Review: Will one kiss change the beast into a human being again?
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 14, 2014
Ara is scarred after an accident, he used to be the belle of the ball and Prince Grouchy all rolled into one.  Now he is just a reclusive grouchy beast who, for seven years, has been locked away in his luxurious apartment with staff running his empire.  The rule for his assistant is no staring and no superfluous interaction and just focus on work.  Others were caught staring so they were ejected from the ivory tower to the gutters below.  In comes Ilias who desperately needs the job so will do all he can to stay.Except he doesn't: he stares, he tries to make friends, he remonstrates Ara, he has little tanties and he does everything to get himself fired.  Ara doesn't fire him though...he falls in lust and then love.Hang on though, for seven years Ara has sat in shadows, not allowing anyone to look upon him and suddenly he is letting this young man break all the rules and Ara miraculously lets down the castle walls into his heart.  Nuh uh, don't think so.  Honest to goodness this was a long, slow, tortuous read of epic proportions.  I was ready to delete it from my Kindle at 25%, but just kept sludging along trying to get through this book.  There were some nice bits sure but on the whole talk about artistic licence.  I don't think either character is that likable, the poor housekeeper is being worked to death as well (just thought I would point out she worked every day from at least 6 in the morning to late meals, poor woman) and quite frankly Ilias is like a child if he is rebuffed.  I felt depressed reading this and only finished it because my curiosity on how it ended made me.  I need a cup of tea and a lie down after that epic yawn - felt too much like hard work getting through that! Oh and just to add my last wee peeve - the names Ara and Ilias are just too contrived for words - one is ok, but both having weird names is overkill.