wasn't sure I was going to like this book. I don't usually read books that are in modern time. But this book is so different it kept my interest. I'm ready to read her next book. And the narrator did an excellent job as the other characters.

Captured by the Fae Beast is a beautifully written Dark Fantasy Romance that perfectly portrays how talented Mallory Dunlin is as a storyteller. To me she’s also the queen of “slow burn romances turned to scorching desire” since she has the brilliant habit of developing the characters and their relationships before having them romantically involved but when they do it’s like a whirlwind of emotions and extremely rewarding (this book is no exception). Dunlin is excellent at worldbuilding/lore and it was so interesting seeing how she respectfully adapted the folklore into this book. There are strange and bizarre customs that are incredibly interesting, one of them being more than one type of “fated”. When Dain finds Leah close to death it is immediately obvious to him that Leah could either be his fated lover or his archnemesis (other types exist, including having several fated romantic partners) and this is explored throughout the book. Dain is a tragic character, he never once experienced love, was and is the victim of constant abuse due to his appearance and considers himself a monster. He’s abrasive, sassy, closed off and rightfully angry at the world surrounding him. Leah on the other hand, is emotionally intelligent, down to earth and takes charge whenever needed. One of my favourite aspects of Leah is the fact she has an autistic brother which, in my opinion, allowed her to be an empathetic person and develop her emotional intelligence. I believe this is why she’s able to empathise with Dain and develop such a good, solid and loyal relationship with him. She doesn’t find him monstrous (quite the opposite) and understands him on the deepest of levels. Dain practically worships the ground she walks on and will go to extremes to protect her, whether she approves or not. They’re basically head over heels for each other but the fact that Leah wants to go back home and Dain doesn’t want to force her into anything is one of the reasons why this is such a delicious slow burn. The secondary characters are also incredibly written and developed and I couldn’t help it but love them, even Dain’s mom who is such a good (hateful) villain despite understanding (but not endorsing) the way she is and the reason for her hatred of her own son. The plot of the book is something I’d also like to emphasise because not only is it coherent and well built, it’s just as prominent as the relationship between the characters and quite interesting. Raquel Beattie is an incredibly smooth performer with such an incredibly pleasant voice she could practically read anything to me and I’d enjoy it. I get the feeling she’s a perfectionist as well because there wasn’t a single flaw in the way she narrated. Dain had a distinct “voice” and so did the other characters, making it very easy to identify who’s who. Overall she gave us a very solid narration/performance that works really well for this type of fantasy. Tl;dr if you like well constructed lore and fantastic worldbuilding with monstrous, violent MMCs who are secretly soft on the inside and actual strong FMCs who can deal with their surroundings and slow burn romances that end up being scorching hot then this book is definitely for you!!