The latest in Julie Anne Long’s The Palace of Rogues series, The Beast Takes a Bride features estranged married couple Alexandra Bellamy and Colonel Magnus Brightwall. After Alexandra is embroiled in a scandal, she and Magnus agree to live together for the first time in their five years of marriage in order to repair their reputations. Along the way, they get to know each other and become friends before ultimately falling in love.

The story begins with Alexandra landed in Newgate Prison thanks to her wastrel of a cousin, Lord Thackeray. Thackeray has borrowed an older gentleman’s carriage, and the older gentleman has forgotten their agreement and reported the vehicle stolen. Magnus, arrives to take Alexandra home, and they travel to the Grand Palace on the Thames becasue he is in the process of selling their townhouse, the only home Alexandra has had for five years. She is stunned at the news and more surprised when Magnus announces he is to be made an Earl. However, Alexandra’s currently soiled reputation is an impediment, and he cannot receive the earldom until it is restored. He proposes they should live together at the Grand Palace and attend society events until he receives his earldom, at which point Alexandra will be banished forever to America.

I absolutely adore nearly every title in the Palace of Rogues series, and The Beast Takes a Bride is my favorite so far. It doesn’t take much looking through my Goodreads lists to see the Beauty and the Beast trope is my all-time favorite and this book does that trope justice. Magnus is cold and aloof until Alexandra slowly begins to charm him. Even when he is hurt and angry with her, he is still a gentleman and takes care of her. Alexandra is charming and sweet, drawing him out as they begin getting to know each other five years into their marriage.

This should feel like a second chance romance (my least favorite trope) but it does not. We get a brief glimpse of Alexandra and Magnus meeting, and another of the ‘Incident’ from their wedding night, but other than that, the story takes place in the present. Both characters express regret for their past actions, but neither dominates the narrative. Instead, this title is a delightful look at two people who married shortly after they met getting to know each other. I loved watching them learn to navigate life together years after they should have.

I am invested in the lives of the secondary characters in this series, who bring a lot of fun to the table and help to keep things moving and interesting. I am not at all tired of visiting the Grand

The Beast Takes a Bride is the best of the series so far with its charming heroine and icy hero falling in love after five years of marriage. I look forward to what Julie Anne Long comes up with next!