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mlglenn 's review for:
Beastly Beauty
by Jennifer Donnelly
Thank you to Jennifer Connelly, NetGalley, and Scholastic Press for an ARC of Beastly Beauty. All opinions are my own.
I was really excited for this one - as a big time Beauty and the Beast girlie, I was hype to read a gender-bent version with the typically masculine Beast role played by the FMC. Unfortunately, I don’t think the book really held up.
While the idea of the ladies of Arabella’s court being her emotions was clever, the chaotic presence of all of them went on too long without being explained. By the time the explanation came, I was too annoyed with their inexplicable role in the story and tired of hearing about them.
The multiple third person POVs also confused me a *lot*. I would be spending the first few lines trying to figure out who was speaking instead of engaging with the content.
My last big issue is that I think the “love” between Arabella and Beau came out of nowhere. They spent little to no time together, and suddenly were exchanging “I love you’s”? At least Belle/Beauty in the original story actually had some quality time with the Beast before falling in love.
The last 7% of the book redeemed a lot of the failings of the previous 93%, moving it from a 2 star to a 3.
I was really excited for this one - as a big time Beauty and the Beast girlie, I was hype to read a gender-bent version with the typically masculine Beast role played by the FMC. Unfortunately, I don’t think the book really held up.
While the idea of the ladies of Arabella’s court being her emotions was clever, the chaotic presence of all of them went on too long without being explained. By the time the explanation came, I was too annoyed with their inexplicable role in the story and tired of hearing about them.
The multiple third person POVs also confused me a *lot*. I would be spending the first few lines trying to figure out who was speaking instead of engaging with the content.
My last big issue is that I think the “love” between Arabella and Beau came out of nowhere. They spent little to no time together, and suddenly were exchanging “I love you’s”? At least Belle/Beauty in the original story actually had some quality time with the Beast before falling in love.
The last 7% of the book redeemed a lot of the failings of the previous 93%, moving it from a 2 star to a 3.