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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
My favorite part of this book was how Sophie learned to stand on her own two feet. She and Lily are so close, which is wonderful, but I feel like neither fully knew how to be their own person before this book.
Plot wise, I wanted to love this book more than I did. It had far too many similarities to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. I would have preferred for it to be more unique, as much as I love the Disney version.
Plot wise, I wanted to love this book more than I did. It had far too many similarities to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. I would have preferred for it to be more unique, as much as I love the Disney version.
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have always really loved Beauty and the Beast and have really been enjoying these series, so the combination was a 5 star worthy experience for me. I loved the challenges, the growth, the emotions, the details and intricacies of the curse; all of it was so well done and was so well thought out. I could really understand the thoughts and emotions the characters were experiencing, and at times, could guess their next move because the characters were so well developed. I would highly recommend this book, and the multiple series because there are some references to other books in this series and the previous series (not terribly important to know, but it makes more sense).
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm a sucker for fairy tale retellings as a general rule. I know that's such a fad at the moment, and I already know what's going to happen, but I don't care. I love them anyway. I did try the first book in this series (a retelling of the dancing princesses), but rolled my eyes at the concept of a Princess Tourney and gave up. The only reason I read this one anyway was because they were both free on Kindle Unlimited. While this book referenced events that occurred in Book 1 quite a bit, I still got far enough along to get hooked.
Sophie, apparently the winner of the Princess Tourney in book 1, goes to the land of Palinar to collect her "prize": the cursed Prince Dominic, aka The Beast. A few twists rendered this retelling different from the Disney version, aside from different names of the characters. First, Sophie has an identical twin sister, Lily, whom I gather was the lead character in Book 1. The two of them share a mind connection that enables them to hear one another's thoughts. Second, the curse on the castle servants doesn't render them live inanimate objects, but rather shifts them sideways into a new dimension, which I thought was clever. But Sophie's connection with Lily enables her to hear the servants speak as well. Also, the Beast's curse renders him unable to speak as well, but because Sophie can hear the servants speak in her mind, she can also hear the Beast in the same way.
Other than that, the story plays out very much like the original. I like Sophie's character--she's got spirit without being brash, and I think her relationship with the Beast is believable. Also, one issue I always had with the story was the idea that he's not like an ugly man--he's physically an animal, yet she falls in love with him. Hard to suspend my disbelief on that one. This story sort of straddled the line there--she calls him Beast, and he's big and has a misshapen jaw, yet she can see his pallor and things like that, which implies at least he has skin. She also comments that despite his changes at times he looks rather handsome, which I assume implies that he looks human. The climactic scenes were well paced and mostly well done, with the exception of one suuuuper cheesy line. :)
But I do plan to read on in the series--or all of her series really, since apparently they're mostly fairy tale retellings in one world or another!
Sophie, apparently the winner of the Princess Tourney in book 1, goes to the land of Palinar to collect her "prize": the cursed Prince Dominic, aka The Beast. A few twists rendered this retelling different from the Disney version, aside from different names of the characters. First, Sophie has an identical twin sister, Lily, whom I gather was the lead character in Book 1. The two of them share a mind connection that enables them to hear one another's thoughts. Second, the curse on the castle servants doesn't render them live inanimate objects, but rather shifts them sideways into a new dimension, which I thought was clever. But Sophie's connection with Lily enables her to hear the servants speak as well. Also, the Beast's curse renders him unable to speak as well, but because Sophie can hear the servants speak in her mind, she can also hear the Beast in the same way.
Other than that, the story plays out very much like the original. I like Sophie's character--she's got spirit without being brash, and I think her relationship with the Beast is believable. Also, one issue I always had with the story was the idea that he's not like an ugly man--he's physically an animal, yet she falls in love with him. Hard to suspend my disbelief on that one. This story sort of straddled the line there--she calls him Beast, and he's big and has a misshapen jaw, yet she can see his pallor and things like that, which implies at least he has skin. She also comments that despite his changes at times he looks rather handsome, which I assume implies that he looks human. The climactic scenes were well paced and mostly well done, with the exception of one suuuuper cheesy line. :)
But I do plan to read on in the series--or all of her series really, since apparently they're mostly fairy tale retellings in one world or another!
I devoured this book even faster than the first. These stories are so sweet and intriguing; they have just enough uniqueness from the original fairy tales to keep readers on their toes looking for the next connection to the stories we all grew up on.
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
Book one and two of this series go well together since they focus on two twins with a fairytale Godmother bond. (But they still could stand alone.) The “winner” of the princess tournament of book one (12 dancing princesses retelling) was sent to the cursed kingdom to marry the prince turned beast. We get a full story of Beauty and the Beast for book two and a HEA for the twins. B&tB has always been my favorite of all the fairytales and this rendition did not disappoint.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Oh how I love Beauty and the Beast!
Such a good payoff after the last book too! Great addition to the series!
Such a good payoff after the last book too! Great addition to the series!
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Murder