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madscientistcat's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Gun violence
Moderate: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, and Torture
rosemoon99's review against another edition
5.0
Primo Dark Romance che leggo e l'unica cosa che posso dire è che mi mancheranno i pov di Beast
rellimreads's review
5.0
1/4/2022 - relisten & updated review.
1/26/2021 - Box set of books 1-5 available on audio!!! Snagged on Kobo.
1/5/2020 - Audio. Also available via KU.
This was my first book by K. A. Merikan (I literally found this book by poking around on my library's site and following "you might likes" from book to book until I stumbled on this. Libraries are awesome y'all!), but I'm definitely familiar with Joel Leslie. Later I purchased the audio box set of the entire series.
I was looking for something completely different and found it. I'm a sucker for age gap, Beast is 32, Laurent is 19 but the idea of time travel, an MC, a tattooed giant of a man and I was totally sucked in. At 15 hours, this was a big commitment - but worth every minute. While dark and serious, there were moments of levity to keep me from being overwhelmed.
While Beast & Laurent have a complete romantic story arc, this ends on an HFN. There’s a storyline that runs through all the books. So you need to listen to them all and in order. I’m excited to move on to My Dark Knight.
Leslie is just phenomenal in this book. Laurent and the devil's voices/accents could have easily come off as caricatures with anyone else. Instead they were dynamic. I was completely immersed in the world and never let out until the end.
1/26/2021 - Box set of books 1-5 available on audio!!! Snagged on Kobo.
1/5/2020 - Audio. Also available via KU.
This was my first book by K. A. Merikan (I literally found this book by poking around on my library's site and following "you might likes" from book to book until I stumbled on this. Libraries are awesome y'all!), but I'm definitely familiar with Joel Leslie. Later I purchased the audio box set of the entire series.
I was looking for something completely different and found it. I'm a sucker for age gap, Beast is 32, Laurent is 19 but the idea of time travel, an MC, a tattooed giant of a man and I was totally sucked in. At 15 hours, this was a big commitment - but worth every minute. While dark and serious, there were moments of levity to keep me from being overwhelmed.
While Beast & Laurent have a complete romantic story arc, this ends on an HFN. There’s a storyline that runs through all the books. So you need to listen to them all and in order. I’m excited to move on to My Dark Knight.
Leslie is just phenomenal in this book. Laurent and the devil's voices/accents could have easily come off as caricatures with anyone else. Instead they were dynamic. I was completely immersed in the world and never let out until the end.
imme_van_gorp's review
4.0
➛First read: April 2022 | ★4.0 stars
➛Second read: January 2023 | ★4.0 stars
"Even though we were born centuries apart, I'm sure our souls are entwined."
Even though I did enjoy this a lot, I have mixed feelings about it. It had aspects I absolutely adore, but also things that frustrated me to no end…
The main thing I loved here was the general idea of the book: it’s a beauty and the beast retelling mixed in with time-travel, a biker gang, and a pact with the devil.
You cannot tell me that that doesn’t sound good!
Thus, it is not a big surprise that I ended up really enjoying the plotline and tropes that were explored with this novel. It was engaging, intriguing and even quite unique.
Unfortunately, I do have to say that the pacing was a bit off and I couldn’t help but feel bored from time to time. Some scenes were just too long and the book could be very heavy on the descriptions, which I’m not a big fan of.
Luckily, I absolutely adored one of the main characters: Laurent.
His ignorance about all things concerning modern times was simultaneously adorable as well as hilarious, especially since he was otherwise clearly such a smart guy. His innocence, kindness and just overall sweetness also warmed my heart.
His personality truly made me see him as the beautiful angel he was described as looks-wise.
However, my love for Laurent also leads me to one of my biggest complaints with this book which was the treatment he sometimes received from Beast.
Beast might have been terribly insecure about his looks and scarred skin, but he honestly didn’t need to worry about that, because even if he had been as handsome as he used to be, there is no way he had been good enough for Laurent as a person on the inside.
I just didn’t like how Beast got angry over nothing, had so much mistrust, or lashed out quite viciously when things didn’t go exactly the way he wanted them to.
The worst thing about it was that every time something like this happened, it was Laurent who tried to appease him and came crawling back. It was never the other way around, and I don’t think Beast ever apologized first, if at all.
At least he did always forgive Laurent quickly, as it was impossible for Beast to stay mad at him long and he just wanted to be with the sweet and beautiful boy so badly.
And honestly, I did really enjoy their relationship when Beast wasn’t being completely unreasonable.
Outside of their quarrels, Beast had a lot of affection for Laurent and seemed to adore his beauty and character. In their better moments, he damn near worshiped the ground Laurent walked on. I loved that.
What I also loved was the way Laurent saw Beast. He never saw him as ugly or monstrous: instead, he was completely accepting and gentle with him. It warmed my heart to watch Laurent see through Beast’s outside to look at his inside only and fall irrevocably in love with him that way.
All in all, their relationship could definitely make me swoon just as much as it could irritate me. Hence, my mixed feelings. But overall, I had a lot of fun with this book and my love for Laurent was very strong.
➛Second read: January 2023 | ★4.0 stars
"Even though we were born centuries apart, I'm sure our souls are entwined."
Even though I did enjoy this a lot, I have mixed feelings about it. It had aspects I absolutely adore, but also things that frustrated me to no end…
The main thing I loved here was the general idea of the book: it’s a beauty and the beast retelling mixed in with time-travel, a biker gang, and a pact with the devil.
You cannot tell me that that doesn’t sound good!
Thus, it is not a big surprise that I ended up really enjoying the plotline and tropes that were explored with this novel. It was engaging, intriguing and even quite unique.
Unfortunately, I do have to say that the pacing was a bit off and I couldn’t help but feel bored from time to time. Some scenes were just too long and the book could be very heavy on the descriptions, which I’m not a big fan of.
Luckily, I absolutely adored one of the main characters: Laurent.
His ignorance about all things concerning modern times was simultaneously adorable as well as hilarious, especially since he was otherwise clearly such a smart guy. His innocence, kindness and just overall sweetness also warmed my heart.
His personality truly made me see him as the beautiful angel he was described as looks-wise.
However, my love for Laurent also leads me to one of my biggest complaints with this book which was the treatment he sometimes received from Beast.
Beast might have been terribly insecure about his looks and scarred skin, but he honestly didn’t need to worry about that, because even if he had been as handsome as he used to be, there is no way he had been good enough for Laurent as a person on the inside.
I just didn’t like how Beast got angry over nothing, had so much mistrust, or lashed out quite viciously when things didn’t go exactly the way he wanted them to.
The worst thing about it was that every time something like this happened, it was Laurent who tried to appease him and came crawling back. It was never the other way around, and I don’t think Beast ever apologized first, if at all.
At least he did always forgive Laurent quickly, as it was impossible for Beast to stay mad at him long and he just wanted to be with the sweet and beautiful boy so badly.
And honestly, I did really enjoy their relationship when Beast wasn’t being completely unreasonable.
Outside of their quarrels, Beast had a lot of affection for Laurent and seemed to adore his beauty and character. In their better moments, he damn near worshiped the ground Laurent walked on. I loved that.
What I also loved was the way Laurent saw Beast. He never saw him as ugly or monstrous: instead, he was completely accepting and gentle with him. It warmed my heart to watch Laurent see through Beast’s outside to look at his inside only and fall irrevocably in love with him that way.
All in all, their relationship could definitely make me swoon just as much as it could irritate me. Hence, my mixed feelings. But overall, I had a lot of fun with this book and my love for Laurent was very strong.
_mariam's review
4.0
იმდენ ხანს ვეძებდი ამ სიუჟეტის წიგნს, რომ არ ვიცი უბრალოდ. ქეითი ენდ ლიოფოლდ, ითს თაიმ თუ რივოჩ იუ.
_lindsay_reads_a_lot_'s review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.5
I really enjoyed this unique MM Beauty and the Beast retelling. Cool world building with demons and some time travel. I found both Laurent and Beast to be enjoyable characters and as much as I wanted to scream at them to communicate better, it aligned with each of their broken pieces.
Looking forward to the rest of the series! (And yay Joel Leslie!)
Looking forward to the rest of the series! (And yay Joel Leslie!)
purple676's review
5.0
To be honest the first reason I decided to read this book was because of the name Laurent. Ever since reading Captive Prince I’ve been in love with that name. Ok now let me fanboy over THIS gorgeous book. I never read anything like this before. It was new. It was fresh. It was fan-fucking-tastic. I love these men SO MUCH. I flew through the book in like a couple of days. It was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING❤️