Here is another of Witemeyer's Texan retellings of fairytales. Everett Griffin's face is horribly disfigured by a crazy woman, so he leaves the life of a New York socialite, and becomes a recluse in Texas. Calista Rosenfeld and her father have risked all their capital to fill an order for a book rebinding project, but the week before it is to start, Calista's father has and accident and isn't able to go and fulfill the contract. Calista decides to go alone, and finds herself in the gothic home of the reclusive Mr. Griffin. Desperate to fulfill the contract and save her family business, Calista resists all Mr. Griffin's attempts to intimidate her. Their initial mistrust turns into respect and then friendship, but there is one in town who doesn't approve of Calista's new friend. His need for revenge threatens to destroy Everett and Calista's new hope for happiness.
Again Karen Witemeyer. The story and writing for this one( isn't bad. Calista is maybe a bit too perfect, but it is in keeping with the Fairytale motif. Witemeyer takes her storyline and characters as much or more from the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast as from the original fairytale. There are some shameless illusions to the Disney version, for example the housekeeper/cook's name is Mrs. Potter, and the butler likes to assemble clocks. I am a little surprised that Disney doesn't go after her for it. The one thing that was really disappointing about the recording was the reader. Her voices were way exaggerated and as a result all the men sound like idiots. I added her to my narrators to avoid list. Fortunately, others in the series have different narrators. (2025, 542 p)
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