Review: A charming, unusual and adorably sweet book.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 7, 2014
Emilia works as a cleaner as she works to pay off her university loans. When she’s offered a job at Iram Manor, she takes it immediately, despite a million stories of other cleaners being chased away by the monstrous owner, Kasper Zafar (not Jafar as I kept calling him by mistake :-( ). Emilia is made of sterner stuff and doesn’t flinch at Kasper’s rather aggressive rudeness or his odd habits.She forms a relationship with him – a friendship of sorts that centres around her being good-natured and kind and Kasper being rude and bewildered at her fearlessness. Emilia is transfixed by Kasper – by the mask he wears (he literally wears a mask, I’m not being all metaphorical), his gloved hands, his secrecy, his mysterious medical condition. But for all of Emilia’s interest, Kasper outdoes her. He watches the house’s security feed constantly, looking for her. He obsesses over her, calling her a “little peach” and hiring a private investigator to look into her background, just so he can have more of her to hold on to. Kasper, having been sheltered from human contact for so long, resents the feelings he has. He begins to think of her a witch, deliberately trying to entice him. He wonders how many men she’s already sent to the mental asylum with her smiles. This might sound a bit, well, misogynist, but the book does it with immense humour. Kasper is so frustrated by her, by her kindness and her refusal to treat him with anything less than respect and informal friendliness. He sees her as his tormentor because he can never have her, can never dream of having her.This book was so peculiar. It was unlike any book I’ve read recently. It was set in the present day but, other than Emilia’s college and home life (and occasional references to Google), it could have been a nineteenth-century gothic novel. It reminded me more of ‘Jane Eyre’ than any contemporary romantic book. Instead of an arrogant, dark Rochester, we have the scarred, angry Kasper (who doubles as the monster in the attic). Instead of an orphaned governess falling in love with her tormented boss, we have a neglected cleaner falling in love with her, well, tormented boss. It really was like reading a story set in another era, but it was done in a wonderfully sweet way. Another gothic feature was that Kasper really was hideous. He wasn’t a buff sex god with a few scars. When Emilia sees his face without his mask for the first time, she truly is shocked and needs to collect herself. She admits to herself that she thought he’d be beautiful – just as the reader expects him to be too. We’ve read so many Beauty and the Beast books that we imagine the Beast to be slightly marred (and his injuries are always due to some heroic military misstep or tragic childhood accident). Kasper is hideous and the source of his condition is hideous, but Emilia never falters. She loves him as he is.I did, however, find it strange that Emilia was so immediately captivated by Kasper. He refers to her exclusively as “foolish girl” (but as his “little peach” when she’s not around) and is generally mean and cruel but she thinks he’s nothing short of delightful. The reader knows that he’s delightful, because we’re privy to the depth of his feelings, but it makes me wonder what exactly Emilia saw in him in those early stages. Also, and this is a big one, there’s no sex in this book. There is amazing chemistry but no sex. This is disappointing as there was a hot lead-up but all we get is ‘fade to black’. Still though, the tension and affection between the characters will tide you over (and there are another two books coming up in the series). Emilia works as a cleaner as she works to pay off her university loans. When she’s offered a job at Iram Manor, she takes it immediately, despite a million stories of other cleaners being chased away by the monstrous owner, Kasper Zafar (not Jafar as I kept calling him by mistake :-( ). Emilia is made of sterner stuff and doesn’t flinch at Kasper’s rather aggressive rudeness or his odd habits.She forms a relationship with him – a friendship of sorts that centres around her being good-natured and kind and Kasper being rude and bewildered at her fearlessness. Emilia is transfixed by Kasper – by the mask he wears (he literally wears a mask, I’m not being all metaphorical), his gloved hands, his secrecy, his mysterious medical condition. But for all of Emilia’s interest, Kasper outdoes her. He watches the house’s security feed constantly, looking for her. He obsesses over her, calling her a “little peach” and hiring a private investigator to look into her background, just so he can have more of her to hold on to. Kasper, having been sheltered from human contact for so long, resents the feelings he has. He begins to think of her a witch, deliberately trying to entice him. He wonders how many men she’s already sent to the mental asylum with her smiles. This might sound a bit, well, misogynist, but the book does it with immense humour. Kasper is so frustrated by her, by her kindness and her refusal to treat him with anything less than respect and informal friendliness. He sees her as his tormentor because he can never have her, can never dream of having her.This book was so peculiar. It was unlike any book I’ve read recently. It was set in the present day but, other than Emilia’s college and home life (and occasional references to Google), it could have been a nineteenth-century gothic novel. It reminded me more of ‘Jane Eyre’ than any contemporary romantic book. Instead of an arrogant, dark Rochester, we have the scarred, angry Kasper (who doubles as the monster in the attic). Instead of an orphaned governess falling in love with her tormented boss, we have a neglected cleaner falling in love with her, well, tormented boss. It really was like reading a story set in another era, but it was done in a wonderfully sweet way. Another gothic feature was that Kasper really was hideous. He wasn’t a buff sex god with a few scars. When Emilia sees his face without his mask for the first time, she truly is shocked and needs to collect herself. She admits to herself that she thought he’d be beautiful – just as the reader expects him to be too. We’ve read so many Beauty and the Beast books that we imagine the Beast to be slightly marred (and his injuries are always due to some heroic military misstep or tragic childhood accident). Kasper is hideous and the source of his condition is hideous, but Emilia never falters. She loves him as he is.I did, however, find it strange that Emilia was so immediately captivated by Kasper. He refers to her exclusively as “foolish girl” (but as his “little peach” when she’s not around) and is generally mean and cruel but she thinks he’s nothing short of delightful. The reader knows that he’s delightful, because we’re privy to the depth of his feelings, but it makes me wonder what exactly Emilia saw in him in those early stages. Also, and this is a big one, there’s no sex in this book. There is amazing chemistry but no sex. This is disappointing as there was a hot lead-up but all we get is ‘fade to black’. Still though, the tension and affection between the characters will tide you over (and there are another two books coming up in the series). Altogether a charming, unusual and adorably sweet book.