Title: Nia and the Beast of Killarney Wood

Author: Cindy Miles

In: The Mammoth Book of Irish Romance (Trisha Telep)

Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)

My Bookshelves: Celtic, Easy reading, Fantasy, Romance

Pace: Slow

Format: Short story

Publisher: Running Press

Year: 2010

5th sentence, 74th page: What was this strange man about?

Nia is trying to escape her father’s plan for her future, and in doing so, she might just find her future in the arms of a beast.

I knew from the very beginning that Nia was going to run into the beast and they would fall madly in love. After all, this is a short story in a collection of Irish romance tales. And the title is Nia and the Beast…

Nia is trying to escape her father’s ideas for her future, and the ways in which he is trying to dictate her life. The fact that this is a literal escape made quite an exciting moment of fleeing through the woods. Falling into a trap with the beast that everyone dreads is completely predictable. But it was still so much fun and worked so well.

One of the parts of this story that I absolutely loved is the fact that both Nia and the Beast were not typical ideals of beauty. They are both kind of ugly and scarred – each in their own way. Yet, at the end of the tale, they both found the love that they were looking for.

Image source: Goodreads