A review by sofiesbooked
Beauty by Susan Wilson

1.0

I'm going to be very honest with this review. I was starting to like it at about the halfway point, however, the ending absolutely destroyed any positive emotion this Beauty & the Beast retelling gave me. I won't spoil anything, but I am just disappointed to have wasted my time reading it.

I normally love a "modern" fairy tale retelling, mainly since this one was set in the mid-90s in New England (where I grew up!). There were so many things I loved about the general idea - Alix's family having painted every generation of Lee's family going back for generations. They move forward with doing the same for Lee, however, he is essentially a hermit who does not want to be physically seen because of genetic defects that cause him to look and feel like a beast.

They build a relationship and become very close friends through their shared experiences, grief, trust and love. If it had ended about 3/4 of the way through, I probably would've given this a solid 3.5 - but no.

This is going straight into the donation pile.