The Short and Fascinating Tale of Angelina Whitcombe definitely falls into the ‘hidden treasure’ category. This novella by Sabrina Darby is a wonderful take on the Beauty and the Beast story.

The basic set-up is a tad unusual. John Martin has come home haunted by the horrors of the Napoleonic Wars. He’s become something of a hermit, living in the ruins of an old castle on the family property in the north of England. His mother wants to see him married and settled and decides that she needs to get him interested in women again, so that he might be motivated to find a gently born wife. So, what does she do? She hires him a mistress.

That’s right. Angelina Whitcombe enters the picture as a mistress for hire. Once a successful actress, she has been spurned by her protector and is at somewhat of a loose end. She answers the ad in the newspaper, and finds herself wandering around the desolate castle ruin, ostensibly there to sketch the landscape. She manages to engineer a meeting with John, but the chemistry that builds between them is all too real.

The sexy love story that ensues is a strikingly beautiful one. John and Angelina are both wounded souls, even if the hermit-like John is perhaps the more obvious ‘Beast’ character in this scenario. Despite the somewhat cynical setup of the story, there is something incredibly tender about the writing in this novella. John and Angelina start to connect on a deeply emotional level and they become each other’s safest, most trusted person. Ms. Darby’s writing gives this story a very romantic feel.

Needless to say, all of this makes some of the tension in the story feel even sharper. After all, Angelina knows she has been hired for a job. And how can she tell John that without losing his trust? Then there is the difference in their stations. Angelina is the child of actors, who has been an actress and courtesan herself. The difference in stations between her and someone of the landed gentry, such as John, would appear almost impossible to bridge. Perhaps the ending is a touch improbable, but the book is written in such a way that one wants to believe in it anyway because these are characters whom readers will want to see riding off into the sunset for their much-deserved happy ending.

If you’re in the mood for a romantic story, this novella delivers. The Short and Fascinating Tale of Angelina Whitcombe is indeed a fairly short novella, and provides a lovely afternoon or two of reading.