The Black Beast of Belleterre by Mary Jo Putney

Anything that happens between them will be a strictly temporary holiday fling-or might it be more? In the classic historical stories,The Christmas Cuckoo features a level-headed young woman who goes to the local coaching inn and comes home with the wrong Jack Howard. In A Holiday Fling, a British actress and a Hollywood cameraman team up to film a Christmas show for a good cause. That's why I'm delighted that Berkley is offering this holiday collection, which includes four of my classic historical novellas, plus something special-my very first contemporary novella. Celebrate! I love writing Christmas stories because they include three of my favorite things-tradition, lots of emotion, and a guaranteed happy ending.Winner of numerous writing awards, including two RITAs, three Romantic Times Career Achievement awards, and the Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award from Romance Writers of America, she has had numerous books listed among Library Journal’s and Booklist's top romances of the year. It pulls in everything we hope for in a love story!' * ' was an amazing story!' About the Author A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USAToday bestselling author, Mary Jo Putney's novels are known for psychological depth and intensity and include historical and contemporary romance, fantasy, and young adult fantasy. It is a Beauty and the Beast sort of tale. What readers say: * ' The Black Beast of Belleterre the perfect Beauty and the Beast retelling with every detail wonderfully re-envisioned.' * 'When I was a teen, I read this and fell in love with The Black Beast Of Belleterre. Will he allow her to love him before it's too late? Perhaps the magic of Christmas can bring them together… This seasonal stand-alone Regency novella is also published in the author's Christmas Revels collection.

Though she never sees her husband's face, she is drawn to his kindness and generosity, but he is determined to push her away. Of course it will be a marriage in name only, because what woman could want him? A talented artist, Ariel is cursed by her beauty and vulnerability. When he learns that a neighboring girl, the exquisite young Ariel Hawthorne, is about to be sold into marriage with a revolting lecher, he offers her the only protection he can: his name. The Beauty and the Beast: a haunted and hidden lord, a desperate young beauty, and a marriage of convenience between two people who yearn for more… James Markland, Lord Falconer, knows that he is ugly, very ugly, and he lives a life of seclusion, wearing a heavily cowled mantle to conceal his face from the world.

The Black Beast of Belleterre by Mary Jo Putney