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bri4484 's review for:

Beastly Beauty by Jennifer Donnelly
4.25
adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I was given this book by the publisher in return for an honest review. 

Here we have a twist on the Beauty and the Beast retelling. Our male MC is the beauty and the female MC is our beast (but only after midnight). Though our Beast were not cursed for the same reasons. 

We have an interesting mostly human court (some were cursed but not in the traditional tale way). Even more interesting is the Queen's Court. I found their names to be genius. You'll figure it out too when you read it. 

Our MC Beau a thief gets himself trapped in a cursed castle after barley escaping capture from his previous escapades with a team who abandons him after the drawbridge crumbles while they make their getaway. 

Sadly the castle is at the end of its curse life cycle and our Bell (Beau) is completely unaware. No one knows how they were drawn into the castle and there's a lot of mistrust. 

Can a thief save a Kingdom? You'll have to read to find out if this is a happily ever after or not! 

4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐