You know sometimes when a mood strikes and all you want to read is a quick, fun romance? Well, I was totally hankering for that when I picked up Beauty and the Werewolf, and it really hit the spot. Sweet romance, only a little bit of drama, and two characters meant to be together. Sigh.

Isabelle is the only child of the Irish wolf pack and fated to be the alpha…and soon. Her dad is dying and before he takes his last breath, she’s determined to earn his approval. Her passion is painting, and while she’s a master at it, it’s a side of her dear old dad discouraged from the get-go. So she adopted an alias and pursued her art in secret, which turned out to be a lucrative venture. Her goal is to track down all her masterpieces (werewolves in various settings), buy them, and put them on display so her father might see at last that painting is a part of who she is and won’t affect her ability to lead the pack when he’s gone.

It just so happens Jack is a devoted admirer of Isabelle’s work and isn’t about to let her outbid him for one of her masterpieces. Fun fact about Jack: he’s dying. In this particular werewolf world, if a werewolf doesn’t find his mate within a certain time, he’ll kick the can, and that’s exactly where Jack is. He’s been surviving on adrenaline rushes, which apparently keeps the ol’ werewolf ticker going, but the moment he touches Isabelle, he knows she’s the one. Unfortunately, Isabelle isn’t so easily convinced. Worse than that, Jack is from the San Francisco McGrath pack, basically the dirtbag werewolves the Ireland pack loves to hate.

I liked both Isabelle and Jack. Isabelle didn’t hold on to her prejudices too long, and Jack was totally straight up that he wanted Isabelle, yet he wasn’t pushy about it. He’d spent his life doing everything he could to ditch the stigma of the McGrath name, and he was a total gentleman. Gentlewolf? They were a good match and both just really decent people who needed to be together. If you’re looking for a speedy, sweet yet steamy, fated werewolf read, Beauty and the Werewolf is the one to pick up.