Rose in Winter H by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss (1997)

Rose in Winter H by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss (1997)

This is a tale of the Beauty and the Beast.

The Beauty: Erienne Fleming, the enchanting, raven-haired daughter of the village mayor. She is surounded by suitors, any one of whom would pay

The Beast: Lord Saxton who has purchased her--a mysterious, tragic figure who wears a mask and a cloak at all times to hide disfiguring scars gained in a terrible fire some years back.

The other man, or is he(?) the dashing and witty young Yankee, Christopher Seton

But marriage for love is not to be, for her irresponsible and unscrupulous father, is intent on auctioning off his beautiful daughter to the highest bidder.
She grows to care for the beast the man who bought her.

Violence/Rape/Sex
It's a great story any way ( )

As always with Woodiwiss, her heroine is too beautiful to be believed and her hero too handsome and strong. Despite her headstrong refusal to bend to anyone's will but her own, he loves her. And although she cannot see him clearly and is attracted to his cousin, she begins to care for him.

This tale shares some elements of Beauty and the Beast - with a beautiful woman at the mercy of a shrouded and sometimes snarling male. It is a bit silly and sometimes requires quite a suspension of disbelief. Despite this, it's an enjoyable romp with an interesting mix of drama, romance and comedy. ( )

Reasonably entertaining (but predictable) Beauty and the Beast Plot. Erienne Fleming's father, the hard drinking and gambling mayor of their northern England town needs to sell her in marriage to the highest bidder to pay off his gambling debts. Handsome Yankee Christopher Seton wants Erienne, but since Christian is the one he owes the greatest debt to, Christian is banned from bidding for her hand. Instead, Erienne's hand is purchased by the mysterious Lord of Saxton who was horribly injured and scarred for life in a fire. Erienne is as first horrified by her new husband's appearance and fights her growing attraction to Christopher at the same time and thus begins KEW's take on the Beauty and the Beast.

Unfortunately, as much fun as KEW's romances can be to read, this book has some major flaws. The big twist in the plot is pretty easy to figure out -- as other reviewers have noted. In fact, almost everything in the book is pretty easy to figure out. The bad guys were inept and almost cartoonish in their bad deeds. Erienne is supposed to be intelligent and well educated, but her initial reactions to her disfigured husband just don't ring true, Stuart was nothing but kindness itself and a very gentle and loving husband. She was always running off and getting herself into a pickle so that Christopher could rescue her, and I have to agree with the other reviewers in that it got to be just a tad bit over the top that every man in the book was dying to jump her bones.

All in all, not the worst in the historical romance genre, but far from the best either and certainly not one of KEW's better efforts (which would be Ashes in the Wind), but well suited for a rainy Sunday afternoon easy on the brain type of fluff. I'm sorely torn between a two and three star rating, so I'm calling it at 2.5 stars rounded it up to three. ( )