 Chase had a love for Italian culture , and decided that this background would provide ample motivation for Dain , being the product of his parents ' inability to understand each other 's cultures . As with many of her stories , Chase made her heroine a strong female , deciding to model Jessica after the type of women who lived a few generations previously and who had " a more practical , frank attitude toward sex " . Lord of Scoundrels is a retelling of the fairytale Beauty and the Beast , with the author stating that like the Beast , Dain is an outcast and misfit among his society . 
