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A review by egbella
Before Beauty by Brittany Fichter
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
4.5 stars!
I'm still on my Beauty and the Beast retellings kick, and this is one of the best that I've read so far! From almost the very start, I was engrossed in the story, and continued to be drawn in throughout the entire book. I enjoyed the characters, the romance was sweet, and the worldbuilding had just enough depth to interest me without confusing me with endless details.
Setting: As I said above, I enjoyed the setting! It didn't take me long to form a mental map of the story world, which can be a struggle for me sometimes. The author didn't bog down the storytelling with a ton of details about the world, but she did give enough for me to get a good glimpse into the country's politics, royalty system, magic system, and castes. This is obviously personal preference so if you like your stories to have lots of hard details, you might not appreciate this aspect. I personally enjoy this light-handed approach, and didn't feel it was a detriment to the story at all.
Characters: The characters were immediately either likable or sympathetic. I empathized with both Ever (whose name confused me for the first couple of chapters, admittedly), and with Isa. They both were thrown into their prospective lives with poor guidance and treatment from those closest to them, and I could understand why they both behaved as they did. That said, seeming them learn, grow, and come together despite the challenges was sweet. I'm not always completely on board with the romances in these stories, but theirs was slow, gentle, and honestly very cute.
I really liked Garin as well. I didn't see certain things coming about him, but he was a favorite character of mine from the start. The rest of the servants were fun, and seemed very sweet. The villain was also well-written, and while I puzzled at some of her motivations, she was truly a terrifying character to think of fighting. Overall, I'd say the characters were the strongest point of the novel.
Plot: Being familiar with a lot of the original Beauty and the Beast fairytales, I recognized influences from many of them in this retelling. There were a couple of sporadic Disney-themed ones, but mostly, I recognized elements of the originals, which was fun. It kept it fresh and unique, while also expertly weaving in familiar threads of story. I really enjoyed the way the author twisted them and created her own story.
The plot itself moved along steadily, I felt. It seemed to swing from being a much slower pace (time in the castle, getting to know one another, dancing, etc.), to all-out high stakes (impending war, running away, curses, etc.), which may bother someone, but I didn't ever feel that it grew boring or too hard to follow. The only exception would be the end. It seemed slightly rushed in the last chapter, and I would have loved a slight bit more time to dive into exactly what happened. Everywhere else, I could follow along, and enjoyed the pacing and story events.
I've seen some people complain that the story wasn't developed enough, and I could see why they would say that, due to their not being a lot of explanation surrounding the central magic system (i.e. The Fortress). That said, I know this series continues, so I was willing to forgive any leniency here, because I felt that enough was explained for me to still enjoy the very first book. Again, this will vary based on what kind of a reader you are. I'm more character-focused so I was happy.
Themes: true love, finding your strength, patience, working together, forgiveness, family, and trust (while there wasn't any explicit Christian material, themes of trusting the higher power were strong, and as a Christian, I loved that element).
Content warning: a magic system (the Fortress is characterized as able to trust, interact, and feel), the villain can enter people's dreams, mild kisses, depiction of insanity, war, loss, light descriptions of injury.
I'd recommend it to: readers 13+ that enjoy sweet and slow romances, light magic systems, political intrigue, Beauty and the Beast retellings, and meaningful themes.
I'm still on my Beauty and the Beast retellings kick, and this is one of the best that I've read so far! From almost the very start, I was engrossed in the story, and continued to be drawn in throughout the entire book. I enjoyed the characters, the romance was sweet, and the worldbuilding had just enough depth to interest me without confusing me with endless details.
Setting: As I said above, I enjoyed the setting! It didn't take me long to form a mental map of the story world, which can be a struggle for me sometimes. The author didn't bog down the storytelling with a ton of details about the world, but she did give enough for me to get a good glimpse into the country's politics, royalty system, magic system, and castes. This is obviously personal preference so if you like your stories to have lots of hard details, you might not appreciate this aspect. I personally enjoy this light-handed approach, and didn't feel it was a detriment to the story at all.
Characters: The characters were immediately either likable or sympathetic. I empathized with both Ever (whose name confused me for the first couple of chapters, admittedly), and with Isa. They both were thrown into their prospective lives with poor guidance and treatment from those closest to them, and I could understand why they both behaved as they did. That said, seeming them learn, grow, and come together despite the challenges was sweet. I'm not always completely on board with the romances in these stories, but theirs was slow, gentle, and honestly very cute.
I really liked Garin as well. I didn't see certain things coming about him, but he was a favorite character of mine from the start. The rest of the servants were fun, and seemed very sweet. The villain was also well-written, and while I puzzled at some of her motivations, she was truly a terrifying character to think of fighting. Overall, I'd say the characters were the strongest point of the novel.
Plot: Being familiar with a lot of the original Beauty and the Beast fairytales, I recognized influences from many of them in this retelling. There were a couple of sporadic Disney-themed ones, but mostly, I recognized elements of the originals, which was fun. It kept it fresh and unique, while also expertly weaving in familiar threads of story. I really enjoyed the way the author twisted them and created her own story.
The plot itself moved along steadily, I felt. It seemed to swing from being a much slower pace (time in the castle, getting to know one another, dancing, etc.), to all-out high stakes (impending war, running away, curses, etc.), which may bother someone, but I didn't ever feel that it grew boring or too hard to follow. The only exception would be the end. It seemed slightly rushed in the last chapter, and I would have loved a slight bit more time to dive into exactly what happened. Everywhere else, I could follow along, and enjoyed the pacing and story events.
I've seen some people complain that the story wasn't developed enough, and I could see why they would say that, due to their not being a lot of explanation surrounding the central magic system (i.e. The Fortress). That said, I know this series continues, so I was willing to forgive any leniency here, because I felt that enough was explained for me to still enjoy the very first book. Again, this will vary based on what kind of a reader you are. I'm more character-focused so I was happy.
Themes: true love, finding your strength, patience, working together, forgiveness, family, and trust (while there wasn't any explicit Christian material, themes of trusting the higher power were strong, and as a Christian, I loved that element).
Content warning: a magic system (the Fortress is characterized as able to trust, interact, and feel), the villain can enter people's dreams, mild kisses, depiction of insanity, war, loss, light descriptions of injury.
I'd recommend it to: readers 13+ that enjoy sweet and slow romances, light magic systems, political intrigue, Beauty and the Beast retellings, and meaningful themes.