Review of workaday Regency romance The Beast of Beswick by Amalie Howard

 

 

Regency romances fall into a fairly limited number of tropes.  You mix the heroine's dilemma -- often that she is a wallflower, or someone who has been caught in a compromising position, or someone with an unusual hobby --  with the hero's man-boy characteristic -- he is sort of abusive but can be saved by love, or obsessed with revenge but can be saved by love, or he doesn't like being a noble but can be saved by love.  Shake shake shake.  Happily ever after.  

I say this with affection.  I love Regency romances, and some of them are wonderful. 

The Beast of Beswick, by Amalie Howard, is . . .  I dunno, it's fine I guess.  Heroine Astrid needs to get married to rescue her younger sister from marrying a bad, bad man, and also to protect her trust fund from being misspent by her uncle and aunt (although maybe the money is already all gone?  the book is inconsistent on this point, as it is on whether the horses bought with trust fund money are Astrid's or her uncle's).  Hero Thane is a veteran of the Napoleonic wars who has a lot of mental and physical scars.  He was personally betrayed by Astrid's sister's evil fiancee.  He likes to break priceless antique china (the book does not mention that these priceless artifacts were probably stolen from China).  I finished the book about a week ago and don't remember much more about it. I'm pretty sure no one was kidnapped, but I might be wrong about that.  Oh, and Nathaniel is saved by Astrid's love. 

Like I said, it's fine.