The Merchant's Daughter - Melanie Dickerson

If I had known beforehand that this is a book from the same author as "The Healer's Apprentice", I wouldn't have bothered. BUT... in my defence: foreign country = new bookstores = books I can't find in my own country and/or cheaper books. So I go crazy and in spite of not having my guide with me, I grab anything that catches my attention.

Nevertheless, I found this book very interesting, and I liked it. It is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast, only that it is a Christian retelling. It's not that I am an atheist or anything, but when a book mentions God and His pedagogy so many times is tiresome. It was "God this, God that" or, "the Bible this, the Bible that". And not only that, but Annabel reads the Bible every night with her Lord, so there are a lot of Biblical passages as well.

Taking aside all the Christian elements, it is an entertaining book. Lord Ranulf is really a "Beast", has the temper and the looks. There is also a "Gaston", only that in this case, he is more dangerous because he is trying, first, to marry Annabel, and then, he attempts several times to rape her. Annabel's life is sort of Cinderella-ish: she is beautiful, she works like a servant in her home, her 2 brothers are like the mean step-sisters, and only her dead father used to care about her.

The medieval setting was well done and the romance was believable. So no, I don't regret that I bought the book.