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Beast  By  cover art

Beast

By: Alana Albertson
Narrated by: Aaron Shedlock,Sonja Field
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Publisher's summary

Grady Williams is a national treasure, the youngest living Medal of Honor recipient, America's scarred superhero. With tattooed arms sculpted from carrying M-16s, this bad boy has girls begging from sea to shining sea to get a piece of his action.

When my father squanders away my college fund, I make a deal with this dirty-talking devil dog - I will pretend to be Grady's girlfriend for the Marine Corps Ball, and my dad will write Grady's war memoir.

Grady is fearless. Hell, this badass jumped on a grenade to save his fellow Marines! As much as I crave him, I refuse to allow myself to become addicted to a dangerous man who will detonate my heart.

Isabella Cuesta is an angel who can see beyond my mangled skin, a pawn used to repay her father's debt, a woman who makes me feel like a man instead of a monster.

But I no longer believe in fairy tales.

She's mine until our contract ends. I'll take her hard and rough, listen to all her hopes and fears, lay down my life to protect her.

This beauty will never let herself love a dangerous man like me - a man who has killed, a man who runs towards gunfire, a man who never backs down from a fight.

But without her love, I'm not a man - I'll remain forever a beast.

Publisher's note: This is a full-length, standalone novel. HEA. No cliffhanger. No cheating.

©2016 Alana Albertson (P)2016 Alana Albertson

What listeners say about Beast

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable

I think if the writing hadn’t been so good I probably wouldn’t have finished this book.
Grady wasn’t really a relatable character, he was kind of a jerk. I thought he would warm up throughout the book but he really didn’t. Not to mention the dramalama, it’s not my favorite when you HAVE to create some kind of conflict that just doesn’t flow with the story.
I liked Isabella the most, she had charm and wit which I really enjoyed and I wanted to see her put Grady in his place and she does but it doesn’t really do any good.

Overall I enjoyed the book, I think knowing he was a war vet was said so many times I was a little over it.
But the story was pretty good what I loved best was the narration.

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8 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

The narration was great....

This book had a great story line but it wasn't written in a way that made me fall in love with it. In the beginning I has a very hard time caring about the characters, he came across as a jerk and she seems very superficial. I think the writing style is what hurt this story for me. It was very inconsistent. One seconds he was a mean growling angry damaged guy and a second later he was sweet and thoughtful but there was nothing that happened to change his mood. She was the same way for me. It was almost like the characters were bipolar and I had a hard time with that. I also had a hard time with some of the the sentence structure the author used for example: "I was loving every to the hilt second of him being inside me." It's almost like words were just added to the middle of the sentence and they didn't really flow well. I don't know it was just odd to me and I noticed it a lot.

The best thing about this audiobook for me was the narration! This was narrated in the duet style and Aaron Shedlock was great! I actually bought this audiobook because he was the narrator! I did like Sonja Field and I thought the duet style worked well for these too narrators.

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8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • JP
  • 12-29-16

An Interesting Take on Beauty and the Beast

This was my first by this author, but I enjoy the narrator, so gave this one a listen.

What an interesting take on the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast as it is set to the life and aftermath of Grady, a military hero who suffers from PTSD and facial mutilation. His life is not fulfilling as he copes with low self-esteem, despair and depression. Not only because of his looks, but because of the tragedies that fell upon him and his unit.

By chance, he meets Isa at a party in hopes of easing his loneliness, even if for a night. That one night turns into more that neither expect. Isa, has her own demons and hers and his collide in this tale.

What I liked about this story was that it told about things we often think about but don't grasp. PTSD affects millions of veterans, and we brush it under the rug. We give them medals, and thank them for their service, but would never be able to understand the troubles they face on a daily basis. This gave me an opportunity to take that into account and provided a deeper appreciation, love and respect for our heroes.

Aaron Shedlock and Sonja Field deliver a fantastic duet narration that flowed perfectly. Great chemistry and great portrayal of both Grady and Isa.

This book is listed as A Bad Boy Marine Romance, but there wasn't anything I'd consider "Bad". He wasn't a total a-hole, well he had traits, but that was due to other factors. I'm looking forward to Albertson's next books.

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5 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Entertaining

This audiobook is about a disfigured wounded veteran Marine who meets a beautiful dancing reality star at a party. He's pretty jaded, thinking no woman could want him for himself and she's just wanting a real live relationship. It's kind of a beauty and the beast take-off. Overall, it was good. The only thing that bothered me was sometimes the male narrator seemed a little monotone.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

great book

great book. loved how it was all captured in this book. definitely would recommend

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Military Beast Finds His Dance Reality TV Beauty

This is a stand-alone book. It is narrated in a dual point of view by Aaron Sherlock and Sonja Field, who both do an excellent job bringing the characters to life.

Grady is a war hero. He left the Middle East after using his body to shield his Marine unit from an explosive. He has had extensive surgery, skin grafts and physical therapy. He also suffers from PTSD. He feels like a beast and doesn't like to spend time in public because of other's reactions to him and his triggers.

Isa was a dancer. She danced professionally with a partner and later on a TV reality show partnered with someone the show assigned her for the season. After a death in her family, she couldn't cope and left that lifestyle behind.

Isa goes with a friend to a super hero costume party for Halloween. Grady hears the party near his home and covers himself in green make-up as The Hulk so he can blend in. They meet at the party and Grady has a trigger on his PTSD. Isa is going to university majoring in psychology. She tries to help him and at least sees him home. They part ways but think of each other.

Isa's father is a ghost writer who is out of money and has no prospects in a new book deal, so he steals her savings from her that was meant to pay her next semester bills. She talks to Grady about letting her Dad tell his story so she can get her money for classes and so Grady can get his story out the way he wants it told. He agrees to help her if she will be his date for the upcoming Marine Ball where he is a guest speaker in front of VIP's and the U.S. President. As they get to know each other, real feelings get involved and each has issues to work through to be honest with the other.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

very good

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing Story

The struggles of Grady were so horrendous, but typical of so many wounded warriors. Isa and Grady find such healing and love in each other and it is so inspiring. The performance of Aaron Sherlock and Sonja Field were heartfelt.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wounded Love

The author was new to me and with 2K books in my Audible library that doesn't happen often. I was surprisingly impressed by the authors loose retelling of the classic Beauty & the Beast. Alana Albertson's choice to make the beast a wounded warrior was so timely. The details of this beast journey through pain, fears, healing & learning to love again were so vivid that I could almost feel them. And Beauty was aptly a beauty inside & out.

The performances by Aaron Shedlock & Sonja Field were perfect for this beauty & beast retelling. While Mr. Shedlock isnt one of my favorites he delivered all the feels of the Beast and the Prince. I dont believe I've heard Sonja Field prior to this listen but I enjoyed her performance very much. I found her voice/performance extremely comforting especially when she threw in a little Spanish. I look forward to my next listen with her in it.

Overall a great listen. I'm downloading the next book in the series as I type this and its 313 am!!! I could stop listening to this story. Now do I go to bed for a couple of hours or start the next listen???

Good night or good morning! Enjoy! I truly did.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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Awful

I felt that it had promise but there is zero character development. It felt very rushed and the storyline was just..... not there.

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