Book Review: Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna by Maia Chance
After getting involved in a series that I didn't think I'd like and then it when it comes to an end, you might seem a little lost after investing all of your free time. And why this series ended, I'll never know because it was one of the best that I've ever read.
Like everyone, I know the fairy tales of yore and growing up, I pretty much forgot about them, but it took author Maia Chance to rattle my brain a little and awaken some of those tales.
In this installment, Ophelia Flax is really up a creek, since she's about to marry and can't figure a way out of it. At the end of the second installment, she agreed to marry Count de Griffe just to make Professor Penrose jealous.
Now she's stuck and has lost her ruby engagement ring that belonged to his mother.
With the wedding days away, she travels to his chateau with Henrietta Bright and Forthwith Golden. Henrietta, masking as Ophelia's aunt has her sights on the rich Mr. Larsen, who's there to hunt and Forthwith (another con) masquerades as her brother.
Upon arriving, the count has other guests at the chateau, and a small group of travellers arrive during a snowstorm. Ophelia is upset when she sees that Professor Penrose is also a guest, along with his fiancée Ivy Banks and her father. This doesn't bode well with Ophelia, but at the time she accepted the count's proposal (three weeks earlier) the professor wasn't engaged and only asked Ivy to marry him to forget about Ophelia.
The reason he's at the chateau is to do research after hearing about the villager's and the lore of a man who's a beast and wants to see if there's any truth to the tale and how it differs from the published version of 1756.
Forthwith entertains the assembled group and the next morning, the body of local vicar Mr. Knight is found in the Orangerie. He was escorting the young Abel Christy, back to school in England.
As soon as Ophelia starts poking around, Abel picks up on what she's doing and helps her, especially since he's fluent in French and he's always poking around as well. What more can you expect for a thirteen-year-old?
But Penrose and Ophelia also do some snooping around the chateau grounds, and they discover a shrine in a cave, along with some animal drawings on the wall. This throws him off on his studying and thinks the shrine was set up by Tolbert, who came to find physical proof of the beast, which he does, and it becomes quite valuable.
And this fairy tale doesn't end happily ever after.
However, there is a novella Sleeping Beauty, Borrowed Time which I'm not going to read since I would want more of a story.
Once again, Chance has made memorable characters and the flow in these three installments easily transition into one another. Although she left Prue out of this installment, her mother, Henrietta and Forthwith pick up the slack when it comes to conning the other guests.
I don't think that anytime I found myself bored while reading, just wondering how glad I am for living with modern technology. That's probably why I've never really gotten into the Victorian era when it comes to books or movies. Maybe I lived in that time and hated it!
Also, I'm not really sure why the series ended (although there was a big shakeup at the publishers regarding crimozies a few years ago) and maybe that's why it wasn't renewed for more installments? I'll never know but having had the first book in the series sit on my shelf for years and avoiding it, I'm glad that I did pick it up and that I invested the time in it.
This is a series that comes around every so often that's really a lot of fun and as I said, you'll love the characters and all of the work Chance put into placing you in that time period.
(Note: I'm not sure why the products aren't showing but both are available through Amazon and you can find Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna through other retailers).
