REVIEW: Beauty and the Bastard by David Bridger

ISBN 9781595787286

Genre: Paranormal Romance
(c) July 2010, Liquid Silver Books

David Bridger’s website

Rating: 3 stars

Available at Liquid Silver Books! 

This novella is the debut of paranormal romance author, David Bridger. Beauty and the Bastard is a very serious, sometimes depressing, and tension-filled love story of a man fallen from Heaven, and a fiery-haired Demon who has a past hot on her tracks. From the very first page, the reader is taken straight into the life of Saul and you learn how he makes his living, trying to earn his way back into Heaven. How did he get banished you ask? Well, Saul doesn’t even know the answer to this yet.

The plot of this novella focuses on Saul, a fallen angel who is tormented knowing that he has to live life like a human, with only one odd thing that happens to him every night. Saul works for Demons, doing things that he thinks will get him back into Heaven. This is when he meets the beautiful Demon, Rebecca, who has just escaped a troubling past in Las Vegas to work for her uncle in New York. The attraction is apparent, though they don’t have direct contact with each other until Rebecca’s uncle hires Saul as protection for her from her encroaching past. 

The romance/love story in this novella is very fast-paced and happens too fast. Although it could be more of a love at first sight/destiny type of relationship, I would have liked to have seen more scenes of the two hanging out together and talking, learning about each other to make the love more believable. Though I do realize that is hard to do in a novella, maybe this book could have been a full length novel by adding some more development on the relationship area. That said, it is still believable when seen from the context of destiny or love at first sight. It is a sweet love that was built up very fast, but the characters are true in their love for each other, which you can plainly see as you are reading. It becomes a quick page turner and the reader will be devouring pages to find out how it all turns out. 

The characters of this novella are believable, but it is paranormal romance so the characters are paranormal beings, with human emotions and looks. They are both tormented with pasts that they must get through in order to move forward. It is a fun story of moving on, falling in love, and getting over life’s situations. The dialogue is witty at times, and depressing at others, mainly when Saul talks, until Rebecca livens him up a little. The steamy scenes are that; steamy, and you can feel the emotions of lust and love as the characters are feeling them. The characters grow in ways that only humans grow, so the reader can find themselves identifying with the characters throughout the novella.

The danger in this book is, from human eyes, very dangerous, meaning the climax is incredible. When the time comes that things must be faced in order for Rebecca and Saul to move forward, you are scared for the characters. The author did a wonderful job portraying the emotions of the characters in this book so that the reader feels them as the characters feel them.

I would recommend this book to paranormal romance readers. Especially those that enjoy the fallen angel type stories. This novella was very well written and the story is intriguing. Though I would suggest that any reader have another book on the side to work on after they finish this novella, because it is a very quick read and the way David Bridger wrote it, you will be devouring pages like chocolate cupcakes. My only warning would be that if a reader is sensitive to love scenes, they might want to pick up something in the clean romance section instead, because the love scenes are steamy. There is a bit of violence also, throughout the book, so if a reader is squeamish, they might want to stay away from this novella.

Reviewed by Paige

Writing, Reviews and A Little Bit of Me

Summary from Publisher's website:

Saul the Bastard is a fallen angel who works as a bounty hunter for powerful urban demon families. Rebecca Drake, a modern day demon princess, is being hunted by dangerous desert demons. When Rebecca's family hires Saul to protect her, they are both unhappy with the arrangement, but before long sparks fly as they try to resist their strong mutual attraction. For the first time in living memory, Saul has someone to love; someone he is scared of losing; someone the desert demons have marked to be their next sacrifice.