In Bed With The Beast

IN BED WITH THE BEAST (The Naughty Princess Club #2)

Written by Tara Sivec

Published by Swerve, June 5, 2018

My star rating – 5 stars

THE SYNOPSIS:

A tale as old as time: she needs a place to stay, he’s a grump with a secret and an extra room…can love find a way?

Meet the Naughty Princess Club, a series from USA Today bestselling author Tara Sivec that brings readers to Fairytale Lane and the hilarity—and romance—that three women fall into once they decide to strut their stuff and bring on their own happily ever after.

Living in her overprotective dad’s basement, shy Belle lives her life through books. Being a part of the Naughty Princess Club is the first adventure she’s ever had, plus she desperately needs the money to save one of her favorite places – the local library.

But when her new friends and new business gets her kicked out of her dad’s house, Belle is rescued by the surly Vincent “Beast” Adams who invites her to be his house guest until she gets back on her feet. Despite his attitude problem and long list of rules, Belle finds herself warming to the muscled man with a penchant for growling and starts seeing a gentle side to him that wasn’t there before.

Yet there’s a room that Beast keeps locked and Belle keeps getting hints that Beast is hiding something…can a nerdy librarian tame the beast or will their romance be over before it has a chance to blossom? Find it on Goodreads

MY REVIEW:

This is hands down my favourite romance series EVER!!! You can’t go wrong with a princess retelling 🙂 This one has the perfect balance of story, steam, humour, sweet, and characters. The first book in the series (At The Stroke of Midnight) introduces us to Cindy. She’s got everything – a huge house, a daughter, a husband, a spot on the PTA. Everything in her life seems picture perfect. That is, until her husband leaves her for the babysitter and Ariel shows up on her doorstep telling her that she slept with her husband, not knowing that he was married. An unlikely friendship begins with Cindy and Ariel, as well as another girl named Belle. They help her through the loss of her husband and the money troubles that she experiences when she needs to keep up appearances without her husband in the picture. It might involve stripping for cash. It was SOOOOOO good! This one was just as perfect.

After Cindy gets her happily ever after, we now get Belle’s perspective. She’s running a library that’s falling apart and she’s struggling to acquire the funding to keep it going. She’s also struggling to find a way to branch out on her own. She’s got a cushy living arrangement still living at home with her dad, but he won’t allow her to grow up and make her own choices. With a little motivation from Cindy and Ariel, she takes a stand for herself and starts to make her own decisions.

I related to Belle very much. She’s a nerdy girl who is more than happy to stay at home and read a book. She’s also a walking google machine and spouts off random facts and statistics (ok, this one isn’t me). But she is very afraid to put herself out there and needs a little help to come out of her shell. That probably describes most of you reading this review lol. Her character arc was slow and real. She would take a step forward, and a couple steps back. She would need some “liquid courage” to get over her fears. And when it came down to it, she would stand up for everything that she believed in. I loved seeing the people in her life help her along on her journey and be there to support her in every decision she made. They all wanted the best for her and it was really sweet to see how everyone supported her in different ways.

Beast was an interesting character. He was the bouncer at the strip club that we met in the first book. He didn’t really say that much and it was difficult for him to come out of his shell as well. He was just so sweet and unselfish. He always seemed to have Belle’s interests in mind before his own. But there was something just a little off about him. Maybe it was the fact that he was so quiet and withdrawn that made it a little hard to connect with? I don’t know. But he was still a really great guy!

I love that this series isn’t all about the steam. Yes, there are some really sexy scenes, but the story is really amazing and empowering. As much as I liked books 1 and 2, it’s book 3 that I’m most excited for! Ariel is a foul mouthed smart ass and makes me laugh SO hard with the things she says. I can’t wait to get to it!

Until next time, happy reading!