Beast by Alana Albertson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Isabella—Grady Williams is a national treasure, the youngest living Medal of Honor recipient, America’s scarred superhero. With tattooed arms sculpted from carrying M-16s, this bad boy has girls begging from sea to shining sea to get a piece of his action.

When my father squanders away my college fund, I make a deal with this dirty-talking Devil Dog—I will pretend to be Grady’s girlfriend for the Marine Corps Ball, and my dad will write Grady’s war memoir.

Grady is fearless. Hell, this badass jumped on a grenade to save his fellow Marines! As much as I crave him, I refuse to allow myself to become addicted to a dangerous man who will detonate my heart.

Grady—Isabella Cuesta is an angel who can see beyond my mangled skin, a pawn used to repay her father’s debt, a woman who makes me feel like a man instead of a monster.

But I no longer believe in fairy tales.

She’s mine until our contract ends. I’ll take her hard and rough, listen to all her hopes and fears, lay down my life to protect her. 

This beauty will never let herself love a dangerous man like me—a man who has killed, a man who runs towards gunfire, a man who never backs down from a fight. 

But without her love, I’m not a man—I’ll remain forever a beast.

Beast

Nice beauty and the beast adaptation!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💚🖤❤️💜
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: ☺️😊🙃🥰
Narrator(s): 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration type: Dual Narration

The heroine: Isabella (a.k.a. Isa) – she was a former dancer on a reality show called Dancing Under the Stars. She was famous until her mother killed herself. The world thought her mom was murdered, but Isa was the one who found her and knew the truth. After that happened, tabloids did a number on her and she quit the show and backed off from the public eye. She was now going to college at San Diego University, majoring in psychology.

The Hero: Grady – he was a marine in Iraq and was injured when he jumped on a grenade that was about to explode in a small room full of his squad. Now he is well known for being the youngest recipient of the medal of honor. He is scarred on half his face and has to undergo surgeries and skin grafts. He is in constant pain and has severe PTSD.

The story: one day while sitting at home, Grady sees that the college aged neighbors down the street are having a huge party, it is a superhero themed costume party, so he paints himself green and puts on a silicone hulk mask and goes to see if he can find a woman that he could possibly take to the ball in Hawaii that he was supposed to attend in a few months. He meets Isa, who attends the party dressed as Black Widow.

This was a book about pain and recovery. Grady couldn’t believe that a woman as beautiful as Isa would want him. He had a lot of women that wanted one night with him because of his heroics and celebrity status, but he wanted someone that wanted him for more than just sex. Isa had her own issues due to her mothers’ suicide and her dad is an alcoholic who hasn’t been able to hold his life together since her mother died. I actually really liked the characters and the story. The intimate scenes were super steamy as well.

This audiobook was narrated in dual points of view via dual narration. Sonja Field and Aaron Shedlock were the narrators, and they did a fantastic job. Aaron Shedlock is one of my favorite male narrators and I love his gravelly voice. He did an excellent job with a southern accent. Sonja Field also has a very nice voice and sounded age appropriate for Isa.

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