Books like Beast (Avon Romantic Treasure) by Judith Ivory

In this historical romance, Louise Vandermeer—an exquisite American heiress—chooses adventure over idle glamour by traveling across the ocean to wed an European aristocrat. Rumored to be hideously dull, her intended becomes the unexpected catalyst for a passionate, reckless affair with a charismatic stranger who never appears in the light. Charles d’Harcourt, scarred by a childhood illness, has won Europe’s most sophisticated beauties and, for a joke, travels incognito on his own fiancée’s ship, seducing the young woman in darkness. His prank backfires: the bride, Lulu, falls in love with her shipboard lover—unaware that it was d’Harcourt all along—and he can never win her heart unless he reveals the prince inside. The novel intertwines themes of false identity, romance, and the daring defiance of societal expectations, placing the characters amid vivid historical settings and exploring the tangled emotions that bind them.

First publish date: 1997