Of Beast and Beauty

The “hero” was flat-out physically abusive to the “heroine”, which was not only never addressed outside of a fairly half-assed apology, but the “heroine” appeared not to be bothered by. Everyone seemed solidly nonchalantly unbothered by the fact that he – on several different occasions – cut her with a dagger, slammed her up against several different surfaces, and did not give a rat’s ass about it until he decided she was hot enough for him (and she didn’t hold his “big secret” against him), at which point he half-assedly apologized and all was once again well. No, thank you.

Of Beast and Beauty: A Beauty and the Beast Retelling (Daughters of Eville Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Chanda Hahn (Author)

If you can get passed the false advertising of this being a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, this is a wonderful magical romance.
Rosalie finds herself sent to marry a prince who wants nothing to do with her. The prince wanted to marry another woman, on the same day Rosalie was sent by her mother to cash in a contract her mother made with the prince’s father.
The story is told through Rosalie’s eyes.
The plot twists and turns, keeping the true beasts in the story hidden.
Unfortunately, this misses the entire point of Beauty and the Beast, that Beauty saves the Beast, and the story ends. This is not how the story ends. Rather than being an empowering of Rosalie, like Belle, she falls into the trap of all the other fairy tales out there where the princess must be saved by the Prince. That the prince must see beyond her issues and love her, rather than opposite.
So, if we remove the retelling piece, it’s a lovely magical romance.
3 stars out of 5
https://www.amazon.com/Beast-Beauty-Daughters-Eville-ebook/dp/B07QSDT9KP

I am so uncertain of how to rate this book. Had I only been up to three quarters through this book it would have been 5 stars hands down. That last quarter of the book though, that really messed up the whole of the book.

Let me start of by saying that for a retelling I’m absolutely blown away by its plot and originality. I fell in love with Rosalie pretty much from the start the way the story was built with the whole world against her. Through it all though she came out strong, independent and even charmingly wicked at times. She was such a complex character that it was very easy to feel and relate to her even when she did things that were kind of messed up. The enemies to lover theme between her and Xander were spot on and fit very well in the plot, her being married off to a prince who had grown up believing anything with magic was evil. Not only that, but her replacing the original bride to be spun some real heat, hatred and drama between them and the cruelty and unfairness of his treatment towards her hit me right in the heart. Just like a really good enemies to lovers drama should.

That being said, I am so saddened by how the last quarter of the book turned out. I mean no offense to the author but it almost felt like it was written by someone else. Up to that point the writing had been beautiful, it had been deep and it had been clever. However, as soon as Xander’s heart truly thawed for Rosalie the story became such a rushed mess. It was like the author knew how to write a good story about enemies, but had no experience on how to write about lovers because it went from zero to one hundred right then and there. As soon as they admitted their feelings the characters lost all that amazing depth they previously had and Xander even became a whole different person from what was previously built up. Suddenly he had no reservations, no fear of magic and became sickeningly sweet and cheesy. It became so unrealistic due to no development or characterization leading naturally to this. It was literally one page he was the Xander we knew and the next this polar opposite carbon copy.

That’s not all though. The book had been amazingly clever on sneaking in twists and secrets up until that point that flowed naturally with the story. But after that threshold was passed revelations after revelations and twists after twists were pumped out and thrown into the story haphazardly and most not fitting well at all with what was going on. It even became kind of ridiculous some of the stuff almost to the point of me rolling my eyes, like Rosalie dying from starvation one second and then being able to run around and fight the next. The worst though, being the evil villain monologues and the villains being villains and doing villainy things “just because”. That only belong in children’s fairy tales, and while this is a retelling of Beauty and the beast the start of the story had set a completely other tone that this fairy tale aspect just felt forced and out of place.

The ending of this story left me so unsatisfied. I had so wanted Xander to take accountability and own up to the things he had said and done to her. All that mess above removed any chance of that ever happening and although I liked the reunion and the happily ever after, the book left me bereft. Hopefully the upcoming books will save this one if I decide to continue reading.

Excellent summer read

So imaginative. A new perspective on an old tale with quircky additions to deepen the story line. I have fallen in love with this series and this author.

This book was wonderful from start to finish. It was making me mad at some parts but I would recommend this to anyone and everyone!

Really enjoyed this story and hope to read more of this series. These are fairytale retellings…of a sort. You were left wondering who exactly was the true beast.

Great read!

Superb breathtaking story of complete love!

Just loved the imaginative writing. It really sustained my interest.

I will read any beauty and the beast retelling that passes under my nose. This one was pretty good, a different kind of twist than you usually see with the heroine being seen as dangerous and the “beast” mystery throughout most of the book. The heroine was likeable, I definitely rooted for her. The hero/love interest on the other hand wasn’t all that likeable, but it’s beauty and the best, you expect it to be enemies-to-lovers. Still, I don’t think the hero character really redeemed himself enough by the end to be really crush worthy.
These are all CLEAN, PG13 romances, be aware.
This book sets up a new series of 7 (?) books, 3 of which have been released at the time I’m writing this (Nov. 2020). I’ve read the second and third (cinderella and the little mermaid retellings) and they weren’t quite as good as this first book. But if you enjoy fairy tale retellings like I do, they’re worth reading, and the author pretty much pulls off the elements of mystery throughout (and there’s always a mystery backstory of each of the main heroines which gets revealed through the story). The main heroines are all sisters, and you see a bit of each of the others sisters throughout the series. The overarching villain (who you meet in this first book) is kind of generic, just a dude who wants power and does evil magic and kills a bunch of people to get it, nothing new there.
(This isn’t really a spoiler, it’s a fairy tale retelling so you know it’s going to be pretty much happily ever after and the two mains fall in love, but if you’re really picky about spoilers, don’t read further)
One thing I do think is kind of odd is that the author has ended the first three books after the “finale” plot event by having there be some misunderstanding that makes the heroine kind of run off to do her own thing, not intending to be with the hero (despite the fact that she loves him), only to be tracked down again by the hero who professes his love one more time and THEN it’s happily ever after.
Just seems like an unnecessary extra chapter fueled by a pretty dumb misunderstanding that really only proves how little the hero and heroine actually understand each other. But whatever, overall the books are still decent and I’ll read the fourth one when it comes out.