Princess Sophia has helped her twin sister Lily save the duchy of Marin. But now Sophie faces an even greater threat when she sets out to free the cursed kingdom of Palinar from its beastly prince. Alone, and with danger on every side, Sophie must navigate a magical castle and its even more mysterious master to discover the secret to breaking the curse. Except the more time she spends with Prince … with Prince Dominic, the more she starts to question who exactly she’s supposed to be saving. With time running out for the trapped inhabitants, and the reappearance of an old enemy, Sophie may have to choose between saving the kingdom and following her heart.
In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast, Beauty will have to use all of her strength and intelligence if she is to outwit her enemies, break a curse and find true love.
If you enjoy clean romance, adventure and intrigue, then try the books in the Beyond the Four Kingdoms series now! These interconnected fairy tale retellings each feature a different princess who has to fight for her happily ever after.
Beyond the Four Kingdoms reading order:
- A Dance of Silver and Shadow: A Retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses
- A Tale of Beauty and Beast: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast
- A Crown of Snow and Ice: A Retelling of The Snow Queen
- A Dream of Ebony and White: A Retelling of Snow White
And coming in 2019
more
This retelling of Beauty and the Beast may just be my favorite of all time. It was absolutely amazing. Melanie Cellier’s writing is just wonderful.
It really gripped me making it pretty much impossible to put down.
The characters are awesome, of course, and the villains are horrible.
I love how Melanie Cellier told this tale, adding things to make it her own but also kept it true to what we love about B&B.
I loved it and it went on my favorites! Clean and beautiful.
I’m a sucker for fairy tale retellings as a general rule. I know they’re a fad at the moment, and I already know what’s going to happen, but I don’t care. I love them anyway. I did try the first book in this series (a retelling of the dancing princesses), but rolled my eyes at the concept of a Princess Tourney and gave up. The only reason I read this one was because they were both free on Kindle Unlimited. While this book referenced events that occurred in Book 1 quite a bit, I could piece together enough and still got far enough along to get hooked.
Sophie, apparently the winner of the Princess Tourney in book 1, goes to the land of Palinar to collect her “prize”: the cursed Prince Dominic, aka The Beast. A few twists rendered this retelling different from the Disney version, aside from different names of the characters. First, Sophie has an identical twin sister, Lily, whom I gather was the lead character in Book 1. The two of them share a mind connection that enables them to hear one another’s thoughts. Second, the curse on the castle servants doesn’t render them live inanimate objects, but rather shifts them sideways into a new dimension, which I thought was clever. But Sophie’s connection with Lily enables her to hear the servants speak as well. Also, the Beast’s curse renders him unable to speak, but because Sophie can hear the servants speak in her mind, she can hear the Beast in the same way.
Other than that, the story plays out very much like the original. I like Sophie’s character–she’s got spirit without being brash, and I think her relationship with the Beast is believable. One issue I always had with the original story was the idea that the Beast isn’t just an ugly man. He’s actually an animal, yet she falls in love with him. Hard to suspend my disbelief on that one. This story sort of straddled the line there–she calls him Beast, and he’s big and has a misshapen jaw, yet she can see his pallor and things like that, which implies at least he has skin. She also comments that despite the curse, at times he looks rather handsome, which I assume implies that he looks human to some extent too. The climactic scenes were well paced and mostly well done, with the exception of one suuuuper cheesy line.
But I do plan to read on in the series–or all of her series really, since apparently they’re mostly fairy tale retellings in one world or another!
Loved this story! Clean! Great retelling!
I have loved all Melanie Cellier’s ‘Four Kingdom’ and ‘Beyond the Four Kingdom’ stories. I always eagerly await the next one.
Consistently tells a wonderful tale.
Personally the beauty and the beast story is one of my all time favorites and I tend to search out the retellings and remakes to see how else the story could go, and this one did not disappoint!
Greatly enjoyed the idea of the curse and how it effected those around “the beast” and appreciated that the author made parallels to the original story while keeping it their own. Wonderful characters, highly engaging and entertaining story, and I cant wait to read more of the series!!
I can’t resist a good Beauty and the Beast book. I enjoyed this different take on the story. Worth the read!
Different take on a classic tale
This entire series is a must read, if you love classic fairytales you will love these versions.
This was a really fun BatB retelling! I always love the invisible servant troupe, but this story takes it up a notch by letting our heroine still be able to hear the other occupants of the castle with her godmother christening gift. Sophie and Lily’s twin bond added some fun twists. You can tell that Melanie Cellier is an aficionado of fairy tales because she made all those loving little allusions dorks like me look for in a retelling! I will be back for more!