Beauty and the Beast has always been one of my favorite fairy tales so I was intrigued by this book. I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could. I was fascinated by the Dragon and did wish at one point too be able to get his perspective. That and how the ending wrapped up very quickly into a neat and too t...
Writing was good enough. I just can't get over the new obsession with not completing a story. It seems like they are just trying to get you to buy the next in the series, when in reality, the second book should be part of the first book. I believe a story has a plot line: beginning, middle and...
As there seemed to be nothing I could do to remedy the situation — after all, I did not even know where in the palace the child was housed — I attempted to put her from my thoughts. Unfortunately, I had little success on that front, for my mind kept picking at the problem. I tried to tell myself ...
But within an hour of my own conversation with his lordship, the steward had left the castle, taking with him a good riding horse from the stables and leaving behind a swirl of rumors and speculation. For my own part, I was merely glad that the furor of preparations for the evening’s festivities ...
Sydney squealed into the phone. “You bought a house?” “Yes,” I said, wincing a little and wishing that I’d turned down the speaker volume before I called her. It was late Saturday afternoon, a few hours after the elders had departed. Connor and I ha...
And the sun wasn’t even up yet. Alexa sat in the pilot’s seat of the skimmer, as Lirzhan said he had no idea how to operate the vehicle. She wasn’t sure whether knowing how to drive a ground transport made her that much more qualified, but she hadn’t bothered to argue. If ...
I remained silent as Paul guided the car around the perimeter of the parking lots and brought us into one of the long-term areas. No baggage to unload, of course. We simply got out, and he came around and handed me the keys. “Good car,” he said. I n...
Instead, I went to the window and gazed out at the ever-falling snow, and pondered all that had passed between us. It would be foolish to deny I had begun to feel some sort of attraction to him, so I did not bother to do so. I did, however, scold myself for allowing that weakness to creep into my...
Another change, because this time he stood beside me, although for some reason I still couldn’t look up into his face. But he held my hand in his, the two of us standing there in the soft twilight as snow began to fall all around us. I wasn’t cold, even though I was wearing only a flannel shirt a...
But she also knew that it was important for Jerem to meet his father without her hovering in the background, so instead she took refuge in the kitchen, where she tried to occupy herself with preparing food worthy of such a momentous occasion. The house provided labor-saving devices that took all ...
By then it was nearly ten, but we still had plenty of time; apparently the potluck didn’t start until two. And I could tell exactly what Connor had in mind when he pulled off his sweater and T-shirt, then asked, “Ready for a shower?” Without waiting for a reply, he undid t...
Oh, not your usual sort of trouble — not the sticky-fingered tween who thinks she can smuggle out a bottle of nail polish and a couple of statement buttons with no one noticing. Not the privileged princesses from the hills who just loved to take a buttload of clothes into the dressing room and le...
All right, “slunk” probably wasn’t the best word for it. Anyone looking at her would have probably said she was walking normally enough, aside from the occasional bobble when she hit a rock. No, it was more that she wished she could have crawled away, slithered out of there like the lizards that ...
Directly at their backs was a small river, or large stream; it chattered away in the darkness, rushing over a bed of smooth stone. Ahmar pointed off to his left. “That way.” “How far is the house?” Qadim asked. “Close. Less t...