About the Book

Book: A Dark Beauty
Author: Clarissa Kae
Genre: Fairytale
Release date: March 9, 2021

A Victorian Twist on Beauty And The Beast

Bold and brilliant, Georgiana has a gift for fixing machines—from clocks to carriages—while her father has a penchant for finding trouble. In an accidental fire, Georgiana and her father scar the once handsome face of Lord Pichon, cousin to the queen.
Rumors of Georgiana’s gift raise her family’s status. Her incomparable beauty captures the eye of many gentlemen and the wrath of Lord Pichon. Abandoned by his peers and alone in his cold castle, Lord Pichon is determined to enact revenge.
When Georgiana’s father makes a terrible mistake, she sacrifices herself to pay his debt—as a lowly maid in Lord Pichon’s castle.
Her wit and warmth begin to thaw Lord Pichon’s estate, making him question his version of the past. Will her kindness break the beastly lord or will he hold her family hostage forever?

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About the Author

Clarissa Kae is a preeminent voice whose professional career began as a freelance editor in 2007. She’s the former president of her local California Writers Club after spending several years as the Critique Director.Since her first novel, she’s explored different writing genres and created a loyal group of fans who eagerly await her upcoming release. With numerous awards to her name, Clarissa continues to honor the role of storyteller.Aside from the writing community, she and her daughters founded Kind Girls Make Strong Women to help undervalued nonprofit organizations—from reuniting children with families to giving Junior Olympic athletes their shot at success.She lives in the agricultural belly of California with her family and farm of horses, chickens, dogs and kittens aplenty.

My Thoughts

A Dark Beauty
by Clarissa Kae
Book 1 in the Victorian Retellings series
Rating: 4/5

So I’ve never read anything by Clarissa Kae before so I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this Victorian retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I was impressed with how natural the story felt and loved the battle of wits between the beauty and beast characters.

The mechanically talented Georgiana de Beaumont can fix anything with moving parts while her father is a genius with picking locks and making impenetrable locks. When a past tragedy and fire scar Georgiana and her family, they unwittingly scar the Queen’s cousin, Lord Pichon. Lord Pichon does not trust the de Beaumont family even when the Queen requests their help to secure an event. When Lord Pichon catches Georgiana’s father in a precarious position, Georgiana vows to serve Lord Pichon in her father’s place. Spirited away from London, Georgiana and Lord Pichon continue to get on each other’s nerves but begin to see that they are not too different especially since they both bare the scars of their past. Can Lord Pichon ever forgive Georgiana’s family? Can Georgiana ever figure out what is happening with her father and the mystery surrounding him?

Many interesting twists and turns make this retelling stand out but still feel familiar to the reader. I was impressed with how the author was able to make the reader care about her characters from the very start of the book. I appreciated the mystery that kept me reading till the end. I found the development of Georgiana and Lord Pichon’s relationship to be extremely natural and not forced.

Highly recommend if you enjoy a clean, Beauty and the Beast retelling with some mystery and humor.

My thanks to the author and CelebrateLit for providing me with an ARC of the book. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. No positive review was expected and no compensation received.

More from Clarissa

As a young girl most of the fairy tales talked about beauty as the only attribute but when Disney came out with Beauty and the Beast, my world was rocked. For the first time the heroine was a woman with a brain and a plan. I began researching the fairy tale and read every version. When my youngest daughter was born (with dark hair and big beautiful brown eyes) I named her Isla Belle. For as long as I can remember, I dreamed of writing a Beauty and the Beast retelling. And finally, that dream as come true.