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A review by bookish_notes
Laurent and the Beast by K.A. Merikan
2.0
This is a Beauty and the Beast retelling involving time-travel, motorcycle clubs, and a deal with the devil. For the most part, the story was pretty good despite some problematic aspects, but the last 20% of the story completely threw me for a loop. I think it had more to do with the writing in the last half of this book was rather different from the first half and that's what ultimately turned me off from the story, even when I was so close to the end of the book.
The story itself is intriguing and unique. I'm generally not a fan of time-travel books, and usually won't read them at all, but I decided to give this a try. Laurent is from the year 1805 and he's not doing well in life. His eyesight is failing him, and that's almost a death sentence in that day and age where he's an indentured servant. He's also gay, which would have been completely unacceptable during that time. Well, when he narrowly escapes with his life by making a deal with the devil and winds up in 2017, he lands right in the middle of a motorcycle club, more confused than he's ever been.
The story is told from alternating POVs, and it was okay in the beginning. The story is captivating, and the story is a new twist on a classic tale. I do appreciate all the work that went into pointing out how different life would be for someone to live in 2017 if they just got dropped in from 1805, like with simple things like showering or shopping at a mall. This book isn't long. Not really. But, after the initial introductions where Laurent is introduced to Beast's world, the story is...not for me, I guess.
Some things were totally unnecessary. For instance, Laurent kept referring to a character Nao as "Oriental". It was initially pointed out as inappropriate and that would have been fine as a one-time thing because it was challenged by another character, but he did it again later in the book for no reason at all and it was left just brushed off. And instead of having Laurent be understanding and showing him learning the modern ways women dress compared to his time, he kept referring to women as prostitutes the entire book.
The treatment of the female characters is bad overall, and sticks to the typical motorcycle club stereotypes like what we see from TV shows like Sons of Anarchy, I think. Constantly pointing out Knight's girlfriend as the bad person in the relationship instead of trying to understand her from her point-of-view (because Knight was being awful to her in the first place) was irritating to read.
The terminology in this book was what my mind kept focusing on, because it was so awkward. It's a minor thing, but it's one of those things that just completely takes me out of the story. This book is set in the United States with American characters, but there are words used that maybe for Laurent it would have been acceptable from his POV chapters, but definitely weird from Beast's POV. The sex scenes were also really awkward to me. Again, that's a personal thing, because I know people love this book. The writing for the sex scenes just wasn't for me, so I winded up having to skim through most of it just to get back to the main part of the story.
At this moment, I don't really care to read Knight's story. I took a glance at the first few chapters, and the characters and the supernatural aspect of the series just isn't all that appealing to me.
The story itself is intriguing and unique. I'm generally not a fan of time-travel books, and usually won't read them at all, but I decided to give this a try. Laurent is from the year 1805 and he's not doing well in life. His eyesight is failing him, and that's almost a death sentence in that day and age where he's an indentured servant. He's also gay, which would have been completely unacceptable during that time. Well, when he narrowly escapes with his life by making a deal with the devil and winds up in 2017, he lands right in the middle of a motorcycle club, more confused than he's ever been.
The story is told from alternating POVs, and it was okay in the beginning. The story is captivating, and the story is a new twist on a classic tale. I do appreciate all the work that went into pointing out how different life would be for someone to live in 2017 if they just got dropped in from 1805, like with simple things like showering or shopping at a mall. This book isn't long. Not really. But, after the initial introductions where Laurent is introduced to Beast's world, the story is...not for me, I guess.
Some things were totally unnecessary. For instance, Laurent kept referring to a character Nao as "Oriental". It was initially pointed out as inappropriate and that would have been fine as a one-time thing because it was challenged by another character, but he did it again later in the book for no reason at all and it was left just brushed off. And instead of having Laurent be understanding and showing him learning the modern ways women dress compared to his time, he kept referring to women as prostitutes the entire book.
The treatment of the female characters is bad overall, and sticks to the typical motorcycle club stereotypes like what we see from TV shows like Sons of Anarchy, I think. Constantly pointing out Knight's girlfriend as the bad person in the relationship instead of trying to understand her from her point-of-view (because Knight was being awful to her in the first place) was irritating to read.
The terminology in this book was what my mind kept focusing on, because it was so awkward. It's a minor thing, but it's one of those things that just completely takes me out of the story. This book is set in the United States with American characters, but there are words used that maybe for Laurent it would have been acceptable from his POV chapters, but definitely weird from Beast's POV. The sex scenes were also really awkward to me. Again, that's a personal thing, because I know people love this book. The writing for the sex scenes just wasn't for me, so I winded up having to skim through most of it just to get back to the main part of the story.
At this moment, I don't really care to read Knight's story. I took a glance at the first few chapters, and the characters and the supernatural aspect of the series just isn't all that appealing to me.