Beauty’s life is the stuff of fairy tales. The youngest in her family, Beauty isn’t trying to catch Stephan’s eye. He is the lord baron’s heir, well above her family’s modest station, but when he kisses her hand at a party, Beauty is swept away by his charm, his wit, and his passionate declarations of love.
Hearts can be untamable creatures, especially when touched by the fires of first love, and Beauty doesn’t see the truth of Stephan’s intentions until it is too late. Until he stops asking for Beauty’s love—and simply takes it from her one night despite her refusal.
Beauty locks away the secret of what happened to her, and when her father emerges from the enchanted forest with a stolen rose in his hand and the tale of a vicious beast on his breath, Beauty seizes the chance to run as far from Stephan as possible.
She has some experience with beasts, after all. Certainly the one in the forest couldn’t be any worse than the one she’s already encountered.
Breaking the Beast’s curse might be the key to discovering her own path to healing—and finding the courage to allow herself to feel reborn.
Honestly, this soft and vibey Beauty and the Beast retelling is so underrated!
When you look at the book as a whole, it doesn't have that much plot in terms of action, but it does have a lot of character development, two people forming a gentle relationship and finding someone who understands and loves them for who they are. It's so delicate and lovely and a bit different from the usual retellings.
As I already said - there aren't any great plot twists, you already know what happened in the story. Even the premise itself already spoiled what happened to Beauty and why she chose to go to Beast willingly. But knowing where the plot goes doesn't dimish the story at all! It was actually sort of comforting and nice - I knew she went through something horrible but I also knew she'd get her happy ending.
I saw some people said in their reviews that they found the Beast to have no chemistry with Beauty, or no personality. While I respect their opinion, I'd have to say I disagree. It all depends on what kind of character you're looking for. I actually loved that (unlike most male characters nowadays), Beast was soft-spoken, said only a few words and didn't do any greatly heroic acts that you can see immediately - but when you look closely, he shows his love in every little moment with Beauty.
He encourages her to speak, he sought out her company all the time, he complimented everything she did, and he respected all of her decisions. Even when he was forced by his curse to do something, he tried as best as he could not to hurt her in the process and explain to her why it is what it is.
All in all, their low-key romance was something my cold heart didn't know it needed ♥
0 Comments