Bella and the Beast

by Olivia Drake

Overview

Even a confirmed bachelor can meet his match.Because sometimes fairy tales do come true...

OF ALL THE FABLED TREASURES
Bella Jones feels like a fish out of water in civilized England. Raised abroad by her explorer father, she's amused by the very proper manners of the nobility. Nevertheless, to save her younger siblings from ruin, she must infiltrate a ducal household in order to find the map to an ancient treasure trove. Alas, the haughty, handsome duke stands in her way...unless she can tame his beastly temper, that is.

THE MOST PRECIOUS ONE IS LOVE
Miles Grayson, the Duke of Aylwin, prefers antiquities to, well, everything else. Especially prying females with their irksome questions. But Bella's blue eyes and beguiling smile are improbably charming, and the temptation of her kiss is impossible to resist. As the pair is swept into a mystery that reaches back to their childhoods, Miles realizes that Bella has made the rarest discovery of all-the key to his heart...

The Cinderella Sisterhood series is:

"Filled with romance [and] breathtaking passion."-Night Owl Reviews

"Magical."-Once Upon a Romance

"Sensual...engaging...beautiful."-RT Book Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250357427
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/03/2015
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	767,340
Product dimensions:	5.38(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Olivia Drake is the author of Seducing the Heiress, Never Trust a Rogue, and Scandal of the Year. She has been a member of Romance Writers of America since 1981, and her novels have won the Golden Heart Award, Best Historical Romantic Suspense and Best Regency Historical from Romantic Times, and the prestigious RITA award. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Editorial Reviews

10/05/2015
The eyes have it in Drake’s fourth Victorian-set Cinderella Sisterhood romance (after Abducted by a Prince). Isabella Jones is firmly on the shelf at age 29, but her blue eyes mesmerize Miles Grayson, the autocratic Duke of Aylwin. Miles intimidates everyone with his ducal stare, but Bella can withstand it. Bella believes Miles possesses an ancient map to Egyptian treasure that his father was supposed to share with her. With the help of the Countess of Milford and her garnet slippers, she disguises herself and convinces him to hire her to curate his father’s Egyptian artifacts. Their attraction takes predictable turns; Miles utters Bella’s name while having sex with a prostitute and later concludes that Bella has mistaken passion for love, while she believes herself unworthy to be a duchess. Drake (a pseudonym for Rita-winner Barbara Dawson Smith) uses Bella’s Egyptian upbringing to good effect, but the story’s major red herring is too obvious, Miles’s gold-digging relatives are one-dimensional, and a ghostly subplot fizzles out. Agent: Stephanie Kip Rostan, Levine Greenberg Literary. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly