Title: Beauty Dates the Beast
Author: Jessica Sims
Release Date: October 25th, 2011
Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance
WANTED
Single human female to join charming, wealthy, single male were-cougar for a night of romantic fun—and maybe more.
Me: The tall, sensuous, open-minded leader of my clan.
You: A deliciously curvy virgin who’s intimately familiar with what goes bump in the night. Must not be afraid of a little tail. Prefer a woman who’s open to exploring her animal nature. Interest in nighttime walks through the woods a plus.
My turn-ons include protecting you from the worst the supernatural world has to offer. Ready for an adventure? Give me a call.
Vampires and doppelgangers need not apply.
Summary from Goodreads.com
My Review: I have seen a lot of buzz for this book around the blogosphere and it sounded interesting so I decided to give it a try. Plus, I am a huge fan of shifters and when I saw that this world revolved around them I was really excited.
We view this world through the eyes of Bathsheba, yeah, that is her name. I will admit I had a hard time getting used to that name. Her nickname was “Bath” and that just did not flow well either. She mentions in the book that her mother gave her a name from the Bible, but I am still not a fan. Names aside, Bathsheba works at Midnight Liaisons, which is a dating service for the paranormal. She is a human, but she still knows all about things that go bump in the night and it is her job to set them up on dates with each other. She works with her sister, Sara, who is a werewolf on the run. Sara was turned six years ago and does not want the wolf pack to find her and make her join them. So, Bathsheba protects her and does everything she can to keep people from discovering what Sara is. Since Bathsheba is playing protector, she does not get out much and hasn’t dated in a long time. I did admire Bathsheba for always putting her sister’s safety first and trying to do what was best for her family. She has a hard time keeping that up though once she meets Beau. He slowly convinces her that she is allowed to want something for herself. I mean, how long could anyone resist a hot cougar shifter doing everything in his power to seduce you? And Beau is a sweet talker. His sarcastic comments had me laughing out loud. The best scene with him though, was when he was trying to “romance” Bathsheba. I don’t know if he got his ideas from a cheesy movie or what, but his efforts, while very well intentioned, were so terrible. I was cringing for Bathsheba and laughing at poor Beau. The humor in this book kept the mood light and it was a nice diversion from the danger that was constantly chasing them.
This book is a paranormal romance, but is only told from the point of view of Bathsheba. I will admit I missed the usual back and forth point of views that we normally see in the paranormal romance genre. I really wanted to get inside Beau’s head and see what he was thinking. Jessica did do a great job of describing things through Bathsheba’s eyes, but I was still curious about what life was like for Beau when Bathsheba wasn’t around. How did he run his clan every day? What were some of those members like? We do get to meet one, Ramsey, who is Beau’s second, but I wanted to see more.
The only other issue I had with this book was the pacing. Everything was flowing great and I was hooked right up until the last fifty pages. While the book was supposed to be reaching its climax, I was just not as interested. Everything seemed to slow down and the writing style changed from the beginning of the book. After we meet our villain and the book comes back down to the resolution, I was happy with how things ended. There were just a couple of rough patches in there that I wish had moved faster or been more suspenseful.
Even though there were a couple of aspects of this book that I had issues with, overall it was a good, fun read. The next book is going to focus on Bathsheba’s sister, Sara and I think Ramsey, especially after the last line of this book. I am hoping we will see more shifters in the next book since Sara is one herself. The book does not come out until next November, so we have a bit of a wait, but I look forward to seeing what adventure Jessica will bring us next.
