At the age of 27 and having no marriage prospects, the heroine has resigned herself to being the burden spinster sister to a penniless Baron. The, she receives a most unlikely gift. Her recently deceased father has left her a castle. With a rather unhealthy love for fairy tales, she jumps at the opportunity. Even though it means she must marry the son of the previous owner, how bad could it be? After a long journey into the wilds of Germany, she finally sees her inheritance and the man who's to be her husband. She is devastated to discover he's no prince charming. He's a beast. He's callous, short tempered and is an ass to her at every opportunity. As a young man, he betrayed his country to join England in the war and as such he lost his leg, his pride and brought shame to his family. Now this chit had come to take the only thing he had left, his home. So he does everything he can to chase her away but she's stubborn and courageous and he's frustrated with how those attributes attract him to her. Then his brother shows up. Opposite to him in everyway, the heroine takes an instant liking to the more charming brother. Light when the hero is dark, charming where the hero is mean and antisocial. He's the obvious choice as a husband. But quite quickly, she begins to see a darker side to him. He has a violent temper, threatening to his her when she doesn't play along with his games. But the things that disgusts her most is his treatment of his old brother. Ridiculing and taunting him with the fact that he's sleeping with his ex fiancé. So just like that, the heroine realizes just who is the real beast. She sides with the hero, marrying him. They start to develop a tentative relationship. The hero has brief moments when he's actually kind or touches her with tendencies. But just as quickly he'll return to being cold and dismissive. Finally, it's the heroine who takes it upon herself to seduce her husband. Though she scares and unsure, his degrading self confidence convinces her that he's just as scared as she is, maybe more. So she is determined to fight for him and when he's injured an d it looks like foul play, the heroine becomes the hero, the knight of their fairy-tale and a wolf protecting her mate. This book never gets old. Every time I read it stills manages to touch me and thrill me. The hero whom is tormented by what he thinks destroyed his family, feels so much regret that the woman he loves much suffer being married to a cripple. He's gruff and snappy and I loved that that never changes. Instead, the heroine just learns to ignore it, knowing she loves him and he loves her. She calls him her wolf. There is a paranormal aspect laced throughout the book in the form of a guardian spirit who does everything it can to protect the master and help the beast find happiness with his beauty. Such a lovely book. ( )

I have to say I absolutely loved this book! It is a very different type of paranormal romance, not what you would expect. Fenris is a very tortured soul and believes he does not deserve to be loved because of his past and what happened to him physically so, he pushes people away by being mean and cold-hearted. Celia believes in fairytales and believes that she can break through Fenris's stone-cold heart and bring out the true man inside. This book shows you that you don't have to be perfect or "whole" to be loved and accepted. I would recommend this book to anyone who believes that true love can conquer all and that anyone can find happiness.

***SPOILERS BELOW***
I have to say that I really liked how Germany was the main setting in the story. Hearing someone talk about the Rhein River and talking a bit of german in the story brought back great memories of when I went to Germany in 2005 (I also saw the Rhein River). ( )

My family and friends coming to this site are saying, "What, it's not bad enough you read romance novels; must you review them too?" Mais oui!

This book was fairly enjoyable. It contained several bits that made me laugh out loud (and were intended to); unfortunately, it also contained many irritating anachronisms and clumsily negligent writing - he's German, she's English, and which one of them is fluent in the other's language is never established. Extremely irritating, particularly when compared with Joanna Bourne, who is fantastic on language shifts. (Yes, there's a cunning linguist joke to be made in there, I know.)

This book also had an unusual setting - a dark mysterious castle in the Black Forest of Germany. I'm not sure of the time period but it seemed like maybe 1820's or so. I cut my eyeteeth on dark gothics like Jane Eyre when I was a teenager and this book reminded me so much of them. The hero is dark and tortured and is hiding some secrets. The heroine is convinced someone is trying to kill her. Some spooky weird things happen and the hero is so enigmatic that I almost believed he was behind them. Anyway it was great fun. ( )

http://jacescribbles.blogspot.com/2007/06/castle-of-wolf-by-sandra-schwab.html ( )