Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: Laurent and the Beast
SERIES: Kings of Hell MC – Book 1
AUTHOR: K.A. Merikan
PUBLISHER: Acerbi & Villani, Ltd
LENGTH: 135,000 words
RELEASE DATE: April 29, 2017
BLURB:
— Nothing can stop true love. Not time. Not even the devil himself. —
- Laurent. Indentured servant. Desperate to escape a life that is falling apart.
- Beast. Kings of Hell Motorcycle Club vice president. His fists do the talking.
Beast has been disfigured in a fire, but he’s covered his skin with tattoos to make sure no one mistakes his scars for weakness. The accident not only hurt his body, but damaged his soul and self-esteem, so he’s wrapped himself in a tight cocoon of violence and mayhem where no one can reach him.
Until one night, when he finds a young man covered in blood in their clubhouse. Sweet, innocent, and as beautiful as an angel fallen from heaven, Laurent pulls on all of Beast’s heartstrings. Laurent is so lost in the world around him, and is such a tangled mystery, that Beast can’t help but let the man claw his way into the stone that is Beast’s heart.
In 1805, Laurent has no family, no means, and his eyesight is failing. To escape a life of poverty, he uses his beauty, but that only backfires and leads him to a catastrophe that changes his life forever. He takes one step into the abyss and is transported to the future, ready to fight for a life worth living.
What he doesn’t expect in his way is a brutal, gruff wall of tattooed muscle with a tender side that only Laurent is allowed to touch. And yet, if Laurent ever wants to earn his freedom, he might have to tear out the heart of the very man who took care of him when it mattered most.
REVIEW:
I think I’ve read nearly everything these two ladies have written… well except for that one book in one of their series that was MF. I thought I knew which series of theirs was best, and that it would be hard for them to top it.
OMG, did they ever top it. Laurent and the Beast is my favorite EVER book from K.A. Merikan. Yes, I said it, and yes, I mean it. I loved this one. So excuse me for going all fan boy on them.
In my opinion, it had everything. Laurent, a poor indentured servant in 1805, undergoes unspeakable horror, meets a demon, and somehow ends up in hell, complete with blue and red flashes of light lighting up the dusty room he finds himself in with a dark giant standing over him.
Beast, the son of the President of the Kings of Hell Motorcycle Club, is horribly disfigured from a tragic fire and has tattoos over every one of his burn scars. He is frightening to look at and withdrawn. When his dog leads him on a chase through the former asylum that is the Kings of Hell’s clubhouse, he finds a frightened young man with a strange French accent, wearing strange old fashioned clothes and covered in blood. The young man is cowering from the flashing lights of a police car and ambulance shining in the windows from outside the clubhouse.
How can it be? Laurent is in 1805. Beast is in 2017. You got it… time travel. Sooo cool, and so unexpected from these authors. The book was very well written, and honestly, I didn’t put it down for longer than 5 minutes all day. I started it on a rainy Sunday morning, and here it is a damp Sunday evening and I’m done. Sometimes, I wish I didn’t read so fast. And that is with stepping back a couple of times to re-read sections that I particularly liked. Not sure if anyone else does that, but I’ll get to a pivotal point, and go back three or four pages and read it again… just to savor it.
This was a whole book of savoring. I highly recommend it. I can’t wait to see what comes next in the series! I will definitely be adding this one to my, ‘To Be Re-Read Pile’ immediately!
RATING: 
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