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castella_and_novellas's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Summary:
Lucie is a servant for the master at the Chateau Beaumont, Jean-Loup. As good looking as he is, his personality is anything but. After finding out how much of a monster he really is, Lucie swore herself to revenge to make him suffer for the rest of his days. With some magic, Lucie helped to place a curse on him to become a true monstrosity. As a Beast however, he changes into the complete opposite of his human form. Caring, sensitive, kind. It seems as if the previous Jean-Loup has been completely decimated. The only problem is- a particular lone beauty comes into their lives, threatening the peace. Lucie must find a way to stop the fairytale and never let the curse reverse.
What I Liked:
- Love the concept of the book. Reading from Lucie’s perspective was such an interesting twist to the beloved classic and certainly a fresh take. The characters felt pretty fleshed out and aligned more so with the original Beauty and the Beast story rather than the Disney version. There were a couple of twists in characters that I didn’t anticipate, so the surprise was fun to read about.
- The Beast? An actual sweetheart. I liked watching his character change and learning more about him as the story progressed. He is honestly what gives it the stars this book has at all.
- The second half of the book flowed smoothly for me, right up till the last few chapters. It certainly helped me get through the book.
- Though I greatly disliked the surprise element of rape, I think the author shined light to what a rape survivor may feel like. Wasn’t an easy read, but I did appreciate the effort looking back. I’m sure other books express the dilemma much better, but for what it is worth- I did like how it was done to a degree.
What I Didn’t Like:
- The pacing in this book is completely wack, especially towards the beginning. Everything happened too quick and I felt that there were scenes that could have been edited out to prevent this from happening.
- There should have been trigger warnings in the book. I was certainly surprised at the very beginning of the book seeing how cruel Jean-Loup was to Lucie. Though I understood him to be the bad guy, I didn’t know how far they were going to take that. Should have been mentioned from the start because I was going to DNF the book then and there for that surprise.
- Okay, I know this is supposed to be a romance…but by the end of the book I felt that Lucie and Beast could’ve left being friends and I would have liked it more. This is coming from someone who is a sucker for romance any time I can get my hands on it. I felt chemistry, but really only on a platonic level.. Maybe I just couldn’t let myself accept that a candle holder and the Beast were falling in love.
Cover Thoughts:
- Oh I like this cover a lot. The overall bordering and font fit perfectly with the Beauty and Beast setting. I also like the idea of the Beast being in the center of the rose. I don’t really like how the leaves come out from the rose though. It doesn’t seem to match the drawing of the rose very well… maybe a more minimalist approach to the leaves would have been fine (or leaving them out altogether!). The title is what made me pick this book up at the library in the first place, so as someone prone to doing cover-buys, this sold it for me. I wished the story matched the expectations on the cover, oh well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt
billyyaltman's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt