Beauty’s life is the stuff of fairy tales. The youngest in her family, Beauty isn’t trying to catch Stephan’s eye. He is the lord baron’s heir, well above her family’s modest station, but when he kisses her hand at a party, Beauty is swept away by his charm, his wit, and his passionate declarations of love.
Hearts can be untamable creatures, especially when touched by the fires of first love, and Beauty doesn’t see the truth of Stephan’s intentions until it is too late. Until he stops asking for Beauty’s love—and simply takes it from her one night despite her refusal.
Beauty locks away the secret of what happened to her, and when her father emerges from the enchanted forest with a stolen rose in his hand and the tale of a vicious beast on his breath, Beauty seizes the chance to run as far from Stephan as possible.
She has some experience with beasts, after all. Certainly the one in the forest couldn’t be any worse than the one she’s already encountered.
Breaking the Beast’s curse might be the key to discovering her own path to healing—and finding the courage to allow herself to feel reborn.
First things first; this is similar to Robin McKinley's Beauty, but only in the sense that they are both retelling the same base story. These versions both go back to the very original, where Beauty has a brother and two sisters, rather than the more common, Disney inspired version where it's just her. Although, in this one like in Disney, she does have a loathsome suiter...
Also, how gorgeous is that cover? (If a little inaccurate, because in the book she refuses all the flouncy dresses she's offered.)
This is a quick read, moving nicely along without dragging anywhere. Bearing in mind that I was reading an ARC, some of the transistions between what was happening now and Beauty's memories of what happened then were a little abrupt, but not awfully so. Likewise, there was a problem with my ARC that meant I have to have it on the smallest possible font size on my tablet or else it skipped and repeated pages, which made it hard but not impossible to read.
I loved the tone; it has the magic of the best fairytales. Likewise, I loved the gradual thawing of the relationship between Beauty and her Beast, and how silly they occasionally got with each other. It made it seem like the relationship was actually possible instead of just being a 'we got thrown together' thing like some are.
If you like a gentle, oldfashioned fairytale (that does have some darkness, although it's not explicitly described) this is the one for you. Definitely give it a read.
(Although I would love to know what happened to the older sister in the end!)
Beauty Reborn publishes on the 9th May, 2023. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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