The Beast by Jaden Wilkes

The Beast

Author: Jaden Wilkes

Published: March 16^th, 2014

Summary:

Dimitri Sokolov is a man scarred, physically and emothionally. From the rough streets of Moscow to the highest ranks in the Solntesvskaya Bratva, he has seen it all.

An attack four years ago left him disfigured and in seclusion, hiding from reactions to his appearance and in safety from those who failed to kill him the first time.

Comfortable in his penthouse, managing his billion dollar businesses, he’s resigned himself to be alone, simply called The Beast among those who’ve dealt with him in the past.

Columbia Grey is a pseudo-activist trying to save her neighborhood from a developer intent on levelling it to build apartment towers. She goes along with a plan to confront the CEO of the company on his own turf, to force him to listen to her demands…all in a pathetic attempt to impress a man she barely likes.

Little does she know, she’s taken herself into the mouth of the beast, a man familiar with death and destruction, sex, and seduction, a man used to getting exactly what he wants and a man with nothing left to lose.

She’s a beauty, but will that be enough to tame the beast and save her life?

*** Warning, this is classified as a dark erotic novel. It deals with some pretty heavy themes. It may trigger those who have experienced sexual abuse, rape, violence, basically a shitty childhood or life in general. I must be kind of messed in the head, because I thought it was a touching story full of amazing imagery and people with hearts that continue to beat and seek the beauty in the world in spite of life grinding them into nothingness. Apparently some early reviewers have found mainly the dark elements, so consider this your warning, for what it’s worth. This is not a fairy tale, this is what happened when the music ends and life goes on after the credit roll. This is simply existing until you find yourself and write your own happily ever after, no matter what form it takes.

Review:

When I first read the summary for “The Beast”, I was intrigued. When it said it had a bit of a Beauty and the Beast feel I got excited. Anything that is like beauty and the beast…I’m sold. However, I wasn’t. I was a bit disappointed with this book. It had the potential to be really good, but it felt rushed and a bit unreal.

We first met Dimitri who has gotten himself into trouble with a ‘mob’. He is an egotistical a-hole. Excuse the language. I couldn’t connect with his character and everything just fell short for me. I thought his whole back story was rushed and wasn’t built up. I tried to get into his character, but I just couldn’t.

When we met Columbia, she was a nasty woman with an attitude. The same that happened with the male character happened with her… everything just fell short. Everything happened too quickly. She volunteers for something just to make a guy happy. Yes… cliché…

From the moment that Columbia met Dimitri everything happens so quickly that if you blinked you would miss it. There was no relationship building or any sort. It was like, “get your hands off of me…” to “omg I love you” in less than a minute.  The ending was rushed and just left me feeling blah. I was left with whiplash and confusion. I was left with just an empty ending. 

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