“While I really liked the concept of this book and the way the author did the Beauty and the Beast retelling, I didn’t find enough in the story to draw me in and for me to connect to.”
~ Under the Covers
I’ve picked up this book and put it down so many times. There’s so many good reviews for it out there but I just had a gut feeling that it wasn’t going to be my thing. Sometimes, I should listen to my gut.
This is a Beauty and the Beast retelling and I think a really good one at that in terms of the plot and how the author wove the elements of the original into her own story. Yeva, Beauty, is the main protagonist of this story. The daughter of an aristocrat who has lost his fortune and their family is has to move back to live in the cabin he has in the woods. Yeva may be the only one that’s happy about this because she loves the magic of the forest and the hunt. All the stories her father used to tell her and she gets to experience them now. When her father goes missing and she goes looking for him, she’s captured by the Beast her father had been hunting.
While I really liked the concept of this book and the way the author did the Beauty and the Beast retelling, I didn’t find enough in the story to draw me in and for me to connect to. I wanted to like Yeva, and it’s not that I didn’t like her, I was just indifferent. And the pacing…. it was slow. SLLLOOOOOOOOWWWWWW. Maybe that’s a bit unfair because there were short bursts that would catch my attention and draw me in a bit more into what was happening but overall this story is very slow paced and it never reaches a point where there’s a lot happening. Even the ending felt a tad anticlimactic for me.
The writing however is quite beautiful, though, and ultimately I think that’s what kept me reading on. Some parts are almost poetic and I think the author does a great job at helping you visualize what’s going on in this book. The setting is magical with a little edge because you’re never really sure where the danger lies or how far it will go. Probably we could’ve gone a bit farther than where the author pushed this story to.
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[about-author author=”Meagan Spooner”]
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Bummer. I adore beauty and the beast, and have enjoyed many of the retellings.
I loved this story. For me I felt that the slower pace matched the story being told and also the ending was in keeping with the pace as well. I felt that the author was keeping to a more realistic version of the Beauty and the Beast and tying it to the folk tale of the Firebird which I think is russian in origin.
Great review Francesca! I have this on my gr list. I love any retelling of beauty and the beast its my fave fairytale. I will still give it a try because you said the writing was good. Shared on all my socials!
Bummer. I adore beauty and the beast, and have enjoyed many of the retellings.
I loved this story. For me I felt that the slower pace matched the story being told and also the ending was in keeping with the pace as well. I felt that the author was keeping to a more realistic version of the Beauty and the Beast and tying it to the folk tale of the Firebird which I think is russian in origin.
Great review Francesca! I have this on my gr list. I love any retelling of beauty and the beast its my fave fairytale. I will still give it a try because you said the writing was good. Shared on all my socials!