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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dark and gritty, slow burn. Ryder was kidnapped and being held by Griffin, and forced into pet play. Things are dark and twisted and so dang hot but something is changing and Ryder doesn’t know if he likes it. Very good
(4.25 stars)
Note: I have a hard time reviewing this duology as two separate books, since they are really two halves of a whole story, so I’m reviewing them together.
This was a SUPER interesting duology that I’m still thinking about two days later (and grappling with, in a way, but more on that later). The Beast’s Beauty and The Beauty’s Beast are the two parts of R. Phoenix’s “Beauty and the Beast” retelling, and as soon as I read the blurbs for both books, I was excited to read them because
I LOVE “Beauty and the Beast” retellings/reimaginings (when done well, i.e. Robin McKinley’s Rose Daughter and Beauty), and
I’ve recently been plowing through all the dark romances I can find (am I the only one who has romance subgenre cravings every now and then?).
This is a contemporary reimagining of “Beauty and the Beast,” where the Beast is Griffin (a former rock star who was horribly burned in a fire and who, as a result, lives an isolated and lonely life) and Beauty is Ryder (a college kid). Before the story begins, Griffin basically pays (what sounds like) human traffickers to kidnap a pretty boy for him, and that pretty boy ends up being Ryder.
Griffin wants a companion who will be completely loyal to him, and he essentially plans to make this happen by making Ryder into his puppy. He strategizes how to break Ryder down piece by piece until he truly becomes a pet (Toby) that loves Griffin unconditionally, rather than a human being that hates Griffin for the awful things Griffin does to him. The book takes place over the course of about two months (I think), and we see Griffin struggle to break and remake Ryder while Ryder struggles to hold onto himself and not become what Griffin desires. In order to take back some of the control and maintain some semblance of himself, Ryder eventually asks Griffin to reshape his vision of their relationship (such as it is) as not master/puppy but master/kitten. When Griffin agrees and the tenor of their relationship changes, Ryder starts to truly lose himself in Toby, and Griffin starts to question whether he should let Ryder go.
Both books are told from alternating viewpoints, so we have a chance to see inside the heads of both Ryder and Griffin. Let me say, this would have been a VERY DIFFERENT STORY if we had only be privy to Ryder’s perspective. Griffin is full of self-doubt and constantly questions whether he has done the right thing in kidnapping Ryder (hint: kidnapping is NEVER THE RIGHT THING JFC GRIFFIN). His internal narrative tends to run in circles much like this: “should I really be doing this?/ooooh, this is a bad thing I’m doing/but I WANT HIM/so I guess I’m doing it/even though I shouldn’t.” But he is conflicted about the choices he has made, and if we only had Ryder’s perspective, that conflict wouldn’t have been evident, and Griffin would have come across as more of a one-dimensional villain than he does otherwise.
The sex in this book is surprisingly light (if you discount the number of time Griffin thinks about how much he wants to fuck Ryder or imagines it in detail), and much of it is extremely dubcon, possibly noncon. Ryder identifies a straight, and… it seems pretty clear that he is straight based on his own internal monologue. When he responds to Griffin sexually, it’s because he’s desperate for some kind of human touch after being isolated for so long, not because he’s attracted to Griffin. (That’s one of things I really appreciated about this book -- a lot of times, it feels protagonists in books similar to this are frightened by but also UNWILLINGLY ATTRACTED TO their captors, and that definitely isn’t happening here. Ryder VERY MUCH does not want to have sex with Griffin when he is held captive.) It’s not until the end, after Griffin releases Ryder, and Ryder chooses to return, that he initiates and enjoys sexual contact with Griffin.
I would have liked Ryder’s and Griffin’s backstories to be a little more developed, particularly Ryder’s. More concrete information about his family, his girlfriend, his life (I don’t think we ever learn how old he is, let alone what he’s passionate about or studying in school…) would have made him feel more grounded in the world outside of Griffin’s house. I wondered if this was a deliberate choice on the author’s part, though. Griffin makes clear at the beginning that he didn’t choose Ryder specifically; he asked for generic pretty boy, and that’s basically we as readers get as well. What we know about Ryder is what we learn through how he reacts to his captivity and to Griffin.
Maybe this was the point. The lack of detail about his family particularly makes his choice at the end (to abandon his life and return to Griffin) easier to swallow. If we had a better sense of his relationships before he was kidnapped, it would have been a lot harder to accept his choice. But this was still a bit of a weak spot for me; because we have no sense of Ryder’s relationships with his family and friends (we only meet his mother, and their interaction shows that she clearly loves him and is worried about him), I overlay my own relationships with his and cannot imagine a world where I would just disappear from their lives for whatever reason, let alone to live in isolation with the guy who kidnapped me.
This is the heart of why I’d love to talk to someone else about these books -- I’m not sure whether the end is meant to be an HEA (the couple ends up together, yay!) or more ambiguous (Griffin did what he set out to do and broke/remade Ryder into what he wanted!). I lean toward the latter for many reasons: because the Ryder who longed for his family, his girlfriend, his regular life throughout his captivity would not choose to cut all of those ties and return to his captor; because pre-captivity Ryder was not into sex with another man, but he willingly begins a sexual relationship with Griffin upon his return; because Ryder returns as “Toby,” showing that he doesn’t even consider himself Ryder any longer.
It’s entirely possible that I’m reading too much into this and that the release-return at the end of the second book is purely meant to mirror the end of “Beauty and the Beast.” I’d like to think it’s meant to be a dark twist on the traditional HEA, though.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed both books, and I’m glad that I was able to read them back-to-back (instead of having to wait for the second to come out). I have lingering questions, mostly about the author’s choices and whether they were deliberate or I’m just reading way too much into the story.
Note: I have a hard time reviewing this duology as two separate books, since they are really two halves of a whole story, so I’m reviewing them together.
This was a SUPER interesting duology that I’m still thinking about two days later (and grappling with, in a way, but more on that later). The Beast’s Beauty and The Beauty’s Beast are the two parts of R. Phoenix’s “Beauty and the Beast” retelling, and as soon as I read the blurbs for both books, I was excited to read them because
I LOVE “Beauty and the Beast” retellings/reimaginings (when done well, i.e. Robin McKinley’s Rose Daughter and Beauty), and
I’ve recently been plowing through all the dark romances I can find (am I the only one who has romance subgenre cravings every now and then?).
This is a contemporary reimagining of “Beauty and the Beast,” where the Beast is Griffin (a former rock star who was horribly burned in a fire and who, as a result, lives an isolated and lonely life) and Beauty is Ryder (a college kid). Before the story begins, Griffin basically pays (what sounds like) human traffickers to kidnap a pretty boy for him, and that pretty boy ends up being Ryder.
Griffin wants a companion who will be completely loyal to him, and he essentially plans to make this happen by making Ryder into his puppy. He strategizes how to break Ryder down piece by piece until he truly becomes a pet (Toby) that loves Griffin unconditionally, rather than a human being that hates Griffin for the awful things Griffin does to him. The book takes place over the course of about two months (I think), and we see Griffin struggle to break and remake Ryder while Ryder struggles to hold onto himself and not become what Griffin desires. In order to take back some of the control and maintain some semblance of himself, Ryder eventually asks Griffin to reshape his vision of their relationship (such as it is) as not master/puppy but master/kitten. When Griffin agrees and the tenor of their relationship changes, Ryder starts to truly lose himself in Toby, and Griffin starts to question whether he should let Ryder go.
Both books are told from alternating viewpoints, so we have a chance to see inside the heads of both Ryder and Griffin. Let me say, this would have been a VERY DIFFERENT STORY if we had only be privy to Ryder’s perspective. Griffin is full of self-doubt and constantly questions whether he has done the right thing in kidnapping Ryder (hint: kidnapping is NEVER THE RIGHT THING JFC GRIFFIN). His internal narrative tends to run in circles much like this: “should I really be doing this?/ooooh, this is a bad thing I’m doing/but I WANT HIM/so I guess I’m doing it/even though I shouldn’t.” But he is conflicted about the choices he has made, and if we only had Ryder’s perspective, that conflict wouldn’t have been evident, and Griffin would have come across as more of a one-dimensional villain than he does otherwise.
The sex in this book is surprisingly light (if you discount the number of time Griffin thinks about how much he wants to fuck Ryder or imagines it in detail), and much of it is extremely dubcon, possibly noncon. Ryder identifies a straight, and… it seems pretty clear that he is straight based on his own internal monologue. When he responds to Griffin sexually, it’s because he’s desperate for some kind of human touch after being isolated for so long, not because he’s attracted to Griffin. (That’s one of things I really appreciated about this book -- a lot of times, it feels protagonists in books similar to this are frightened by but also UNWILLINGLY ATTRACTED TO their captors, and that definitely isn’t happening here. Ryder VERY MUCH does not want to have sex with Griffin when he is held captive.) It’s not until the end, after Griffin releases Ryder, and Ryder chooses to return, that he initiates and enjoys sexual contact with Griffin.
I would have liked Ryder’s and Griffin’s backstories to be a little more developed, particularly Ryder’s. More concrete information about his family, his girlfriend, his life (I don’t think we ever learn how old he is, let alone what he’s passionate about or studying in school…) would have made him feel more grounded in the world outside of Griffin’s house. I wondered if this was a deliberate choice on the author’s part, though. Griffin makes clear at the beginning that he didn’t choose Ryder specifically; he asked for generic pretty boy, and that’s basically we as readers get as well. What we know about Ryder is what we learn through how he reacts to his captivity and to Griffin.
Maybe this was the point. The lack of detail about his family particularly makes his choice at the end (to abandon his life and return to Griffin) easier to swallow. If we had a better sense of his relationships before he was kidnapped, it would have been a lot harder to accept his choice. But this was still a bit of a weak spot for me; because we have no sense of Ryder’s relationships with his family and friends (we only meet his mother, and their interaction shows that she clearly loves him and is worried about him), I overlay my own relationships with his and cannot imagine a world where I would just disappear from their lives for whatever reason, let alone to live in isolation with the guy who kidnapped me.
This is the heart of why I’d love to talk to someone else about these books -- I’m not sure whether the end is meant to be an HEA (the couple ends up together, yay!) or more ambiguous (Griffin did what he set out to do and broke/remade Ryder into what he wanted!). I lean toward the latter for many reasons: because the Ryder who longed for his family, his girlfriend, his regular life throughout his captivity would not choose to cut all of those ties and return to his captor; because pre-captivity Ryder was not into sex with another man, but he willingly begins a sexual relationship with Griffin upon his return; because Ryder returns as “Toby,” showing that he doesn’t even consider himself Ryder any longer.
It’s entirely possible that I’m reading too much into this and that the release-return at the end of the second book is purely meant to mirror the end of “Beauty and the Beast.” I’d like to think it’s meant to be a dark twist on the traditional HEA, though.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed both books, and I’m glad that I was able to read them back-to-back (instead of having to wait for the second to come out). I have lingering questions, mostly about the author’s choices and whether they were deliberate or I’m just reading way too much into the story.
A man kidnaps a guy to be his puppy. Plot twist: the guy doesn't want to be his puppy, but and the man just needed someone to care for him.
This messed up with my head as much as Ryder's. I can't blame the poor guy. Is it a questionable? Yes, but I'm absolutely fine with it. I even found it endearing. Damn Griffin for manipulating me as well.
I just really liked the conclusion, I felt it was headed towards that, it made sense with the circumstances since doesn't go away in a day. I have to say I got surprised that Griffin got , I didn't expect that when I started book 1. At least there is no more suffering for both.
Spoiler
his kittyThis messed up with my head as much as Ryder's. I can't blame the poor guy. Is it a questionable
Spoiler
HEAI just really liked the conclusion, I felt it was headed towards that, it made sense with the circumstances since
Spoiler
stockholm syndromeSpoiler
lima syndrome
*4.5 Stars*
I have to say I knew nothing about this book or series but just bought it for the cover. LOL. I gobbled up these two books and while it is so wrong...it was so right. I loved the mental play happening here. There is no physical torture and no penetrative rape, but there is humiliation, puppy/kitty play and just an interesting exploration into the mindset of a kidnapper and his victim...into submission and needing to become someone else in order to survive.
This series may not work for everyone but it totally worked for me.
I have to say I knew nothing about this book or series but just bought it for the cover. LOL. I gobbled up these two books and while it is so wrong...it was so right. I loved the mental play happening here. There is no physical torture and no penetrative rape, but there is humiliation, puppy/kitty play and just an interesting exploration into the mindset of a kidnapper and his victim...into submission and needing to become someone else in order to survive.
This series may not work for everyone but it totally worked for me.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Can the abductor get Stockholm syndrome as well?
Usually, these types of stories feature a lot more physical punishment. I am glad this story focuses more on the psychological aspect. However, I do believe this should have just been one book instead of a story split in two.
I know I should be angry and say I hated it, but I kind of loved the happy ending? I would have liked to see what happened if they went public, though.
Usually, these types of stories feature a lot more physical punishment. I am glad this story focuses more on the psychological aspect. However, I do believe this should have just been one book instead of a story split in two.
I know I should be angry and say I hated it, but I kind of loved the happy ending? I would have liked to see what happened if they went public, though.
dark
fast-paced
Okay, the ending of this series simply baffled me. Why would anyone return to Griffin?!? And why would you want to break someone and turn them into something else just to make them stay. This wasn't a love story like I was hoping it would be. It wasn't even as dark as I thought it would be, and it ended much too abruptly. Ultimately I felt bored and empty by the time I finished this short book. I've already forgotten what it was about to be honest.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
RTC
Hea
Hea