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A Wife for the Beast: A Historical Regency Romance Novel
"This marriage is merely a kindness to your father. A beast like me cannot hope for salvation."
Lucian Hollowbridge, the Duke of Ravenshollow, hides behind the walls of his crumbling estate, and behind the battle scars that have twisted more than just his face. Feared by the ton and tormented by ghosts of war, he has no desire for companionship… until a dying promise binds him to a woman unlike any he’s ever known.
Evangeline Hartwell is strong, smart, and unafraid to speak her mind. When she enters a cold, unwanted marriage with the mysterious duke, she does so not for title or protection, but out of loyalty, and quiet hope. She refuses to be intimidated by Lucian’s rage or retreat from his pain.
As whispers spread that Lucian is unfit to hold his title, and his cousin schemes to take everything, Evangeline stands by his side, even when the world turns against them.
In a world that judges by appearances, can love find its way through darkness and scars?
"A Wife for the Beast" is a captivating tale of passion and secrets, where Evangeline and Lucian defy the expectations of their time in pursuit of true happiness. Rich with emotion and layered with intrigue, this unforgettable romance will sweep you away from the very first page and deliver a beautifully satisfying ending.
No cheating. No cliffhangers. Just a happily ever after.
Grab your copy today, or read it free with Kindle Unlimited!
Lucian Hollowbridge, the Duke of Ravenshollow, hides behind the walls of his crumbling estate, and behind the battle scars that have twisted more than just his face. Feared by the ton and tormented by ghosts of war, he has no desire for companionship… until a dying promise binds him to a woman unlike any he’s ever known.
Evangeline Hartwell is strong, smart, and unafraid to speak her mind. When she enters a cold, unwanted marriage with the mysterious duke, she does so not for title or protection, but out of loyalty, and quiet hope. She refuses to be intimidated by Lucian’s rage or retreat from his pain.
As whispers spread that Lucian is unfit to hold his title, and his cousin schemes to take everything, Evangeline stands by his side, even when the world turns against them.
In a world that judges by appearances, can love find its way through darkness and scars?
"A Wife for the Beast" is a captivating tale of passion and secrets, where Evangeline and Lucian defy the expectations of their time in pursuit of true happiness. Rich with emotion and layered with intrigue, this unforgettable romance will sweep you away from the very first page and deliver a beautifully satisfying ending.
No cheating. No cliffhangers. Just a happily ever after.
Grab your copy today, or read it free with Kindle Unlimited!
172 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 4, 2025
69 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
November 12, 2025
Together
Evangeline was as pampered and loved as the daughter of a military captain could ever be. She believed her father would be there forever, who would imagine that a fever could fell someone with his storied military career. In horror, she watched the public pick over the remnants of her childhood and memories of the time spent with her father.
Correspondence came in the hands of a retainer of the Duke of something or another(who can remember these things after reading hundreds) asking for her to come to him for a meeting.
Evangeline was nervous finding out that the Duke was someone that her father had rescued and carried while nearly dead to safety. The Duke was badly scarred, and she heard more than one bad omen of his withdrawn behavior. The term most often used was that he came back changed.
Of course he came back changed, he had been through war and was badly scarred down one side of his face and part of his body. He suffered pain from those scars every day.
The reason the Duke had asked to see Evangeline was to propose a marriage of convenience. On his deathbed, her father wrote him a letter suggesting that the two of them marry and then it would be best for both of them. Her father also explained their penury and then Evangeline would be on the streets if the marriage didn’t occur.
Not being frightened of the Duke, whom he asked she call him by his christian name Lucien, the Duke had the first hopes for a better future. Of course, there are always issues and misunderstandings in such stories, but this one was told with the skill of a true storyteller. This was a clean romance with a happily ever after, so five stars for A Wife for the Beast.
Evangeline was as pampered and loved as the daughter of a military captain could ever be. She believed her father would be there forever, who would imagine that a fever could fell someone with his storied military career. In horror, she watched the public pick over the remnants of her childhood and memories of the time spent with her father.
Correspondence came in the hands of a retainer of the Duke of something or another(who can remember these things after reading hundreds) asking for her to come to him for a meeting.
Evangeline was nervous finding out that the Duke was someone that her father had rescued and carried while nearly dead to safety. The Duke was badly scarred, and she heard more than one bad omen of his withdrawn behavior. The term most often used was that he came back changed.
Of course he came back changed, he had been through war and was badly scarred down one side of his face and part of his body. He suffered pain from those scars every day.
The reason the Duke had asked to see Evangeline was to propose a marriage of convenience. On his deathbed, her father wrote him a letter suggesting that the two of them marry and then it would be best for both of them. Her father also explained their penury and then Evangeline would be on the streets if the marriage didn’t occur.
Not being frightened of the Duke, whom he asked she call him by his christian name Lucien, the Duke had the first hopes for a better future. Of course, there are always issues and misunderstandings in such stories, but this one was told with the skill of a true storyteller. This was a clean romance with a happily ever after, so five stars for A Wife for the Beast.
December 5, 2025
I was liking this at first, but the over-the-top, wordy way the characters spoke got old quickly, and at times seemed repetive. The way things wrapped up with the villain was way too easy and anticlimactic. There were a couple times when it would switch POVs without a chapter break, which was a bit annoying.
August 16, 2025
hideous, soulless and perfunctory
I believe this is an AI created abomination. It was so appallingly soulless, but wordy!, that I had to read more to figure out what was so abysmal and grating about it.
The story timeline isn’t in any normally accepted way marked, such that you understand or feel you’ve witnessed any change of heart between the leads.
The very premise of the threat is so toothless as to have been considered ludicrous in the extreme-imagine the chaos in Britain if all it took to appropriate a Dukedom was a court filing and bribed witnesses-AND NEVER MIND THAT IT GENERALLY TOOK YEARS TO PUSH A CASE THROUGH CHANCERY-to even get to the point it had, bad guy would have had to file before our boy the Duke got out of the Army.
The very act of such egregiously incorrect behavior as issuing a challenge in the middle of a ballroom would be akin to a man relieving himself in a corner or a lady casually popping a breast out -beyond the pale IN THE EXTREME.
Wow, the bad guy shoots early and is ready to confess to all? Uhh, AI writer, NOT HOW HUMANS WORK.
AND SUDDENLY, HERO AND HEROINE ARE IN LOVE? After the most perfunctory, not even soul searching, just random thoughts? Not how humans work. GAH, I WANT MY $.99 cents back.
I believe this is an AI created abomination. It was so appallingly soulless, but wordy!, that I had to read more to figure out what was so abysmal and grating about it.
The story timeline isn’t in any normally accepted way marked, such that you understand or feel you’ve witnessed any change of heart between the leads.
The very premise of the threat is so toothless as to have been considered ludicrous in the extreme-imagine the chaos in Britain if all it took to appropriate a Dukedom was a court filing and bribed witnesses-AND NEVER MIND THAT IT GENERALLY TOOK YEARS TO PUSH A CASE THROUGH CHANCERY-to even get to the point it had, bad guy would have had to file before our boy the Duke got out of the Army.
The very act of such egregiously incorrect behavior as issuing a challenge in the middle of a ballroom would be akin to a man relieving himself in a corner or a lady casually popping a breast out -beyond the pale IN THE EXTREME.
Wow, the bad guy shoots early and is ready to confess to all? Uhh, AI writer, NOT HOW HUMANS WORK.
AND SUDDENLY, HERO AND HEROINE ARE IN LOVE? After the most perfunctory, not even soul searching, just random thoughts? Not how humans work. GAH, I WANT MY $.99 cents back.
September 1, 2025
Who Can Resist a Beauty and the Beast retelling?
3.5⭐️ (Major spoilers ahead)
I’ll admit, I was hooked for the first half of this book, so much so that I almost dipped out of a family function to stay home and finish it. Evangeline was the kind of heroine anyone could look up to- she was intelligent, steadfast in her opinions, and approached every problem with far more courage than one expected from a woman of that era. It’s no wonder Lucien fell for her so completely, despite his best efforts- and his efforts were *great*, which was discouraging considering how late in the story he employed them. That brings me to the antagonist, Pembroke, who existed sorry to give me anxiety. Okay, obviously that’s not the case, but there *was* a great deal of anxiety brought on by an odious man who seemed to think declaring Lucien mentally incompetent was a forgone conclusion, and seemed to pop up every time something good was happening for the couple (side note- why did Lucien never go to the authorities about the near-assault to his wife that Pembroke instigated? Surely that would have helped their case against him.). I wish more focus was given to the couple as they fell in love with each other (or at least a few scenes regarding Evangeline’s recovery from her collapse, from his point of view), rather than the insidious Pembroke and Lucien’s constant self-pity about how Evangeline was only acting out of duty (at one point I truly wanted to shake some sense into him- “She loves you, you fool- open your eyes!”), but kudos to Martha Barwood for eliciting such a visceral reaction from me.
I do think more attention to editing would have come in handy, if only to pick up on various examples of repetition (for example, “the phrase struck —— like a physical blow” appeared 10 different times), but all in all, I did enjoy this book and will likely read this author again.
PS SO grateful for the Wellington storyline. (The dog lives, people- we can all sleep soundly tonight!)
3.5⭐️ (Major spoilers ahead)
I’ll admit, I was hooked for the first half of this book, so much so that I almost dipped out of a family function to stay home and finish it. Evangeline was the kind of heroine anyone could look up to- she was intelligent, steadfast in her opinions, and approached every problem with far more courage than one expected from a woman of that era. It’s no wonder Lucien fell for her so completely, despite his best efforts- and his efforts were *great*, which was discouraging considering how late in the story he employed them. That brings me to the antagonist, Pembroke, who existed sorry to give me anxiety. Okay, obviously that’s not the case, but there *was* a great deal of anxiety brought on by an odious man who seemed to think declaring Lucien mentally incompetent was a forgone conclusion, and seemed to pop up every time something good was happening for the couple (side note- why did Lucien never go to the authorities about the near-assault to his wife that Pembroke instigated? Surely that would have helped their case against him.). I wish more focus was given to the couple as they fell in love with each other (or at least a few scenes regarding Evangeline’s recovery from her collapse, from his point of view), rather than the insidious Pembroke and Lucien’s constant self-pity about how Evangeline was only acting out of duty (at one point I truly wanted to shake some sense into him- “She loves you, you fool- open your eyes!”), but kudos to Martha Barwood for eliciting such a visceral reaction from me.
I do think more attention to editing would have come in handy, if only to pick up on various examples of repetition (for example, “the phrase struck —— like a physical blow” appeared 10 different times), but all in all, I did enjoy this book and will likely read this author again.
PS SO grateful for the Wellington storyline. (The dog lives, people- we can all sleep soundly tonight!)
August 25, 2025
Hidden Strengths
This regency romance was a bit different from the others I have read from not only this author but others who write in the same genre. In this book, we have an injured and disfigured military hero who is asked to marry the daughter of the man who saved his life. The daughter, unaware of this arrangement, decides to go ahead with the agreement, even after meeting and seeing the Duke.
As in many of these books, the woman in question if strong-willed, intelligent, educated, and perfectly capable of doing anything set before her. As her presence forces the Duke into society, they are met with those who find his wife delightful and not the fortune hunter portrayed by a cousin who wants to be the heir to the Duke’s fortune.
Even though the marriage is arranged, love surprises both as they spend time together and learn how much they value each other. And without giving everything away, this book does not end as almost every other one in the genre does, which was a nice surprise.
This regency romance was a bit different from the others I have read from not only this author but others who write in the same genre. In this book, we have an injured and disfigured military hero who is asked to marry the daughter of the man who saved his life. The daughter, unaware of this arrangement, decides to go ahead with the agreement, even after meeting and seeing the Duke.
As in many of these books, the woman in question if strong-willed, intelligent, educated, and perfectly capable of doing anything set before her. As her presence forces the Duke into society, they are met with those who find his wife delightful and not the fortune hunter portrayed by a cousin who wants to be the heir to the Duke’s fortune.
Even though the marriage is arranged, love surprises both as they spend time together and learn how much they value each other. And without giving everything away, this book does not end as almost every other one in the genre does, which was a nice surprise.
August 10, 2025
While the premise had great potential and the characters were initially promising, the complete lack of chemistry and meaningful interaction between the protagonists drained the story of any emotional impact. What could have been a compelling romance felt instead like a slow, drawn-out narrative with little to hold my attention. Each chapter became a chore to finish, and the absence of deeper, more nuanced backstories for both characters left them feeling hollow.
A richer, more layered narrative—blending past and present, and forging a stronger emotional connection between the two during the war—could have transformed this into a truly gripping read. Unfortunately, the execution fell flat, leaving me more frustrated than invested.
A richer, more layered narrative—blending past and present, and forging a stronger emotional connection between the two during the war—could have transformed this into a truly gripping read. Unfortunately, the execution fell flat, leaving me more frustrated than invested.
August 16, 2025
Enjoyable plot, needs a good editor
I very much enjoyed Evangeline’s and Lucien’s romance. They were both upstanding and admirable characters who, unfortunately, we’re not honest with each other. There were a couple of good plot twists, which I enjoyed.
My criticism is mostly regarding the need for a thorough editor. There was some degree of tiresome repetition about how much they each did not deserve the other. The term “casual cruelty” was used five times. Once would have been enough. There were a few inconsistencies, such as the fact that she went to town on foot but apparently returned on horseback “beside her husband” after he rescued her. There were a few anachronistic behaviors. All the kind of things good editors would find and alter.
I very much enjoyed Evangeline’s and Lucien’s romance. They were both upstanding and admirable characters who, unfortunately, we’re not honest with each other. There were a couple of good plot twists, which I enjoyed.
My criticism is mostly regarding the need for a thorough editor. There was some degree of tiresome repetition about how much they each did not deserve the other. The term “casual cruelty” was used five times. Once would have been enough. There were a few inconsistencies, such as the fact that she went to town on foot but apparently returned on horseback “beside her husband” after he rescued her. There were a few anachronistic behaviors. All the kind of things good editors would find and alter.
August 14, 2025
There was some repetition of feelings that got kind of frustrating. I also was surprised that the papers found in the heroine’s father’s desk weren’t more important - why even mention them at all. I did like how the heroine came through every challenge presented to her. The hero was a little too withdrawn for my liking. I couldn’t understand the well being of his estate (which seemed dismal at the beginning) to sound management as he always seemed involved with estate business. What was he doing when everything was falling apart? There was a villain that deserved what he got in the end. The storyline was sort of a Beauty and the Beast theme which I liked.
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September 22, 2025Good story but poorly written
This book needs a good editor. There is a mistake near the beginning unveiling the offer of marriage. And then it is revealed later like it was supposed to be newly introduced. There are papers in a locked desk that have a lot of time put into them at the beginning of the story, that are never again mentioned. There are numerous gramic errors. Mistakes of using she instead of he ECT. The story itself would be good if some more depth was added. But all the errors drove me crazy. It seemed like this was the authors 1 st draft and possibly their 1st novel.
This book needs a good editor. There is a mistake near the beginning unveiling the offer of marriage. And then it is revealed later like it was supposed to be newly introduced. There are papers in a locked desk that have a lot of time put into them at the beginning of the story, that are never again mentioned. There are numerous gramic errors. Mistakes of using she instead of he ECT. The story itself would be good if some more depth was added. But all the errors drove me crazy. It seemed like this was the authors 1 st draft and possibly their 1st novel.
August 13, 2025
2.5 stars. The author's lovely language and turn of phrase unfortunately do not quite make up for how incredibly slow this was and how often the author repeats things. These two rehash the same conclusion or the same conversation at least three to five times before the plot moves on. Like, he thinks me might like her, but that's dangerous. Then two sentences later, he concludes it's dangerous to like her. Then again in the next paragraph. And again a few lines later. It's like we're being clobbered over the head with it.
August 22, 2025
Good Bones of a Story, But…
The author has a fantastic basis for a story here. My curiosity was piqued enough to keep reading to the end, though I will confess to skimming over several paragraphs toward the end. There was a wrong word used multiple times, and I’m going to have to research if Regency London boasted a posh coffeehouse. If you don’t mind a fluffy story with several repetitive phrases, you might enjoy this one.
The author has a fantastic basis for a story here. My curiosity was piqued enough to keep reading to the end, though I will confess to skimming over several paragraphs toward the end. There was a wrong word used multiple times, and I’m going to have to research if Regency London boasted a posh coffeehouse. If you don’t mind a fluffy story with several repetitive phrases, you might enjoy this one.
August 8, 2025
Evangeline receives an unexpected proposal from a duke after her father dies from illness. Who is this duke and how was he familiar with her father from their military days? When she meets him and decides to marry him how do they overcome the challenges they face together in this marriage of convenience? After all the false accusations and misunderstandings are resolved they find their hea
August 12, 2025
Alone/A New Start/A Proposal…
A circumstance that demands immediate attention for a new start
Is agreed upon by both parties- The Duke & now his Duchess. But a distant relative has sites on the Duke’s wealth & his wife. A misunderstanding so that they both realize they truly do love each other!
A circumstance that demands immediate attention for a new start
Is agreed upon by both parties- The Duke & now his Duchess. But a distant relative has sites on the Duke’s wealth & his wife. A misunderstanding so that they both realize they truly do love each other!
August 19, 2025
Always look below the exterior!
Although I have already read this book some years ago, i reread it and enjoyed it. A marriage began of desperation on Evangeline’s part, and duty to her father, who saved his life during the war on Duke Lucien’s part. A cousin who is determined to gain access to the estate any way he can. A book worth reading!
Although I have already read this book some years ago, i reread it and enjoyed it. A marriage began of desperation on Evangeline’s part, and duty to her father, who saved his life during the war on Duke Lucien’s part. A cousin who is determined to gain access to the estate any way he can. A book worth reading!
September 25, 2025
good read - a very different version of a regency romance
This was a well written book, interesting characters. The villain was almost a caricature of the villain type. I did find the book rather slow in parts, perhaps a bit too much internal dialogue which rather disrupted the rhythm of the book.
This was a well written book, interesting characters. The villain was almost a caricature of the villain type. I did find the book rather slow in parts, perhaps a bit too much internal dialogue which rather disrupted the rhythm of the book.
August 22, 2025
Disappointing...
I usually love retellings, but this one just slogged on with so much repetition that I could hardly wait for it to end. It was already what I would consider short, but this entire story could have been told in 10 chapters.
I usually love retellings, but this one just slogged on with so much repetition that I could hardly wait for it to end. It was already what I would consider short, but this entire story could have been told in 10 chapters.
August 24, 2025
A Wife for the Beast
This book flowed well, and the storyline was good. My only regret in the book was that it was a little “stuffy”. I do not mean this in a derogatory way, just a little more romantic way.
This book flowed well, and the storyline was good. My only regret in the book was that it was a little “stuffy”. I do not mean this in a derogatory way, just a little more romantic way.
November 6, 2025
Exceptiionally touching
This story goes from what begins as a desperate attempt to survive devastating poverty to a test of character and loyalty.
This story goes from what begins as a desperate attempt to survive devastating poverty to a test of character and loyalty.
December 16, 2025
The story has good bones, but it needed better execution. There were also some typos and inconsistencies.
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