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Arabella & The Beast
First published 1988 · 212 pages
A delightfully pragmatic heroine turns a scandalous wager into a cozy triumph of domestic harmony and slow-burn affection.
What it feels like
Reading this traditional Regency feels like stepping into a warm, well-ordered drawing room where quiet competence reigns supreme. The narrative unfolds at a steady, comforting pace, trading high-stakes melodrama for the gentle, satisfying friction of two opposites learning to share a life. It is a delightfully low-angst experience, anchored by a heroine whose unflappable pragmatism acts as a soothing balm to the hero's gruff, exiled exterior. The prose is crisp and period-appropriate, sparkling with wry observations and sharp dialogue rather than breathless passion. It will thoroughly charm readers who love old-school historical romances where mutual respect paves the way for love, and where a scandalous beginning slowly softens into a cozy, triumphant domesticity.
- Mood
- cozy
- drawing-room intimate
- quietly triumphant
- Tone
- wry
- pragmatic
- charming
- gentle
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- finding agency in restriction · the power of quiet competence · unexpected domesticity · looking past reputations
- The writing
- Crisp and lightly witty, the writing leans heavily on sharp dialogue and observant social details typical of traditional Regencies.
- The arc
- The journey shifts from pragmatic resignation to a slow-blooming mutual respect, finally settling into warm, genuine affection.
- Who it's for
- Readers who delight in old-school, low-angst historical romances where a remarkably sensible heroine quietly manages a gruff hero into falling in love.
Content notes
- gambling
- parental neglect
- alcoholism
About the book
Beast Blackwater has returned from exile in America to take up his inheritance. His father’s will though requires him to marry. Fortuitously, over a game of cards, he finds himself winning a wife, when his opponent wagers one of his daughters on the final hand. Far from resenting the circumstances, calm and competent Arabella Ivers believes that marriage may help her escape her drunken father and overbearing stepmother. As she learns to manage her husband’s grand house and navigate London society, her new husband starts to see that the turn of the cards was a happy gamble.
Description from Open Library.
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