A review by penniew79
The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince by Serena Valentino

4.0

Beauty and the Beast is my favorite of all of the Disney movies. So I was looking forward to this. I was curious why the beast made it to the villains book, since the character wasn’t really a villain. But as I read it, I understood. You get the backstory of his transformation. Now from the other books I’ve read, they made the back stories tie in perfectly with the movies. This one did not. Maybe I noticed it more since it is my favorite movie. But to be tied in smoothly with the movie the Beast would have been cursed by just one witch, who had not been a fiancé. She was someone who came to his door for help and he turned her away because she looked like a hag. Then she turned beautiful. But I was able to over look that part. The parts that I couldn’t get past were different. For one Gaston and he being friends. That seems impossible. Because when belle tries to tell him about the beast he thinks she’s crazy so she has to show him the beast through the mirror. He thought she made him and the castle up. But if he was a friend he knew he existed and especially when she spoke of the castle. Also, Gaston had her come to the prince’s party before he turned into the beast?! Belle had never been to the castle before. Also the items around the house told her they had been transformed years ago. In the book it just happens before belle comes. I don’t know, it was kind of a let down compared to how well the other books tied into the movies.