Reviewed by Stephen K
TITLE: The Beauty Within
AUTHOR: H.L. Day
PUBLISHER: Queeromance Ink
LENGTH: 217 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 10th 2021
BLURB:
“You will be trapped in stone forevermore, your beauty hidden by a façade so ugly that people will not like to look upon it. You will feel, but you will not be able to speak. You will hear, but you will not be able to communicate. You will endure across the ages, a silent witness to the decades that go by.”
François Damont’s only crime was loving the son of a witch in a time where it wasn’t permitted. For that sin, he’s been cursed to spend eternity locked inside the body of a gargoyle. A chance to break the curse comes only once every twenty-five years, lasting for no longer than twenty-eight days. He’s been unsuccessful for hundreds of years. Why would this time be any different?
History lecturer Daniel Smith is still reeling from a broken marriage when he stumbles across a mysterious man. Frankie might be hiding something, but the connection between them is too strong to ignore. Can he unlock the mystery before it’s too late?
Strange dreams. Dark forces. People who may not be what they seem. Time is not the only thing against them. And perhaps Daniel knows more than he thinks he does.
REVIEW:
When a French peasant boy has the temerity to fall for the only son of a witch, they’re caught by the witch and cursed. The peasant boy essence is locked inside a stone gargoyle doomed to be aware but unspeaking and unmoving except for 28 days every 25 years. His only means of breaking the curse is to find “true love” within that time or be imprisoned for another 25 years.
Of course anyone reading this will be pulling for François and later for Daniel the college lecturer he encounters when the gargoyle is moved onto the university grounds. But speaking of the curse would immediately send François back to his prison for another quarter century. Many of us go our entire lives without finding our “one true love,” Can François accomplish it in 28 days?
This tale was engaging from the outset though I felt that it got better when it hit the present day. Daniel is such a sympathetic character, and his taking in the homeless waif that is François when outside his gargoyle prison endeared us to him even further.
The sex scenes here felt organic and simply a part of the story-line rather than something added to spice things up. And for this serial-caretaker they certainly had a sweet wish fulfillment quality to them.
The read was quick and every chapter flowed into the next making one of those “finished in a day” books for me. The author was good at her craft. The prose was well crafted and didn’t get in the way of the story. I may well read this one again in the future.
If there was a shortcoming here it was that neither Daniel nor François had a character flaw that was responsible for their being involved in this curse in the first place. That deprived them of the opportunity to show us their growth over the course of the story. If they’d both been less pawns and more participants in this tale, it would have been even that much better and true 5 heart material.
RATING: 
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