Bitchery Reader Tracy writes:
I remember reading this book while babysitting. I read it in small doses b/c it belonged to the woman I babysat for, so I only read it when I was babysitting and the kids were in bed (I didn’t want them to tell their mom I was reading her books! LOL)
Anyway, the general premise I remember isn’t much but it was about a guy whose face had been horribly scarred (I believe it was a car accident when he was young and his whole family, except him, died) so he was a recluse in his own home. Young neighbor girl is in love with him or curious about him or something like that. So, she sneaks into his house (I think she’s “of age” by the time she does this) and they end up making love a bunch of times. But he still thinks she’s too young or can’t love him b/c he’s ugly.
The title had “beauty” or “rose” in the title I think. It was a “Beauty and the Beast” kind of thing.
I was in high school which was the late 80’s or early 90’s so it wouldn’t be a book published after that time.
This book could be really horrible, but I just remember how fun it was to sneak reading it and re-read the sex scenes LOL
Tracy
This sounds like Night Magic by Charlotte Vale Allen. A contemporary combination of Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast.
Marisa, 17 at the beginning of the tale, meets her neighbor Erick for the first time when her father hires him as the architect to design an addition to their house.
Erick is horribly disfigured, the result of a car accident when he was a child in which his parents died. His childhood and the scarring have made him a recluse, and he is only slowly brought out of his shell by Marisa’s devotion and love.
If this is the one, you read one of my all time favorite books. Vale Allen portrays a beautifully sensitive relationship between these two characters, and her secondary characters are just as powerful.
I can’t believe someone beat me to this one. I thought I was the only one who remembered this book. :-) I read it during the height of my Phantom fixation, and I loved it. I’ve been afraid to reread it because it was so long ago, and my tastes have changed. But I did like so much about it. You’re right, the secondary characters are cool—I loved the revelation about Eric’s (or was he Erik?) friend/sidekick and the truth about his relationships with women. I also liked the way it explored Eric’s relationship with Marisa over years. That’s so rare today. If there is another book along these lines, I’d love to read it, too.
That’s it! Thanks ladies!!
I don’t think I ever read the whole book cover to cover, I’ll have to track it down.
Until I got to the “car accident” part, this got me thinking of the Victorian retelling of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST in a short story by Mary Jo Putney called “The Black Beast of Belleterre”
There is also a really brilliant retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley (I think), which I read when I was girl. It was just called ‘Beauty’. So romantic.
I also think someone should write a new version and model the hero on that French rugby player Chabal, he is magnificent:
http://p3.focus.de/img/gen/3/k/HB3kOpro_Pxgen_r_467xA.jpg
(Chabal’s the one on the right with the flowing mane).
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10.19.07 at 03:46 AM |