Beauty and the Highland Beast

Written by Lecia Cornwall

Narrated by Ruth Urquhart

Powerful and dangerous Highlander Dair Sinclair was once the favored son of his clan, the Sinclairs of Carraig Brigh. With Dair at the helm, Sinclair ships circled the globe bringing home incredible fortune-until one deadly mission when Dair is captured, tortured, and unable to save his young cousin. He returns home breaking under the weight of his guilt and becomes known as the Madman of Carraig Brigh.

When a pagan healer predicts that only a virgin bride can heal his son's body and mind, Dair's father sets off to find the perfect wife for his son. At the castle of the fearsome McLeods, he meets lovely and kind Fia MacLeod.

Although Dair does his best to frighten Fia, she sees the man underneath the damage and uses her charm and special gifts to heal his mind and heart. Will Dair let Fia love him, or is he cursed with madness forever?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jun 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9781541475571

Lecia Cornwall

Lecia Cornwall lives and writes in Calgary, Canada, in the beautiful foothills of the Canadian Rockies, with five cats, two teenagers, a crazy chocolate Lab, and one very patient husband.

Reviews for Beauty and the Highland Beast

[Pam Denmark · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Narration was wonderful!!!!!! The story was unique and very, very GOOD!!! I highly recommend this audio book! One of the best highland romances I have listened to…!

[Linda LaGore Haberer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The characters come alive with the narration. I laughed out loud and was completely entertained.

[Laura · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good book. I enjoyed the story and the romance. There was one thing that happened that I wish had been done differently, but otherwise I very much enjoyed this story and am looking forward to reading more in the series and by this author.

[Holly · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good story line, though a little drawn out. A LOT of very short chapters, which to me was annoying.

[addictofromance · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Summary Strong Dair Sinclair, heir to the clan of Sinclairs of Carraig Brigh, was highly respected. But while on a mission to aid his cousin Jeannie, they are all captured, and his cousin so full of life is tortured right in front of him. An English prisoner helps him escape and get him home. Dair struggles with a madness, scarred and in pain. The healer of the clan makes a prediction, that if he finds a virgin--she will heal him. Dair's father is desperate to help his son. He arrives at the MacLeod clan, looking for one of the Laird's daughters to accompany him back home. He meets lovely Fia MacLeod, who is kind and is a healer of damaged animals. He knows that she is just what his son needs. Fia is overprotected by her family, and had dreamed of having adventure and some freedom. When she meets Dair Sinclair, she knows that he has a long way to go, but also she senses his deep pain and his strength. But there are traitors to the clan, who are seeking revenge...Plot and Story Line Beauty and the Highland Beast is the first book in the newest series by this author. When I first head about this book, I was very excited. Because a fairy tale mixed with sexy highlanders---count me in!! I truly enjoyed this book, and boy Lecia Cornwall did great things with this story and kept me on my toes for most of the story. Its starts out when we first see when the son is returned to his father, he is gravely injured, but he haunted by the memories of his cousin. Dair loved her, but in a way a friend loves another friend. Now his character really got to me in ways I didn't expect. He is scarred, angry and bitter. He knows his clan looks at him as if he is mad and crazy. Now this is where Fia comes in. Fia is kind and caring, but suffers from a limp and scars of her own. She knows that she can never have marriage or children, and wants to enjoy this moment. Fia knows how to handle big, burly grumpy men and Dair is the epitome of it. The chemistry that develops between Dair and Fia is just perfect, I adored seeing these two together. Even though there are some set backs, these two fight for each other. The plot twist, of a traitor, really added a sense of thrills and danger to the story. I loved seeing the growth in the story and development of the characters, especially in Dair and Fia. This story really got to me, grumpy heroes, strong willed heroines and a feisty feline. What more do you need!!The Cover Such a wonderful cover----I love the dress, with all the green and the flow of the plaid, and the castle in the background.Overall View Beauty and the Highland Beast is a classic fairy tale highlander style----riveting, enticing and engaging on every page!!

[whiskeyinthejar-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

2.5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Dair is the seafaring prodigal son of chief Padraig of the clan Sinclair. When bringing his cousin to France to join a convent, they are captured. After being beaten and forced to watch his cousin raped and murdered, Dair returns home a broken man. His body is slowly healing but his mind seems beyond repair. A healer declares that only a pure virgin can heal him and his father sets out to find him one.
Fia is physically scarred and has a limp from an accident in childhood, therefore, her father and sisters are very protective of her. When Padraig meets her and sees how she heals a bird, he instantly wants to bring her to his son.
Dair and Fia are about to learn the true meaning of strength and healing.
 
He was still a prisoner, trapped inside the cage of his injured flesh, his damaged bones, his memories of unspeakable horrors. What would it take to set him free?
 
First in the Highland Fairy Tale series, this story plays off of the beauty and the beast theme. The fairy tale aspects, animals flock to our heroine like Snow White and our hero is a "beast", gave this a very light and fluffy tone. Fia also has an ill tempered cat named Beelzebub whose antics and fear he strikes in the hearts of big strong men, create the comic relief. While the abuse the hero suffered from his imprisonment and mental anguish from watching his cousin raped and hung (actually memories from the hero about this are told by him only once) give him a serious case of PTSD and the story a heavy tone. Unfortunately, these two contrasting tones didn't always mesh well together and gave the story a very uneven feel.
 
Dair was the best flushed out character with his storyline of being called "mad" by the clans people because of his nightmares, heavy drinking, and claiming he was seeing the ghost of his cousin. It's obvious he has PTSD but in 1700s Scotland, the priest is convinced its demons. Dair will definitely have your sympathies for what he has been through but a lot of his appearances have him solely being "mad". The few times he is not acting the part, he one dimensionally is attracted to Fia because of her gentle beauty. Fia had more facets to her character bio but they were just kind of thrown out there. She is said to have scars and a limp, why her family was protective of her but then her beauty is often discussed and no one seems to find her off putting, so which is it? (I'm not saying a woman can't be scarred and beautiful, just that the author seemed indecisive whether she wanted her heroine to be viewed as overtly beautiful or covertly) Then there was how Fia got her scars, the story is told once, with vague reasoning and details, and never brought up again. Not fully flushed out and incomplete reasoning had me never fully growing attached to our leads.
 
Along with the heroine's thrown out there details, I have to say the story's plot points, overall, were thrown out there to be left dangling. The villain was fairly obvious and his eventual reasonings made sense but the tie in with the ghost was pretty unbelievable. Sort of Even if you think you are seeing a ghost, I would think most would notice the difference between a big MALE and a female in a dress. Also, no one else ever saw this "ghost" running around? The whole thing was a bit eye-rolling. I know the ghost drama was dragged out to create suspense for the reader but it fell extremely flat for me. The reasoning for why Fia's sister came along too, she was the one supposed to marry Dair while Fia was only supposed to heal him, was extremely awkward. It wasn't worked out well, which tied into how indecisive Fia was portrayed. The whole talk of only a "pure virgin" (the word virgin was used 61 times in this story, it got pretty tiring) healing Dair honestly felt like added in nonsense.
 
The writing at times felt a bit simplistic but that could have been the brought up and dumped elements. I enjoyed the overall concept of the story and the broad way the characters and story moved along and interacted but the structure and plot points to get them there, were willy nilly and some were simply unnecessary. This could overall be called a sweet story, only two bedroom scenes, so if looking for that aspect along with a Scottish setting and in a fairy tale vein, you might want to try and see if this author's style is for you.

[bookworm2bookworm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I love books that Lecia Cornwall writes. She creates interesting plots and her characters tend to be complex. Yet in this story, despite the complexity of the main characters, I had a difficult time connecting and caring for either of them. It did get better as the story developed and as we watched them develop and turn into the people they truly were and not just what other perceived them to be.

I also wished that the pace was a bit faster.

All in all, not a bad retelling of an old fable and if you like them, than you’ll probably like this one too.

Melanie for b2b

[libstaff2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 StarsA historical Scottish romance that is loosely based on Beauty and the Beast. This novel is the first in a series and is a quick and light-hearted read. The characters are interesting although sometimes a bit hard to believe, and the setting is described very well. It's not a complicated plot, but the author ties the story together nicely. Some of the best characters are the supporting ones (I especially liked Moire, Angus, and English John). For romance readers and fairy tale adaptation fans.Net Galley Feedback

[cathygeha · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beauty and the Highland BeastA Highland Fairy Tale #1Engaging, enchanting and delightful – this novel definitely is one with a moral and happy ending – just as any fairy tale should be. Alisdair Og Sinclair, Dair, was a man living a charmed life until it all went wrong one day. The aftermath of his experiences at the hands of captors left him a scarred and broken man. His father, with a glimmer of hope, brings home Fiona Margaret MacPhail MacLeod (Fia) to fulfill the prophecy that only a virgin can save his son. Thus begins a journey of madness, healing, romance, betrayal and a whole lot more. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and read it as if it were a fairy tale rather than a factual historical romance. I enjoyed the premise, the characters – human and feline, the plot and even the hokey ghost. I look forward to reading the next book in the series and wonder if it will be the story of English John and Meggie or perhaps one of Fia’s other sisters. Thank you to NetGalley and Saint Martin’s Press for the copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. 4.5 Stars

[dpappas_25 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have been reading a lot of Scottish romance novels recently but this one really stuck out to me when I first saw it as it was supposed to have been a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Quite frankly if it hadn't said that in the book description I wouldn't have known that it was supposed to have been a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Both of the main characters, Fia and Dair, have physical deformities so I was a bit confused at first as to who was supposed to be the "Beast." They both had tragic events happen previously in their life that really shaped the way that people now treated them. I did like them both in the beginning of the book but the more they began to get to know each other the less I started to like them.There comes a point in this book where one character is revealed to be a villain and I could honestly see that coming a mile away. Practically the whole town gets a bit too crazy in thirty anger and I wasn't a fan of some parts towards the end.Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the galley.