Disclaimer: This was an ARC from NetGalley. It hasn't affected my opinions in any way

Spoiler warning - this review will contain some discussion of plot points I found difficult, so you may want to skip some parts of it until you've read the book

Alexandra Bellamy has been taking care of her father and her siblings since her mother died. She has no dowry to speak of and knows her father has massive gambling debts. So when her father announces that the impressive and formidable war hero, Colonel Magnus Brightwall, will not only clear his debts, but pay an addition five thousand pounds for her hand in marriage, she doesn't really have any choice but to accept the offer. Unfortunately, only hours after the ceremony, Magnus witnesses something that makes him convince his wife has betrayed him, and instead of taking Alexandra with him on his diplomatic posting to Spain, he leaves her in his town house in London, with barely any communication between them.

Their reunion five years later takes place in Newgate prison, where Alexandra has unfortunately found herself imprisoned after being involved in hijinks involving her impulsive cousin, an angry duke and possibly a stolen carriage. Magnus shows up to fetch her, but instead of taking her to the house she's lived in alone for the past five years, he takes her to The Grand Palace of the Thames, where they will stay while he's preparing to sell the town house. There are already all sort of rumours swirling because of Magnus and Alexandra's long separation, and now, with this new scandal, Magnus is worried about his reputation. So he's made a plan (without at any point consulting his wife about her thoughts on the matter).

So Alexandra is basically told that they will appear together in public for enough social events to convince the public that their marriage is strong and loving and clearly gossiping about them is wrong and uncouth. Then Magnus will sell the town house, and ship Alexandra off to America, where as long as she agrees to this scheme, she will have a house of her own and a generous allowance. If she says no, he'll cut her off entirely, and she'll be forced to live with one of her siblings, entirely dependent on their charity.

One of my friends put this book down halfway because she was so annoyed at Magnus and the completely outragous way he treats Alexandra in the beginning, because of his pride and insecurities. She needed me to finish the book and convince me that it was worth finishing, and reassure her that she wasn't going to have a rage aneurysm because of Magnus' continued mistreatment of his lovely wife. I question the opinions of readers who don't feel that Magnus' early behaviour is entirely within reason, and he's correct in treating Alexandra the way he does. I'm a member of Julie Anne Long's fan group on Facebook, and amusingly, on release day (this Tuesday), someone posted a very well-written AITA from Magnus' point of view. Unsurprisingly, most people agreed that he was an A.

So what was it that kept me from throwing this book across the room (metaphorically, I would never risk my beloved e-readers in such a way) in a fit of rage? It is to Julie Anne Long's credit that she manages to write so well that even when I want to thump him, I also had some sympathy with Magnus. Because get to see what both Alexandra and Magnus are experiencing and thinking, the reader is first of all very aware of the remorse that Alexandra feels about her impulsive actions that led to her being immediately estranged from her husband, but also how conflicted Magnus feels. My main gripe with the story is that while the reader gets insight into his inscurites and tormented thoughts about his wife and his marriage, he never really shares them with his wife.

PLOT SPOILERS IN THE NEXT BIT:

While the man we meet in the present day of the novel is the impressive Colonel Magnus Brightwell, known for his heroic actions during the Napoleonic war (he even nearly died saving the Duke of Valkirk's life on the battlefield), for most of his life, Magnus has been unwanted and tolerated on sufferance. He was found on the doorstep of a Yorkshire manor house and spent his early life working the worst possible jobs of the household to earn his keep. Because of his rough appearance, he was given the nickname "Beast" early on, and it seems to have stuck with him. No one showed him any affection or kindness, so when he eventually learned to shoot, and won a marksman competition as a teenager, he spent the prize money buying himself a comission to the army, where he rose in the ranks and earned respect and acclaim he'd always dreamed of. So the dude has a chip on his shoulder, and a whole host of insecurities, fair enough.

However, for far too much of the book, Magnus (despite claiming to have been in love with her since the first time he saw her) doesn't seem to see Alexandra as a person, a woman with wants and needs and dreams of her own. He was taken in not only by her beauty, but her kindness, charm and unfailing loyalty to her family, but because he was so convinced of his own worthlessness and couldn't possible imagine her actually accepting his suit if she was given any sort of choic, he manipulated the situation so she literally had no choice but to accept him. If she refused him, her family would be destitute. He didn't care about what her life had been like before he literally bought himself a pretty wife. Having not really had any conversations of note with said wife before they married, Magnus had no idea that she had comforted herself with a deeply innocent and chaste infatuation with her brother's tutors for some months before she ever even met Magnus. Both parties were extremely aware that they would never be together, and the romance was never going to end in marriage between a poor scholar and a viscount's daughter.

Alexandra broke it off as soon as she agreed to marry Magnus, but a few hours after the wedding, she sees her former suitor at the garden gate (where they used to meet and chat - never anything more than that) and he kisses her goodbye. The thing that so upsets Magnus is seeing that for a brief moment, Alexandra doesn't fight back, but lets herself enjoy her first kiss. His sense of betrayal at seeing her chastely say farewell to someone who had offered her solace for a few months is deeply misguided. Not even when Alexandra is entirely honest about the situation, and apologises for her misstep and for having hurt Magnus, is he able to listen to her or understand her. He goes off in a snit to be a diplomat in Spain, leaving his wife to languish alone and rejected in his town house in London. She's the one who has to contend with the rumours and malicious whispers about why they aren't living together, and she has to keep herself and her behaviour above reproach in respect of his precious reputation. The one night she throws caution to the wind and does something ill-advised with her cousin, she ends up arrested. Even when Magnus realises how judgmental he's been, he never actually apologises for his actions and his harsh and cold treatment of Alexandra. Where he could have had an open and honest conversation with his wife, and owned up to being a judgy asshole, he instead manipulates the situation once more, to make it possible for her to "choose him" this time around. Which she does.

Magnus doesn't think he could ever get a beautiful and accomplished woman like Alexandra by honest means, and since all his life he has had to strategise and scheme to reach his goals, he does the same to get himself a wife. He just never seems to properly acknowledge that this was wrong and that Alexandra deserved so much better. Not better than him, because he is clearly not a bad person, just a proud and prickly one, but she deserved respect, an actual choice and a proper and grovelling apology for having had those choices taken away from her, and then being super harshly judged for saying goodbye to a part of her past and innocently responding to being kissed. She didn't even initiate the kiss, she just allowed it to happen and didn't forcefully push away the young man who kissed her. She never denied what she did, and she was deeply and honestly apologetic immediately after the fact, knowing that what she did was unfortunate and clearly hurtful to Magnus. The fact that he in return never apologises properly to her for his mistreatment of her, both five years ago and early on in the present, left a sour taste in my mouth that keeps me from giving this book a full four stars.

Pride is clearly a major theme in the story. At one point, Alexandra mentions that she's reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (I was going to get all snippy about how it was published "by a lady" - but this book seems to be set five years after the end of the Napoleonic wars, at which point Ms. Austen had been dead for a few years, and the true identity of the author would have been revealed, so snippiness retracted). I suppose the reader is supposed to draw parallells between Mr. Darcy and Magnus, but while Mr. Darcy initially delivers one of the worst proposals in literary history, he then takes great strides to change, broaden his horizons and makes efforts to be less proud and imperious before he proposes to Elizabeth once more. Magnus just buys himself a wife and seems upset when it is revealed that she had a past and lived a (very innocent) life before she ever met him.

END SPOILERS

One of the things I enjoy about The Palace of Rogues series is that it's a bit like a long running TV show. Instead of a "mystery of the week", we get a "romance of the week", which introduces new characters and plot beats for a while, but we also get to spend time with recurring characters we've come to know and love. I've seen some reviews complain that they thought the hijinks of the supporting characters took up too much space and detracted from the main romance, but I disagree. If it hadn't been for the delightful other guests at the Grand Palace on the Thames, not to mention ditzy housemaid Dot and handsome footman Ben Pike's slowly developing feelings for one another, I would have rated the book even lower. This is the first time I've rated a book 3.75 stars, and my annoyance at never getting a proper grovelling scene from Magnus is balanced out by several laugh out loud moments involving other residents at the boarding house, not to mention the delightful sequence where Mr. Delacorte takes our protagonists and Dot to a late-night donkey race.

The previous book in the series, My Season of Scandal, is my favourite Julie Anne Long book since my all time favourite, most beloved What I Did for a Duke. The previous one before that, To Tame a Wild Rogue, was also delightful and a five star read for me (if a lower five star than My Season of Scandal). They can't all be winners. I'm still very happy I was granted an ARC of this (thank you, Netgalley!) and am happy that the series is clearly continuing for a while yet.

Judging a book by its cover: I have mentioned before that I find a lot of the covers of this series just plain bad. Thankfully, this is one of the better ones. I feel the cover artist could have made more of an effort not to make Magnus' trousers look like blue jeans, but I guess we can't have everything. Alexandra looks pretty much as described in the book, and the shade of lilac she's wearing is lovely.

Rating the Palace of Rogues series
1. My Season of Scandal - 5 stars
2. To Tame a Wild Rogue - 5 stars
3. After Dark with the Duke - 4 stars
4. Lady Derring Takes a Lover - 4 stars
5. The Beast Takes A Bride - 3.75 stars
6. You Were Made to Be Mine - 3.5 stars
7. Angel in a Devil's Arms - 3.5 stars
8. I'm Only Wicked with You - 3 stars

“It can be even better.”
 
In The Beast Takes a Bride, Julie Anne Long returns with her eighth book in the Palace of Rogues series, and it’s true- this amazing series only gets better with every additional story and pairing!
 
Alexandra Bellamy sacrifices her own choices to marry war hero Colonel Magnus Brightwall that will save her family, all to have the marriage fall apart immediately and find herself living in isolated purgatory for the past five years… until her estranged husband returns to be her hero and a plan in place to recovery their reputations before separating for good.
 
Five years is a long time to stew and Julie Anne Long plays up the pride, angst and passions between these two so well! I’m not a fan of the marriage in trouble trope, but this couple had me understanding their divide and rooting for a way for them both to come together, while saving their pride.
 
Magnus and Alexandra’s reunion takes place at the Grand Palace on the Thames, known for making happily ever afters, not the dissolving a relationships… and thankfully the Palace works it’s charm and magic to bring this stubborn pair around to each other.
 
I love how this story shows the many facets of love and relationships, and especially how females are made to do the work for their families and are left beholden to the whim of their spouses. Necessary and ornamental all at the same time.
 
Parallel to the saga of Magnus and Alexandra, the tides are continuing to roll in and out for the regulars of the Grand Palace, with Delilah and Angelique both taking heed of the Brightwall’s romance to better secure their own relationships and series favourite Dot has her own fateful adventure!
 
Overall, I loved this book and feel it has the bones to be a classic! A must read for all historical romance lovers- whether it’s your first visit to the Grand Palace on the Thames or you are a regular visitor!

Another swoonworthy chapter in the Grand Palace on the Thames series! Here, we have a slow burn, angsty second-chance romance between a married couple who have barely seen each other since the day they married five years prior. They are forced to stay at the Grand Palace on the Thames while selling their current townhome and while Magnus takes steps to ship Alexandra off to America as part of a permanent separation (avoiding the scandal of divorce). Flashbacks show that Alexandra and Magnus had instant chemistry when they first met, but a series of missteps and lack of communication led to their marriage falling apart immediately and Magnus leaving abruptly for a diplomatic mission to Spain. In the present, lingering feelings remain between them, but so does their distrust of each other based on those misunderstandings five years ago. As they gradually get to know each other--really for the first time--they start to fall in love again.

I'm always impressed with Julie Anne Long's writing and how effectively she conveys emotions. Even though I know there will be a HEA, at the same time I was swept up in the characters' angst and longing from thinking that their feelings were unreciprocated and that they are doomed to part ways. As usual, there also are many lighthearted moments mixed in, especially involving Dot and Mr. Delacorte. The continuing cast of characters in this series is enjoyable, as always.

Thank you to Avon and Netgalley for providing an ARC for review!

Of *course* I loved this book - it's Julie Anne Long!! Such a beautiful, poignant story about a marriage in trouble. And how they found each other again at the Grand Palace on the Thames.

And god love adorable, shocking and embarrassingly amorous Corporal and Mrs Dawson. Having these two side characters was just icing on the cake.
Thank you to netgalley for the ARC. Opinions are my own.

This series just keeps getting better and better. I seriously don’t know how Julie Anne Long can weave such beautiful and unique stories over the course of so many books all the while sprinkling in the nostalgia of couples from the beginning of a pretty long series. It’s why she’s one of my favorite authors and I’ll read anything she puts out.

I devoured The Beast Takes a Bride in one day. I truly couldn’t put it down! I needed to know where all the longing, pining, and heartbreak lead. This book had it all for me a stoic/emotionally stunted mmc, a woman dealing with the fallout of the past and the uncertainty of the future, and two people who clearly are into each other but can’t quite figure out how to get there.

The tension is exquisite - it seriously caught and reeled me in from the very first page. Our fmc, Alexandria, starts this book out in jail and is bailed out by her war hero husband, Colonel Magnus Brightwall. A man who just so happens to have been avoiding her for the 5 years of their marriage.

Their path to love is filled with heartbreak, forgiveness, and personal growth…it is such an achingly beautiful journey that I felt in my soul. I highly recommend this book and this series. JAL just continues to cement herself as one of my all time favorite authors.

Julie Anne Long titles really hit--and I LOVE the Palace of Rogues. I am deeply invested in the Dot and Mr. Pike plot and loved Alexandra and Magnus. I will be very eagerly awaiting the next installment.

Genre: historical romance
London Docks, late Georgian (after 1820)

Alexandra and Magnus have been married for five years, but living apart the whole time because she broke her vows on her wedding day. When Alexandra lands in Newgate for [not quite] stealing a carriage, she’s more surprised than anyone else to see her husband Colonel Magnus Brightwell walk through the gates to bail her out. He’s been in Spain for the last five years, and has returned to England to tidy some affairs and make some public appearances. A wife who has besmirched his name is the last thing Magnus needs as he navigates recognition from King and ton. When he needs neutral ground in order to sell the townhouse where Alexandra has lived for the last five years, the couple becomes the newest guests at the Grand Palace on the Thames.

The Beast Takes a Bride highlights all the reasons I love historical romance. Julie Anne Long knows exactly how to create deeply realistic characters struggling to come to terms with the realities of their marriage and their love.

The setup works because of how young and naive a bride of her status would be, and JAL shows us how much both Alexandra and Magnus had to grow while living apart in order to be together. This isn't really a marriage-in-crisis book. Yes, they are married and estranged, but their marriage was one on paper only. Alexandra had known Magnus for two months, and they were essentially married for 5 hours. And yet because in the early 19th century, divorce was nearly impossible, they are stuck together despite her betrayal and his stubbornness. When they are forced back together by circumstances, they don't have a shared language of marriage to help them navigate their current predicaments. It's a love story for a couple who happens to be already married. (And this setup that works so perfectly here would *not* work in a contemporary setting.)

It's a wonderful stay at The Grand Palace on the Thames, as always. This series has some of the best of what character-driven historical romance can offer. I don't recommend starting with this book - it assumes a familiarity with the side characters. But, as with most of the Palace of Rogues books, you could read books 1 and 2, and then jump here. If you're just in it for the romance (and sexy trysts in dark alcoves at large gatherings), though, start here and then pick up the other books for the added richness of the community created by Delilah and Angelique.

I am in love with the author’s writing. This is the first Julie Anne Long book I’ve read and it won’t be my last, there is so much emotion in the writing. I love how both MCs are stubborn, makes for some real good tense and angsty moments. I was left clutching my kindle by the end of the book.

This was an entertaining, well-written historical romance. It was fun, steamy, tugged at my heart strings and I didn't want to put it down. I enjoyed this historical romance and look forward to reading the next book in this series as well as other books by this author.

This book scratched my historical romance itch and is perfect for anyone who needs a romantic escape!

While reading I would catch myself sitting statuesque still, holding my breath, waiting to see what would unravel between Magnus and Alexandra. THAT is the grasp Julie Anne Long had on me, that she could compel me to suspend involuntary actions just through the power of her words. And she is a master of words. Every single one feels unbelievably intentional, perfect for that feeling, that moment, that exact shade of pink (did I find myself Googling words and expanding my vocabulary? Yes. Yes I did.). To read a JAL book is to experience it and Alexandra and Magnus and the entirety of houseguests at The Grand Palace on the Thames enchanted me.

Be prepared for the best kind of angst that comes from two people desperate to be chosen, but who have caused pain and hurt towards each other. This is a story that delves into a marriage that has been separated by distance over the five years since their wedding night. It is about two people who barely know their spouse, but know the expectations they must outwardly show the ton. It is through these social obligations that Alexandria and Magnus begin to witness each other’s character and slowly learn how to hand over their bodies and their hearts.

This book is so smartly written because it breaks up the tension filled, quiet military-like engagements between Magnus and Alexandria with humor and reminiscing from The Grand Palace on the Thames occupants. Truly this book is just as funny as it is heartbreaking; there are fanciful evening discussions, mysterious sounds from a possible ghost (or is it?), swooning, and even a secretive donkey race. Thank goodness this is a romance because I was so desperate for Magnus and Alexandria to get a happily ever after. It’s what readers will want most for two characters they can’t help but fall for—and boy will Long make you wait until the very end for it. That being said, there is no third act breakup. The entire book acts as a catalyst for encouraging Magnus and Alexandria to fall in love as they heal from betrayal and voicelessness. I cannot stress how beautifully written this story is about taking chances and mending hearts and I encourage readers of all genres to give it a try. I received an early copy from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Steam: 🪭🪭🪭
Tension/Tenderness: 🥩🥩🥩🥩
Humor: 🫏🫏🫏

This is the 8th book in the series - I've read all of them and they are all delightful, funny, and romantic. Dot, the maid, is perhaps my favorite character in the series. She will race to be the first person to answer the door of the Grand Palace on the Thames to a new arrival.

Colonel Magnus Brightwall had met and married Alexandra Bellamy. It was not a love match, but when he found her in an embrace with another man soon after their wedding, he didn't take it well - and that is putting it mildly. He went back to war, and he made sure that she had no opportunity to stray.

Five years later, Magnus returns to England where he finds his errant wife in jail (for good intentions). He gets her out of jail, and since their own house is not ready and he wants to discourage curious visitors, they go to stay at the Grand Palace on the Thames. He is about to be awarded a title and is trying to suppress the scandal around his wife being arrested. I wasn't sure how this couple could overcome the damage they had done to each other - or that they would ever reconcile - but should have had more faith in the author.

I received an e-arc of this book from publisher Avon and voluntarily read and reviewed it.

Big thank you to NetGalley, Avon and Ms. Long for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. An honest review was requested but not required.

Ms. Long hit this OUT OF THE PARK as far as I'm concerned. The main character couple, Magnus (Colonel Brightwall) and Alexandra, his five-years-estranged wife, are brought back together by a little bitty scandal (ahem, she's in jail). They must put on a good show to save face so Magnus can be granted his peerage before Alexandra will be shipped off to America to live a quiet life, alone. While they are performing for the ton, they are of course staying at the Grand Palace on the Thames.

So much angst, so much longing, so many years of hurt and pride, it's all very romantic in a Heathcliff sort of fashion, except for... the supporting cast. Seriously, I almost fell off a treadmill in the gym during the group conversation featuring Mrs. Cuthbert and Mr. Davenport. LOLOLOLOL. Then there's the pair of *very* newlyweds, doing, um, what newlyweds are wont to do, Dot's unique brand of weird, donkey races, and more. Honestly, this book was practically pitch perfect: we get to check in with the OG couples long enough to get a serious case of the warm fuzzies and then it's right back to Alexandra and Magnus, who are absolutely magnetic. Second chance/marriage on the rocks is so difficult for me because the angst can be overwhelming - I'm not a big drama person - but this was just the right amount. The pull between the Colonel and his wife is palpable and the tension is high: after all, if the two of them can't figure it out, she's off to America, alone, for life.

I would absolutely revisit this book periodically when I need a good palate-cleanser. Highly, highly recommended, although it might be best to read at least the first two books in the series to be more familiar with Delilah and Angelique (the proprietresses).

5 stars.

Magnus wants Alexandra yet once they are married he leaves her for five years. He is a man of great honor and pride. She has the heart of a saint and when a scandal takes place, she has a chance to have the marriage she wants. But will his pride get in the way. A truly beautiful story. A fun story with great chemistry and characters. This author has a number of books that I will happily go back and read.

Alexandra Bellamy is a young lady who wants to be free to express who she really is. She finds herself embroiled in affair with her brother’s tutor because he doesn’t have any expectations of how she should act. She meets Magnus Brightwall, a war hero and because they appear to get along well, he offers for her. Only thing is, Magnus neglects to tell Alexandra why he thinks they would make a great couple. After he witnesses Alexandra in a compromising situation with the tutor on their wedding day, Magnus leaves her behind and is gone from her life for five years. He returns in time to save her after she is arrested and prevents her from having to be sentenced for her participation in a theft. Magnus and Alexandra must now come to terms with how they will carry on now that he is being awarded a title and must not have anyone gossiping about him or his family. Of course the owners and residents of the Grand Palace on the Thames have to make an appearance in the story to help Alexandra and Magnus see where they are going wrong before they make the biggest mistake of their lives.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

I loved this book! As a whole, the Palace of Rogues series has been one of my favorites. But this one? The best of the best. A perfect 5-star read.

In The Beast Takes a Bride, Alexandra Bellamy marries Colonel Magnus Brightwall to save her family's fortunes. Their marriage is immediately in trouble, and Magnus disappears for five years. When he returns--to rescue our heroine from jail!--he tells her they will present a united front to the ton to clean up her scandal and then he will send her to America. While he is getting their townhouse ready to sell they move into the Grand Palace on the Thames, where the magic of the boardinghouse begins to bring them back together. The story is both heart breaking and funny. It's a slow burn that finally ignites in the best way.

I love the setting of the Grand Palace and the recurring cast of characters that inhabit the boardinghouse. I was happy to catch up with the Hardys, the Bolts, Dot and Mr. Delacorte...and to finally go to a donkey race!

I can't wait for the next Palace of Rogues book. In the meantime, you can find me re-reading this one.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for an eARC. Opinions are my own.

SIX STARS! I don't even think it's possible at this point for Julie Anne Long to write anything other than a stellar swooner that'll have me all in the feels for days.

The Beast Takes a Bride, the latest entry in the author's Palace of Rogues series, is a delight from beginning to end. The tale of an arranged marriage between a legendary British soldier, and a sheltered society debutante offered up to the highest bidder to save her family from financial ruin, is plotted to perfection. Despite some emotionally weighty material, the novel never feels heavy because of its brisk pacing and bright, soaring prose.

The novel is a celebration of all of the seasons that make a love story, told through the eyes of the two main characters, as well as the supporting cast of permanent residents of The Grand Palace on the Thames -- the boarding house of elegant proportions located right in the middle of the rough and ready London docks, The reader experiences that first thrill of infatuation, bitter disappointments, flirtatious meet-cutes, madly hot for one another physical encounters, and the intense vulnerabilities of deepening intimacy, We enjoy the honeymoon phase, the settling-in to real life phase, and the being comfortable and secure in enduring love phase. But there are also the moments of paralyzing insecurity, fears of an unknown future, errors in judgment, hypocritical actions, harsh words thoughtlessly spoken, and devastating misunderstandings. There is the ultimate finality of the decision to stay or to let go.

There are so many precious moments in this novel for the reader, that no review I could possibly write would do this thoughtful and fun read the justice that it really deserves. Julie Anne Long's ability to communicate the emotions of every high and every low, through profoundly beautiful prose and laugh out loud humor, is unmatched. There is an understated level of highly emotional intelligence woven through this book that truly deserves all of the critical recognition it has already and will undoubtedly continue to receive.

Thank you Avon and Harper Voyager, NetGalley, and Julie Anne Long for the opportunity to read and review this novel before its release. It was my honor and pleasure!

Top Pick!

Couldn’t put it down. The Palace of Rogues series delivers once again.

I enjoyed this book immensely for multiple reasons. Since this is a review, I should thoroughly count the ways. First off, Long knows how to set up a pair of characters and fascinate me from the opening lines.

Three of them were thieves (a silver candlestick, a half dozen handkerchiefs, a wheel of cheese, respectively), another one was a forger, and the fifth one had stabbed her husband in the leg.

Does it get any better than that? I don’t think so. The heroine, Alexandra Bellamy, has had such a fall from grace, and on the first page, she’s in gaol. How does she get to our famed boardinghouse from here? Well, her military husband, the war hero, Colonel Magnus Brightwall (aka the beast) rescues her of course. Cue the estranged married couple who haven’t seen each other in over five years, being reunited and in jail of all places. I was immediately entranced by not only one but three tropes I adore. Second chance romance, a quirky unlucky heroine, and the beastly hero. Bonus, this one is a slow burn, but sweet glory, the payoff is worth it.

The story is heart-wrenching, emotional, and poignant, the only way Julie Anne Long delivers historical romance. There is so much longing, self-discovery, and growth between these two characters over the course of only a fortnight. The power of the Grand Palace on the Thames is real. Add in plenty of humor, our favorite proprietors, their husbands, and the shenanigans of Dot and Mr. Delacorte. The reading adventure doesn’t get any better. I feel lucky, nay we are all so lucky to get not one, but two Palace of Rogues books in one year.

Overall, if you love romances with a perfect blend of emotional twisting, laughter, and a rewarding HEA, then The Beast Takes a Bride should definitely join your TBR. It is for readers who enjoy Julia Quinn.

~ Landra

I am in love with everything Julie Anne Long writes, and I ADORED this even more than the last one!

This series is so fun, charming, and filled with such swoony romances and lovable characters.

Alexandra and Colonel Magnus have been married, but unhappily, after what Magnus witnessed on their wedding night, for five years. And suddenly, with an impromptu, stay in Newgate, Alexandra, has forced scandal upon a man who will not tolerate it to touch his name. He is cold, ruthless, and powerful, but his soft spot has always been his wife, even if she broke his heart.

Alexandra, for her part, longs to have a closeness with her husband, but her pride prevents her from putting herself out there and offering her heart to him.

Can the magic of the Grand Palace cause these two to reconcile and finally have the love they both dream of from each other?

One of the more angsty romances from this author but just as romantic and compelling as all the rest. The stakes are so high for this couple, and I was rooting for them to JUST KISS ALREADY so hard.

I loved it. Can't recommend this series enough!

I received an ARC for review.

Only Julie Anne Long can take a trope I don’t love and turn it into gold. Marriage in trouble is so hard, because there’s not much believable to keep the MCs apart that I’m also willing to forgive. And yet, this may be my new favorite book in The Palace of Rogues series.

Alexandra and Magnus married five years earlier, but due to “circumstances,” they are still virtual strangers after living separate lives in England and Spain. Without spoiling too much, a scandal brings Magnus back from the continent and both of them to The Grand Palace on the Thames, where they finally begin to communicate, understand each other, and discover what happened on their wedding day. JAL perfectly weaves past and present day to bring these two wounded characters to their hard-earned HEA. It was incredibly emotional and romantic!

And it’s not all heartbreak and high angst either. This is surprisingly one of JAL’s funnier books. Mrs. Pariseau, Dot, and Delacort bring their typical brand of humor, but Magus and Alexandra also find each other funny. I laughed out loud at some of the witty banter.

Though this is the 8th book in the Palace of Rogues series, it could be enjoyed as a standalone. The romance is THAT GOOD! But I highly recommend you start at the beginning. You will be utterly charmed by the full ensemble cast of characters we’ve grown to know and love throughout.

If you’re looking for Beauty and the Beast vibes with a headstrong heroine and grumpy war hero, then pick this book up today!