When I first started reading this romance, the guy in it seemed too superficial and uncaring to be interesting or likable. I guess that was part of his beast persona, because as I read further and learned more about him, he just seemed human and vulnerable.  I thought the author did a pretty good job of writing a modern Beauty and the Beast story.  It was nice too that the Beauty character in the story was a black woman with the beast being blonde, which makes a nice change from the cliche' ofblack men being with white blonde women.