thing and, sometimes, the exact right thing; of cautious and then heady exploration into what someone else is thinking and feeling and wanting. Romance? Not the Harlequin type. (Ironically - since it's by Carina, which means the publisher has also defied my expectations and I'm going to have to go back to looking through their books again.) Romantic. And, of course, in a much older sense of the word, this is very much a romance.
    • 4/5
      ARC from Netgally.com

      Really would give a 3.5/3.75.
      I won’t rewrite the description from above. The characters are well developed, especially for a short story. This is a sweet story about 4 people trying to survive and make a living preforming for others and a lonely, tortured man dealing with his “curse” and past. There are stories within the story which were just as good as the main plot. I enjoyed the new take on werewolves, would have never thought of it and it is very believable. I wish it had been longer. I would love to see more of Rolph and Tara. This was the first book I’d read by Christine Danse, but will be reading more.
    • 3/5
      Four travelling puppeteers and storytellers are braving a terrible blizzard when they come across a little cabin in the woods. Thankful to the strange but kind stranger who offers them lodging and food until the storm passes, they repay him by telling him stories – stories of dragons, fairiesThe stories were enjoyable and were very reminiscent of other stories I’d heard before but with new twists. Whilst I enjoyed reading them, I’m not sure that Beth and Miles stories added anything extra to the novel as a whole.Rolph’s story was my favourite. I loved the vividness and descriptions of both the story and the characters.The interactions between Rolph and Tara were very cute. Attraction – at least on Tara’s behalf – from the moment they meet and that continues on throughout the book. It was a very sweet story.My main negative about the story was the pace – it’s very slow. Action wise, not much happens (until the very end) and there are times when it feels like the characters talk too much about certain topics. I didn’t feel like there needed to be that many words spent in discussing travel and the vehicles they used (although I adored the term “mechanimal” for the mechanical horse) and all the details about the shopping trip that a few of the characters took into town. Sometimes less is more.All in all, a very sweet story and an interesting take on the old Beauty and the Beast story.
    • 4/5
      For a short story, Beauty in the Beast dabbles in a bit of everything! It’s historical, it’s romance, it’s paranormal, it’s steampunk. I really liked the opening where a company of four storytellers are battling their way through a snowstorm. The descriptions are poignant, all the more so because of the recent freezing weather and snow falls that we’ve had here. I could feel the cold seeping into my bones as much as it was into the characters’ bones!There are essentially two halves to the story: in the first, the troop arrive at the cabin, beg for shelter and then take turns to each tell a story. The stories they tell are short but fun. I especially liked the story of the old man who replaced all his servants with automatons only to discover to his horror that these machines are far from the perfect servants that he had envisioned. A good moral for us all to keep in mind in this day and age!The second half focuses on building the actual story between this particular Beauty (Tara) and the Beast (Rolph). There’s evident mutual attraction between the two of them but Rolph seems unwilling to act upon it for mysterious reasons. Tara, of course, won’t back down that easily. She knows what she wants and she’s willing to push to get it. There are some very sweet scenes when both of them are still finding their footing around the other as well as one particularly intense scene that I was rather hoping would lead to something more! It didn’t, but in this case I found that I wasn’t too disappointed because events didn’t give me time to be disappointed.I’m a bit torn about the ending. On the one hand, I would have liked to have seen more – to get to know the characters and maybe get a glimpse into what was to come: would Tara leave the group or Rolph join in? How would they deal with Rolph’s particular “problem”? On the other hand, I recognise that it was probably the best place for the author to leave off as another ending point probably wouldn’t have been as powerful.As for the paranormal side of things, well, the author asks the reader to take a lot on faith. She doesn’t really spend time worrying about how these things work or why they’re there. They just do and are. This worked for me but I’d understand if it didn’t work for everyone.For a short story, the characters are very well developed, the story really caught my interest and I found it was all over far too soon. The mark of a good book is when you reach the end and wish there were still more pages to turn. I had that here.
    • 3/5
      Okay so this was my first Netgalley. It was a short book and I was a little reluctant about the story after reading the first couple of chapters, but plugged on. I’m glad I did.The author did an excellent job of weaving the story telling into the main story of the book. The short stories were fun and very different, from one another. During the story telling, Tara finds herself attracted to Rolph and then encourages him to tell a story.After his story telling, Tara finds herself in various parts of his home and begins to really wonder if his story if fiction or not. It was at this point that the whole book took off for me. However, because it was a shorter book, it was over too soon. Even though it was a short story, it didn’t have any loose ends or lack any excitement. I hope to see more from this author.Verdict: 3.5 stars. I enjoyed the book and the story telling. It’s a fantasy/romance type book with a little bit historical or steampunk with the machines.Recommendation: For those who enjoy romance and/or fantasy.