Review: Realistic scarred hero and heroine
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 13, 2014
Baron Simon Wolstenholme, the Beast of Stonecliff, has done his research and found the perfect woman to hire. But the skills he wants are not confined to the school room, but the bedroom.Lila, ex-prostitute and educated governess, finds she can’t escape her past, but is forced to face her scars in order to move forward with her life.One of the questions I ask myself when reading a romance is, “What is about these two characters that make them perfect for each other?” Is there some unique spark in her that calls to him? What makes our hero different from every other man she’s known in the past? I thought Mrs. Gerrard’s book, “The Governess and the Beast” answered those questions, while combing an attention to historical detail with erotica/light-BDSM (i.e., restraints, blindfolds, anal play).One of the facets I loved about this book is the realism of the period. Women had very little rights, dependent on our fathers first, then our husbands. And what happens when a woman was left financial destitute with no relatives? Lila came across as a very strong heroine who was willing to do anything to survive.  She needed someone to restore her belief in men and sex and Simon certainly filled the bill.Simon has been transformed by the war and his scars. He’s changed since his dissolute youth, but still remembers the things he took for granted and all the mistakes he’s made. None of these characters are the perfect regency H/H we read all the time and I appreciated Gerrard’s research and details that added to Lila’s description and desperation. The love scenes were appropriately placed – meaning they added to deepen the emotion intimacy between the two characters.At the end of the story, I felt like these were two characters who were fated to be together - my definition of a good romance.