Beauty and the Baron

The author's writing voice is all over the place making me feel like she just cut and pasted lines from other books and formed it into this book... like magazine letters in a ransom note. It takes her characters 4 pages to have a 10 second conversation, its so chopped up with action between words its painful to follow along.

I just finished BEAUTY AND THE BARON, and enjoyed it immensely. Deborah Hale has created memorable, realistic characters the reader can relate to... I especially love the heroine, Angela, who is earthy, kind, and generous. I came to love the hero, Lucius, Lord Daventry, little by little. Ms. Hale has given us a very insulated, proud, and vulnerable hero whom Angela grows to love day by day... but for Lord Daventry, the road to loving Angela is fraught with emotional pitfalls. She's wonderful -- there's nothing not to love about her -- but he is scarred in many ways and for many reasons, and he doesn't love anyone easily. He's a great character, dark and intriguing without being annoying, as some of the dark heroes in romances can be! The Earl of Daventry, grandfather to Lucius and friend to Angela, is a beautifully-drawn secondary character who springs off the page with a life of his own. Ms. Hale has written some other marvelous supporting characters, as well -- Mr. Michaeljohn (the shy vicar), Tibby, Mr. Shaw -- a pivotal character who turns the tide for both Angela and Lucius in a way one would not have foreseen -- and many others. All in all, it's a great read and I recommend it highly. The author's prose is at times so lovely as to be poetic, but is never cloying. It's just great reading. A cut above. And she writes beautiful/powerful love scenes, as well! This is a definite keeper, and I will be looking for more of her books!

Deborah Hale has done it again. I had barely begun Beauty and the Baron when I found myself as enchanted by her characters as I once was by the princes and princesses of fairy tales. Yet in Deborah's delicately wrought story, it is the hero who must be rescued by the lady--in this case, an irrepressible beauty with a weakness for sweets and a touching empathy for those who are wounded or alone. It is this empathy that allows Angela to brave the dark world Lucius inhabits. He shows her the beauty only visible in darkness, the beauty of the stars. And, having partaken of this beauty, she determines to return the favor--she teaches him to recognize the even greater loveliness of his own soul. In Beauty and the Baron, Deborah Hale shows us just how bright a happily-ever-after can be.

The familiar theme of a scarred hero rescued from his tortured past by a warm-hearted heroine has never been more riveting as they are in Deborah Hale's Beauty and The Baron. The hero, Lord Lucius Daventry, and the heroine, Angela Lacewood, are as the author tells us, as night is to day. With rich, powerful characterization, the seamless weaving of historical detail into the story, and elegant writing, Deborah Hale gives you everything you look for in a well written historical romance.

Deborah Hale explores the depths of her characters with a keen sense of the human heart, and gives readers exactly what they are looking for: a romantic, feel-good journey into the lives of two fascinating, multi-layered characters. This book is a delightful escape into the Regency period. It kept me turning pages until the end, just to find out how the kind-hearted heroine was going to bring the hero out of his dark existence and into one of joy and light. I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy intelligent writing, and well-drawn characters who stay with you long after you close the book.

This Beauty and the Beast tale will win you over as surely as the lovely Angela Lacewood wins the fiercely guarded heart of Lord Lucius Daventry ("Lord Lucifer"). Expect Deborah Hale's trademark graceful writing and her remarkable ability to wring emotion from the reader.