The Bookworm and the Beast

This is a fantastic sweet read that had me smiling all the way through. It's very well written with some amazing characters and a heartwarming storyline. Perfect for the holiday season with the underlying message of how love and hope can heal old wounds..

Events of the past have hardened Derek Croft's heart. He's reclusive, gruff, and absolutely does not want the pretty, happy temp his staff has arranged for him. Izzy Simon knows Derek doesn't want her around but she needs this job and refuses to let his sour demeanor to ruin things for her. So it would seem they are stuck with each other. For the next two weeks anyway! Or longer?????

Definitely a book I think you would enjoy. I highly recommend it.

This book is very much a fairy tale, with a sweet and innocent – but insecure – librarian who, with the help of a little Christmas magic, tames the savage (ok, more like rude and grumpy) beast. It’s not a direct retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but contains elements that someone of a certain age (cough cough) would recognize from the animated Disney version. There’s a big old castle, a library, a forbidden room, and weirdest of all, wolves.

Izzy was practically a Disney princess. She’s sweet, innocent, and impoverished, and an absolute fountain of Christmas spirit – or, as Derek calls her, “Santa’s evil elf.” Derek, on the other hand, was quite the beast. He was so rude and unlikeable, at first, that I had a hard time warming up to him. Both Izzy and Derek had serious abandonment issues that led to roadblocks in their relationship. Izzy couldn’t believe that anyone would actually love her, and Derek was too afraid of abandonment and betrayal to love anyone. My favorite character, however, was Derek’s St. Bernard, Atticus!

“No matter how friendly they got, she had to protect her heart. They were from different worlds, and once this charade was over, she’d go back to hers, and he’d forget she ever existed. That’s what people typically did to her anyway.”

Unfortunately, I had a lot of problems that took me out of the fairy tale. The major one was that their relationship started while they were still boss and employee, and the power dynamic was very uneven. Derek ends up paying her to pretend to be his girlfriend, and while I did feel like their relationship was consensual and organic, it still left me with a bit of an icky feeling.

Also, the ending felt very rushed. Without getting into spoilers, I felt like the main conflict was not resolved properly. What Derek did to Izzy was very hurtful, and her feelings for him aside, I didn’t feel like he properly demonstrated that he wouldn’t do it again before she pretty much unconditionally accepted him back.

Overall, this is a cute and sweet holiday romance, especially if you can overlook some of the issues I had with it. If you’re looking for a sweet holiday fairy tale, then this is your book!

I received an advanced copy from the publisher in return for an honest review.