In ways, a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but with the added element of a taboo, nearly incestuous, sexual affair (or perhaps this should be plural sexual affairs). This book was recommended to me by someone at the library and was met with some approval when it was published last year. Despite the (at times) overly melodramatic descriptions of winter in Wisconsin and the annoyingly deluded thoughts of the mail-order-bride-turned-reliable-wife, there is an interesting story about deception and love-- and every possible combination of those two themes. The book however is far from chaste, everyone in the novel is a sex crazed maniac and an inundation of violence and sorrow visit every character indiscriminately.
