Regine Abel has written 7 books in the Prime Mating Agency series, and up until now, my favorite has been I Married a Lizard Man.  That book has finally been dethroned with I Married a Beast.

Before I start the actual review of this book, I just need to fangirl for a moment.  – OMG REGINE ABLE WROTE A NEW PMA BOOK AND I FINISHED IT IN A DAY ONCE I STARTED IT AND AM READY TO START READING IT FOR A SECOND TIME ASAP!  Regine, if you are reading this, I need a Kayog book!

Ok, now that that is out of the way, I loved this book.  Sincerely and truly loved this book.  My BIGGEST complaint about this entire series has been that after we see the couples get together and fall in love, we never really come back to them.  Yes, she has mentioned other couples here and there, but we haven’t actually seen them.  Regine changes that in this book, and we get to re-meet the couple from I Married a Naga (Serena and Szaro) and see how they are living and thriving.  On top of that, we also revisit and antagonist from I Married a Naga, and get a redemption arc for him as well. And then, on top of that, we also got a slight Beauty and the Beast retelling.  Talk about a cherry on top!

I loved Baryon, and I loved his culture.  This entire series is about taking two unlikely species and meshing their cultures and personalities together, and I always appreciate that.  But in this book, we take Bayron who comes from a culture where you should win at all cost, and Belle, a human who comes from a culture we live every day.  And some of the things Bayron, and Bayron’s people do are considered cheating to a human.  Seeing that come to light, and how Anabelle (Belle for short.  See what Regine did there?) navigates that to get her point across while also still respecting her new people is amazing!  In addition, there is always a mating ritual of some sort, and the one in this book was especially incredibly.  I loved how Bayron had to protect Belle from being attacked or injured from a monster, while also making sure he did not get injured as well.  Belle happily goes along with this, and has no issues at all.  However, of course there is a problem in this ceremony overall, where Belle has to physically harm her new husband to complete the ceremony.  There are so many instances in this book where there are conflicts that come strictly from the cultures not meshing well, and it could have easily lead to a deterioration of the marriage.  Instead, they found ways to bond and bring themselves closer.

My absolute favorite thing about this book however, the thing that had me crying at the end, is the stone pup Ferach.  I love dogs.  I tell my husband all the time I love our dog more than him.  And when Belle and Bayron find this dog in the middle of nowhere, injured and crying in pain, and then Belle insists that they try to save him.  I can easily see this happening in real life.  And to see how the relationship between Belle and Bayron grows while Ferach grows?  This book ripped my heart out in the best of ways.

Overall – I love this book, and I love Regine Abel.  The way she takes cultures and meshes them together while maintaining the independence of the individual cultures is amazing and I always look forward to her next book.  This is a book that can be read independently, however if you do choose to read it, I would highly recommend reading I Married a Naga first!  In addition, I love that it truly felt like Regine was kind of joking about the sunshine woman and grumpy man trope, and really leaned into it.  It just kind of added an additional level of amusement and love on this.

Side Note – as you read this book make sure you pay attention at the end, because Regine always includes pictures of the creatures and monsters you read about. I find myself flipping back and forth between the pictures so I can properly visualize.

I Married a Beast (Prime Mating Agency) – Regine Abel

Cost* – eBook is $4.99.  Paperback is $16.99.  This book is included with Kindle Unlimited.

*Cost is based upon what the book cost when book review is published