5,0 sur 5 étoiles
The beauty of the Beast
Commenté aux États-Unis 🇺🇸 le 11 mai 2021
Hidden Beauty is the perfect encapsulation of the beguiling, sensual, and deliciously spellbinding story-telling magic of Amelia Wilde- and in this erotic, twisted, and yummy dark Beauty and the Beast, her talents truly shine.
LEO MORELLI. Oh my heart- Amelia makes me fall head over heels for this broken beast. HE IS EVERYTHING. I didn’t think I could find him more interesting, more compelling, but I was wrong- his character arc, his steady and poignant exposure makes this whole story. In book 1, we saw the savagery- we saw the facets of his ruthless, cold, beastly nature. But we got a transformative glimmer of his true nature at our riveting conclusion- that cliffhanger that let us see the broken man behind the beast. In Hidden Beauty, there is no hiding- Amelia unleashes his heart and soul, and he is breathtaking. LIke our source material, we find that the beast is really just wounded and defensive, but beneath the growl is a heart of gold- a shocking nuance of goodness and emotional complexity. A man who sacrifices for others, a man who will do anything for those he loves, a man who has now replaced anger with vulnerability and authenticity. While our title speaks to Leo’s central motivation as an alpha- his need to hide and protect his beauty, even against her will-this story, if anything, is the opposite of that- this is about exposing the beast. The evolution of our leading mean- as we, both reader and Hayley, fall more in love with him. Physically, he’s healing, but emotionally he’s unleashed- and I was enraptured.
The catalyst of all this growth, of course, is the realizations he’s drawn from the denouement of our prior story, realization about his beauty, Haley. I really loved her in our first book, and here we get to see her find more power in what was once a powerless romantic entanglement. But, with that power comes confusion and more angst- and at times I was frustrated by her. Leo becomes more open, and she becomes more closed off and confused. Of course, she’s conflicted- torn between two families who, in all fairness, have at best ignored her and her family and at worse irreparably harmed them. But her heart is so good- and as her fierceness comes out, I appreciated that Amelia found ways to keep her soft. Their chemistry is still combustible and scorching, but now with more emotional dimension, more nuance. We get a lot more emotional intimacy, and conflict, in this second installment- resulting in a more dimensional Leo and a less naïve Haley. I adore them together, and when they are both gracing the page, I simply can not turn the pages fast enough.
Like our first book, we have familiar referential moments to the classic tale we know and love- most notably the classic “will you have dinner with me” moment that is forever ingrained in my adolescent memory. But this second installment relies less on the architecture of the classic and yields more heavily towards the creativity of Amelia Wilde- and in that this story really shines. The characters have emotional journeys similar to the fairy tale’s namesake, but Amelia has defined them anew. The prose in the second installment had a different flair- but one I appreciated. This a decidedly more meta story- one that is more focused on the internal struggles and emotional angst between these two characters than the vendetta action and games surrounding them. The result is that the pace is slower, and we have less overarching plot progress, but instead we’re treated to a closer look at the conflicted emotional processing of both of these characters- one in a battle with herself over her confused emotions, and another desperately trying to be the man his woman needs. They are both full of contradictions and imperfections, but we now start to see their love blossom in a more solid, unbreakable way.
But, while we see these two explore their feelings further, they still have much to work out, not to mention the looming obstacle of the nefarious intentions of the Morelli foes. And, of course, we have another cliffhanger - what a doozie! I’m desperate for our final installment- and holding out hope that this beauty and the beast will find their HEA.
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