Ambika asked Camille Peters:

This question contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

Camille Peters Thank you for your question! I love answering questions about my stories. 😊 In that scene with Briar when he first meets Maren, I always imagined that he does initially think what Maren fears he does—he, like everyone else, doesn't initially find her attractive. But Briar has the ability to see beauty. As he comes to know her over the course of the story, he discovers her true beauty, and by the end of the book that's all he sees, especially because he now loves her. This was my nod to the original fairy tale (except rather than the heroine having to see the inner beauty of the beast, it was my hero having to see the inner beauty of a plain girl, even as my heroine has to learn to see the true Briar hidden within his beastly attitude), because I love the message of seeing past one's appearance to their heart, for beauty truly comes from within. 💖

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