Tadeusz Hermanowski has been cursed.   If he doesn’t find a woman to truly love him by his thirty-third birthday he will turn into a wolf forever.   Having fallen in love with his friend Paul’s cousin, he married her by proxy six weeks ago.  Unable to deny her anything, he granted her time in which to settle her affairs before she joined him as his wife.  Time is running out however because Tadeusz’ birthday is looming in just a few short days and since Victoria just fainted at the sight of him, things don’t look very promising. 

Victoria is finally coming back to the house she lived in as a child. Marrying Tadeusz by proxy weeks ago, Victoria asked for and was granted time in which to get her life in New York settled and completed.  When her cousin Paul writes her letters in increasing frequency, she decides to go ahead and travel to her husband, a man she has never met but who now owns the home in which she grew up.  Unsure of what she will find when she arrives at her new home, one thing is for certain, Victoria was not expecting a man who looks like Tadeusz and does what any other woman would do – she faints at the sight of him.

The Beast of Blackbirch Manor made my heart ache. Knowing that you are to never judge a book by its cover, I found myself totally put out with Victoria’s response to Tadeusz’s minor fur problem.  Not only did she faint, she acted like a total shrew about the entire matter. In fact, she was so unlikable to me that I found it hard to even hope for she and Tadeusz to consummate their marriage.  Tadeusz was an honorable man in a dire situation and while he loved Victoria, he was willing to let the curse take him to save her sensibilities.  The entire matter just made me shake my head and wish for a real woman to come and save him. One that loved him for loving and gentle man that he was.  I finished this story only because I was hoping against hope that at the end of it Victoria would not be Tad’s true mate and someone more worthy would enter the picture and cast her away.  I would have to recommend passing on this one.