Dearest Beast by Felicia Grossman

Tracy’s Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Series: Once Upon the East End #3

Release Date: June 30, 2026

Roger Berab and Rebecca Adler have known each other for years, and disliked each other for nearly as long, but they meet one night when they are both feeling vulnerable and share an intimate encounter, which ends with Roger declaring it a mistake and that they don’t need to marry, causing Rebecca to hate him even more. Rebecca is a midwife and chemist who prides herself on her independence. But when her home and workshop is ruined by Roger’s daughter, she has no choice but to accept his offer of shelter. As she heals, she gets to know Roger and his children, particularly his daughter, which adds tension as well as opportunities for growth within the household and her feelings for Roger.

For Roger, status is everything and now that his time of mourning has passed, he is eager to find a new wife who will help him achieve his hope for a seat on the Commission of Delegates and mother to his children. But when his daughter destroys Rebecca Adler’s home, he is honor bound to offer her a place to stay, which brings the two back into close contact after months of avoiding each other after their passionate encounter. Roger finds Rebecca sharp-tongued, opinionated, plain, common, and utterly intriguing.

When I read the blurb for this book, I was intrigued because I love a “Beauty and the Beast” retelling, but quite honestly, I found both main characters rather beastly and am not sure who was the “beauty” and who was the “beast” in this story. I also didn’t care for the fact that Roger had a love interest for most of the book, someone he hoped to marry, even while lusting after Rebecca. The book does delve deeply into Jewish culture and uses a lot of terms that were not familiar to me, so I appreciated the glossary of Jewish terms used in the book, but think it would have been more helpful at the beginning of the book rather than the end, because I had to stop several times to look up a term, which if the book started with that information, I would have already understood while reading. Overall, I wanted to like this book, but I never really liked Rebecca or Roger and found it hard to be invested in their relationship. This is the third book in the series and is connected with the previous books, but it could be read as a standalone title without issue.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *