Beast

I'd read this eons ago and just stumbled on the audio. I'm so happy I did. [a:Judith Ivory 130347 Judith Ivory https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1264390318p2/130347.jpg] a.k.a. [a:Judy Cuevas 14425377 Judy Cuevas https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] wrote just a handful of books but among them are some brilliant classics. IMO this is one of them. In [b:Beast 13550871 Beast Judith Ivory https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1332034516l/13550871.SX50.jpg 1350944], using a template between Beauty & The Beast and Cyrano, she weaves the story of the courtship and subsequent marriage between Louise, a strikingly beautiful 18 y.o. American heiress (from Miami no less) and Charles. He's a successful perfumer, a minor French aristocrat, and over 35 y.o. He also has some physical ‘deformities'. The year is 1902 and the characters behave & speak like people from from their time, age, and upbringing. I appreciate that. The socio-sexual mores of 1902 are not those of 2020 but even so these two are people I'd be happy to know IRL and I can imagine that they probably would run in the same circle as the Saint Vallier brothers from [b:Bliss 1068546 Bliss (de Saint Vallier Brothers, #1) Judy Cuevas https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1340990963l/1068546.SY75.jpg 1055209] and [b:Dance 1068548 Dance (de Saint Vallier Brothers, #2) Judy Cuevas https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1340990682l/1068548.SY75.jpg 1055211].The audio is by [a:Barbara Rosenblat 12492 Barbara Rosenblat https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1332211833p2/12492.jpg] and it's brilliant.