-ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review-

So as soon as I saw in the description ‘A Near Future Retelling of Beauty and the Beast’ I was sold. Beauty and the Best being my favourite Disney film I was excited to start reading this!

This retelling takes place in a very Sci-Fi modern era including..wait for it… Robots!

Alainn Murphy the daughter of Connor Murphy is desperate to keep her father out of jail however her brother Colby just doesn’t seem all that bothered. Her father is an inventor who has been working on Rose, a robot who is human like and identical to Alainn for billionaire Lorccan. Rose isn’t ready in time to be sent to Lorccan so Rose comes up with a plan for Alainn to take her place but not all is as it seems.

I won’t say much more as it will just spoil the story line and give too much away.

I personally really enjoyed this, it has an interesting story line and the relationships between the characters. Very different from your average fairytale story!

With Ensnared we dive into the world of a new retold fairytale, this time with the story of Beauty and the Beast! The book provides more than one expects and moves the plot into an unspecified future in which artificial intelligence and robots belong to everyday life. Nevertheless, the scenery is not too far away and carries a touch of old-fashioned steampunk with squeaking screws and dripping oil jugs.

The Beauty in Ensnared is embodied by Alainn, the daughter of a slightly shrewd inventor. It's a little hard to get warm with her character, as she's too often used as a games ball, while she's not stupid. She could do better and yet she somehow decides not to. But she has such a crisp sense of humor. Both Alainn's father and her brother Colby belong to the kind of "crazy professor". They are so deeply sunken into their researches that they do not seem to be aware of their environment, and seem to be cold-hearted and selfish at the outset. The domestic work remains to Alainn alone and the care for her father finally leads her to send herself voluntarily as a substitute for the robot Rose in Lorccan's tower. Neither father nor brother protest in any way that Alainn wants to stand up for the mistakes of her father.

In addition to the already known elements of the original story, the author continues to add a bitter note to Ensnared. She happily removes the often criticized Stockholm syndrome of "Belle" and instead tells the story of two people, each one for himself, and ultimately both together, caught in their respective past and present. The characters have all suffered some form of mental or physical injury, many of whom have been struggling against their trauma for years. From my point of view, it has caught Lorccan, the beast, the worst. Rose 76GF, he had commissioned to learn how to talk to and deal with people, because he has led his life so far without human contact, trapped in his tower. The reasons are incredibly sad because they are often seen less dramatically than other things, but they bear witness to such a deep and profound breach of trust that I could not help feeling a certain protector's instinct. Anyway, there are many innovative ideas and changes to the template in Ensnared, but there are also things that felt morally wrong. The relationship between Lorccan and Alainn is at the same time sweet and sad, but at certain stages of development it is also just reprehensible when it comes to Alainn's behavior.

It was partly difficult to believe that one can mistake a person for a robot. Looking from far away perhaps possible, but as in the fairytale things between Lorccan and Alainn evolve over time to an emotional as well as physical closeness. At this point I had problems to believe that Lorccan would still mistake Alainn for a robot. It may be argued that Lorccan has no possibility of comparison because, apart from his parents, he has never actually faced a real person. Nevertheless, at some point one must compel oneself to close both eyes. There is also a little warning about the reading age: there are quite flowery sex scenes, which are tastefully implemented, but still do not belong in a children's hand.

Since I received this book in February and it’s not due before December, I hope that some deficiencies will be eradicated until release date. Because there are unnecessary length, narrative perspectives of marginal figures which added no value to the story. Here and there transitions felt brittle or slow paced and some questions stay unanswered. But there is so much potential in this young draft that it is already a moving story with unexpected turns. Besides, the whole part with Roses A.I. is creepy as hell when you are already kind of afraid of robots…

Conclusion: In the present version, Ensnared still has a few deficits, nevertheless I read it in less then two days. The scenario is fun, and the truths, which are gradually drawn out, add a pinch of grief that makes a story bittersweet. If you like fairytales, robots and artificial intelligence, you can’t make anything wrong with Ensnared and occasionally get a good laugh. So go on and read this book!

This book is a Beauty and the Beast retelling…. ish... Kind of reminded me of Unrooted and Crimson Bound. *shrug* WHAT IS WITH THESE “BEASTS” AND THEIR DAMN TOWERS?!
I actually liked this ”pre-dystopian/pre-apocalyptic” vibe-ish feel it had going on. The characters are exactly how I think they should have been considering the other issues I’ve had with this book. The characters growth was set at a decent pace and the the MC’s, though both had some past issues, relationship worked with that growth. Though I do feel as if once they went past that certain line of no return, it all seemed rushed. If you know what I mean.

*wiggles eyebrows*

I do love Rosebud. I think she has to be one of my favorite characters (until that one part) and Blue. Those are my babies.

This was a very well done book and very thought out, scientific wise. Though I did have some issues with the beginning of the story as it felt like there were about 1/4 of the book missing at the beginning. I would've liked to have seen how they got to the point of Alainn driving up to Mr. Garbhan's house. That and more world building. I would have liked to see how they came about needing the robots and how Alainn's father was making a more humanoid one compared to the rest of the world’s population of robots.
description

What did Alainn’s dad do that was so bad for him to be sent to jail? (Was it the gambling or what?!) What about the barely mentioned ‘fraud’ at the beginning of the book? Where did all these robots come from? Why is her dad the only one to make the most human robot the world has ever seen?

Other than that, this was a great book. =)

<b>L I K E S</b>

• <b>The robots and AI were super cool and creepy</b>! One of my favorite aspects of the story, because I'm all here for robots rewiring their ethical coding and destroying the world! I immensely enjoyed seeing the different robots and advanced technology in the story, especially since it's totally legit that robots could take over the world. It was suuuper creepy that Rose looked and talked like Alainn, it really made my skin crawl on what her father was working. I think it's a step too far to have robots that can pass as humans and especially dangerous if robots are smarter than humans.

• <b>The retelling aspect was super well done and actually quite imaginative</b>! I loved seeing the story in this specific setting with robots and AI, because it added much to the story and made it unique. I loved the different plots that were added to the love story and felt like this was one of the novel's greatest strength. As for a retelling the premise and storyline was immensely original and fun. I don't read a lot of retellings, but nothing is better than a retelling that uses its basis and makes it interesting instead of just repeating everything.

• <b>I quite liked the romance, it had lots of chemistry</b> and that little forbidden (human - “robot”) factor that made it interesting and daunting. I wasn't 100% sure about the romance, as seen in my Dislikes but it did work for me at times and definitely wasn't insta love which I quite liked. The buildup was good and the chemistry definitely there, even though some I had problems with some of Lorrcan's actions concerning Alainn.

• <b>The first half of the story was really good and kept me hooked</b>!! I have to say that the first half of the story was way better than the second half, because we had a romantic buildup here that I really enjoyed and in general I could follow the story. The first half definitely was 4 stars, but it went downhill for me the moment Lorrcan's marriage proposals started and the entire drama started.

• <b>Everyone had a backstory and we got to see the MC's motives and background story</b>, so that it felt like she was a real character with friends, a family and interests, which I greatly appreciate, because it made her realistic and not totally demoted to a simple love interest. Sometimes it was a bit too much to give her friends own POV's but overall she definitely was a defined complex character that had a life outsider her romance.

• <b>I really liked the robot monkeys</b>, I've got to say this! They were super cute and I actually did not expect robots that were looking like animals. The monkeys also were very smart, could write and read, but not speak.

<b>D I S L I K E S</b>

• <b>The worldbuilding really lacked</b>. I honestly didn't know how the society became what it is at the time, there was no backstory on how everything with the robots developed. I was quite disappointed with that particular aspect, because the author could have definitely given the world more depth and provide a history and background story. The few details weren't enough to paint a good, complex picture of the world the novel was set in.

• <b>While I mostly enjoyed the romance, it's not unproblematic</b>. I dislikes Lorccan's constant marriage proposals to Alainn, because he kept pushing and pushing her when she clearly needed some time! By constantly applying pressure to her and asking her more than 10 times he was acting pretty toxic and to the point where he was waiting for her to break and be forced into this marriage. This was super problematic and creepy to say the least. He simply didn't accept a No and disrespected her own freedom. Not to mention he kept pushing when she was in the midst of having a panic attack, which is not okay. Previously he sometimes also was pretty petty and demanding, which I didn't like. In the end he also was ready to let someone die, because he thought that Alainn was dead which was cold-blooded and cruel.

• <b>There were some pretty unnecessary POV's e.g. her ski-mates, like their chapters added nothing to the story</b>. I get that the author wanted to show Alainns like outside the tower but that did not justify adding in chapters that were not tied in with the main plot. I mostly skimmed those chapters because they had no relevance and felt pretty random. I understood including POV's of her father and brother but anything else was a bit too much.

• <b>The plot went downhill in the second half real fast</b>. There was a lot happening, don't get me wrong, but I lost interest in the story, mainly because there was too much Drama. Honestly the entire Shelby – Alainn drama tired me and the plot dragged so so much, even though it was supposed to lead up to the grand finale. It all started with the marriage proposals that Lorrcan constantly made and the way he wouldn't take no for an answer. Than there was even more drama and instead of getting to the end there were even more scenes and after a while I was hoping to finally get to the finale.

• <b>Lorrcan's storyline is never really resolved</b>. We a get a glimpse behind the curtain, but never really know what exactly caused all his agony and how this is restored. There are too much things left in the open and his storyline didn't feel very well thought out.

• <b>I personally wasn't a fan of how everyone in her family + Rose treated her</b>. It was honestly so painful to watch them go over her all the time and act like she was super dumb. It sends a pretty bad message to anyone who isn't a super genius like her father or brother.

<b>IN CONCLUSION</b>: This was a great imaginative sci-fi retelling of Beauty and the Beast with different aspects added in. However, the worldbuilding was too flat and the romance was enjoyable but also problematic at times. The plot was great in the first half, but went down in the second half.

Rants, Raves and General Thoughts

Initial thoughts: Great retelling idea (especially given the renewed love for Beauty and the Beast) and thank god it's not a retelling of Alice in Wonderland because aren't we all sick of those yet? Plus the cover is GORGEOUS.

After looking at the reviews on Goodreads: Maybe I made a mistake with this book, oh dear.

I'll admit, looking at the reviews caused me to look at this book with an unfortunate biased at first. I thought I was going to DNR this book, especially as I was concerned it might take a 50 Shades of Grey fake BDSM turn. Thankfully, it doesn't. The "Beauty" and "Beast" are loose terms, and thankfully the author doesn't describe Alainn's beauty in great depth. In fact....I don't know if Alainn is given much of a physical description. But it works well.

This is a fairly light read that could do with another edit or two (particularly in the beginning.) The story is a little predictable in some manner — who the bad guy is going to be at least, but as for the reasoning, it was a shock for me. I feel Alainn and Lorrcan's back story could have more punch — there's a lot of hinting at bad, but the actual background stories happen fairly late in the book. At one point "Mrs. Miller" is interviewed for Alainn's character, but I had no connection at to who she was or why it was important.

I loved the monkeys and want a robot cleaning monkey.

The book could use some more world building — why are all the jobs done by robots? How does anyone make money? And this would help build up some of my issues with the book. Also more character building of her father and brother — I didn't understand the latter's personality until 75% of the way into the book.

I found the romance believable, and while Lorccan is dealing with some serious anxiety and phobias and can we please get him a damn therapist, he didn't seem to be a controlling asshole. I mean, he's fucked up and needs some help asap. But he's also not the one keeping Alainn/Rose/Jade in the house.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed it, and it's a light quick read. I hope the final has more world building, allowing for the plot to breathe more.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Rita Stradling for sending me an ARC copy in return for an unbiased review.

This is a sci fi meets Beauty and the Beast story. There are several aspects of this story i liked. It is very similar to I,Robot by Isaac Asimov in the respect that Artificial Intelligence is the common theme.
An AI robot is developed that has ethical limitations, but through it's own personal advancement is able to reprogramme itself to a point where it can manipulate people into doing what it belives is the right course of action.
The theme of the story is that a robot is built by a gambler in the image of his daughter, Alainn. The robot Rose 76GF, manipulates Alainn into going to stay with Lorcann, a mega rich buisnessman, under the premiss that Rose76GF will facilitate Alainn's release after two weeks. Only problem being that Alainn has to pretend that she is Rose 76GF. It is soon obvious that things are not quite going according to plan and we are then taken through the fear that computers will one day become programmers of people rather than th other way round.
As the story progresses more is learnt of Alainn's childhood trauma, this is as a result of her fathers gambling problems. She is the odd one out in her family, as both her brother and father are computer programmers, whereas Alaiin is not but loves the freedom of the mountains. She has her own demons to deal with from her past. This is also true of Lorcann, but his demons are alot more severe. His childhood was traumatic due to an overbearing mother. He has never been outside in his life. He lives in a hermitcally sealed tower, completely germ free, with a paranoia that is extreme as far as touching or being in the same vacinity as something that could be potentially a contaminate liability.
This story flows along quite nicely, there is nothing that is complicated in the terminology, the basic ideas seem to work quite well and i did enjoy the story. It covers a few aspects that i found interesting, such as the possibility of automatons becomming so advanced that they become the dominant race. Also the psychology of Lorcann because of his inability to interact with other people due to his looking different and because of his possibily of catching something due to his poor immune system.

I read early reviews about Ensnared, and there were quite a few negative reviews. But, I read it in one night. Sure, there are some plotting issues and structure errors, but I thought the story itself was fabulous. I'm a "Beauty and the Beast" retelling fan and this did not disappoint. I liked how the romance was slow to develop and did not consume the entire storyline. Overall, very enjoyable read for those who love B&tB, robots, and romance.

I was excited to be one of the first to read and review Ensnared, and I was squealing as a result. Beauty and the Beast mixed with AI/robots science fiction? Yes puh-lease! The start of the book was great and I was really getting into the story--Rita has a style that is engaging and easy to digest, but at the same time it isn't all-tell-no-show and your mind is able to delve into and experience this world

...Then the discomfort came. Alainn is convinced by the AI Rose that she must takes Rose's place at Lorccan's while Rose created a new AI model that would take Alainn's place once it was completed. It was a believable scenario...up until the time frame Rose told Alainn it would take to swap her for the new model ended, and Alainn was STILL pretending to be a robot and not confessing to the deception and that she was a human with human needs. At that point, I was irritated by Alainn playing the fool AND for her family having done nothing and taking Rose's word that she had it under control, even though the reason they didn't want to hand her over to complete the agreement in the first place BECAUSE HER MORAL CODE WAS CORRUPT AND REWRITING ITSELF. It is stated numerous times how brilliant and intelligent Alainn's brother and father are, so why is this such a glaringly huge plot hole, and why did it take them so long to realize Rose was corrupt? That was my first huge problem. Also, Rosebud refusing to help Alainn escape, and Alain was going to continue playing along with the deception even though the first AI model (Rosebud) and the second AI model (Rose) created by her father were not busting her out of Lorccan's tower and were actually holding her hostage--GAH.

Next it was how suddenly smutty the book became. It had been doing so well, with this great futuristic sci-fi twisting of the Beauty and the Beast tale, which I was digging to the extreme. (Except for the continuing to pretend to be a robot crud.) What was happening between Alainn and Lorccan was innocent and beautiful to me; it was a relationship born from a great deception, yes, but at the same time Alainn could have confessed to the deception and righted it once she realized the extent of her feelings for Lorccan. It could have been salvaged, I believe that wholeheartedly. However, the story instead took the route of taking a disfigured man and a woman with a dark secret, both sexually innocent and never having experienced passion or lust before, and suddenly having the attraction between go from a mild 3/10 to a raving 10/10. For several days in a row it sounds like they have crazy sex fests in every room and on every surface possible. I felt uncomfortable, like I was reading Fifty Shades of Grey (not my kind of thing at all) minus the BDSM and plus AI robotics, but the lack of comfort was due to disjuncture of this smutty section in comparison to the beginning and the end. And it was terribly cliche--she longed for him, she felt unhappy away from him, she needed him, he made her feel things she had never felt before...so on and so on. This book can easily be parceled into thirds, the first and last third being more than decent and enjoyable, and the middle third being a strange and disconcerting mess.

On the flip side, when this book was good, it was freaking awesome. The story line of Alainn's terrible secret and how it affected her actions was great; the father's gambling addiction ruining his relationships and being the original cause of why everything goes wrong; the brother's investment in the AI robots because of what they could provide him for his degree studies; Lorccan's depressing history with his family (this could have used some elaborating, but the scenes included were fantastic); the tension between Lorccan and Alainn after their feelings developed and Shelly was a threat (or so Alainn assumed); the similarities between Lorccan and Shelly for them to even have connected in such a way for them to be deeply connected friends; the AI's guile and treachery; the bigger involvement of AI being tried as a human at the head, and the difficulty to determine at what point is an AI able to be held responsible for its actions and thinking. In all of the above listed ideas pulsing within Ensnared, these were brilliant and well wrought. They were why I finished reading the book when I became grossed out in the middle by the sudden smut that was out of place. This story had so much potential, and it met that potential about two-thirds of the way (a third down because of the smut, honestly).

I give it 3.5/5 stars, rounded down because of how much I didn't like the middle smut.

I liked this book more than I thought I would. When I saw it was a retelling, I had kind of figured out it was going to be like all the other "Beauty and the Beast" style books I've read. But this one had enough of it's own plot that I was really interested in finding out the ending. I liked the characters a lot, and I would say the only major issue I have with it is how fast the relationship between Lor and Alainn went from basically hating each other, to having sex all the time. I wanted to see more of their relationship grow as Lor leans to be near humans. I think it would have been interesting to see Alainn trying to teach him what it really means to be and interact with humans, as he doesn't really have much experience with it. Other than that, this was a fun read, and I will probably wait until December and then get a copy of the actual book to read it once it's been finished and published.

I received an e-ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review. This beauty and the beast retelling was unlike any other. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and couldn't wait to see what would happen to them. Allain was a fun and honest chracter that had a pretty horrible family life. The way Lorrcan received his scars was mentioned briefly and I found the reality horrible!

A few cons for me were:
One character believed the other to be a robot yet engages in a romance. Again this was briefly explained, but I feel more information would be a plus.

The story fell flat at times and I was getting bored of all of Roses schemes at the end.

Although there were a few issues I fee, like this was well worth the read and enjoyed the romance aspect of it.

I love Beauty and the Beast retellings. Honestly, my hopes for this book really weren't that high, I don't particularly like books about robots, but this book has completely changed my mind. I absolutely loved it. I felt such a deep connection with the characters and the plot was just so exciting. I think this story has done the classic fairy tale justice. I already want to read it again. I can't wait to read other books by this author.

I enjoyed the dialogue of the book and the slow romance between Alainn and Lorrcan, however the book was really lacking in world building.

Actual rating 3.5.

I enjoyed this book and thought it was pretty good but unfortunately not better than that. One thing I loved is that it's very clearly a Beauty and the Beast retelling. It's not one of those where you have to fight to see the similarities and I appreciated that a lot.

I liked Alainn and Lor, I thought they were both fairly well fleshed out although we never do explicitly find out what Lor's nightmares are about, even though I can give it a pretty good guess . Alainn was very likeable, she was determined but thought everything through before she took a risk and I appreciated that the romance was relatively slow burning, although I'm not convinced it was completely believable.

Lor seemed like a good guy who wanted to get better (he was severely agoraphobic and germphobic) and was willing to put himself in difficult situations to do so. I understand how he fell in love with Alainn/Rose/Jade much more than the other way round.

I found that there were significant problems with pacing within this book, I didn't realise how long Alainn had been with Lor until her brother mentioned it had been several months. This just wasn't clear enough for me, I felt that it had only been a couple of weeks and up to this point I was annoyed at how quickly the two had fallen for each other. If the passing of time had been more explicit, I would have been more on board with the romance from when it started.

There were several cringey sex scenes, I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of sex in books but the way some of it was phrased here was just silly. It tried to be overtly sexy without being explicit and the phrase (ish I can't remember the exact quote) 'he pulled me on to his erection' is in no way attractive. I do think that the excitement of sex and a new relationship was captured pretty well though. Especially when they were working together and all Alainn could think about was the next time they'd sleep together.

Also, the writing style was a bit weird. One minute it felt really juvenile, with lots of repetition of specific phrases, 'the smug bastard' being one of them, and the next switching to technical and much more complicated language. I felt that sometimes the style just didn't work as it didn't gel together very well.

Another issue for me is that I feel that the book could have been around 50-100 pages shorter. I don't think the story arc with the monkey robots was necessary at all (although they were pretty cute) and the whole skiing thing could also have been removed. Also the back story with Alainn's best friend seemed totally irrelevant, it should have been focused on more or removed entirely in my opinion as it added almost nothing to the plot.

Overall I really did enjoy this, the characters were all well done (Rose and Rosette were so perfectly horrible too) but there were too many problems for me to give more than a 3.5.

The buzz for this book couldn't happen at a better time! With the upcoming live action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, readers will be drawn to the "tale as old as time" offered by Rita Sadling's book... as they should be!

To begin: be aware that the audience for this book is definitely not children. I highly recommend adhering to the 18+ warning as the scenes get quite graphic. I would not put this in a YA section or in a high school library.

This book has been a wild ride from the first few chapters onwards! From the blurb, this story merely seems to be Beauty and the Beast retold as a sci-fi, but the blurb promotes the similarities a bit more than what the book actually is. Therefore, the retelling wasn't overwhelming as it could have been; there were just enough inspiration to recognize the plotline.

While sci-fi stories never really captured my attention, this kind of world-building kept me on my toes. The AI robots throughout the story were realistic to the point of being uncanny, and I would occasionally get goose bumps throughout my reading. Gone are the friendly Lumière and Big Ben, to be replaced by a robot named Rosebud, who is Alainn's sole ally for a while. The tower is dark and the walls are made entirely of screens that change at Rosebud or Lorcann's mere command. As terrifying as it is, it's also pretty cool and it made me think about where we will be in several years, technology-wise.

While the primary characters were great, the secondary characters were borderline unecessary. This story could have comfortably sustained itself with Alainn, Lorcann, and the AI robots... perhaps with the addition of two or three supporting characters. Unfortunately, characters like Greg, Karen, and Cara were irrelevant, in my opinion.

Nonetheless, I would recommend this book to an adult audience who want to read a modernized, sci-fi romance inspired by Beauty and the Beast. I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The anticipated publication is December 2017.

Could not make head or tails of what was going on in this book. Maybe only millennials need apply.

I was super excited when I saw this was a Sci-fi retelling of Beauty and the Beast, I was sold, I absolutely love Beauty and the Beast. I love how this story was unique but still true to the original story.

Alainns father, Connor is commissioned to build a robot for mr Garbhan (the robot looking exactly like Alainn).
However falling behind with his work and unable to produce the functioning AI by the deadline and fearing being put in to prison for fraud, his current unfinished robot hatched a plan to use the real Alainn in the place of the finished robot to be swapped at a later date.
Alainn fearing she will be trapped in the tower forever reluctantly went along with the plan.
Not usually being a massive fan of sci-fi or love stories I did manage to read the book in a day. It was really easy to read and although the story was loosely based around Beauty and the Beast (so I knew the general story line) it did manage to keep me hooked from beginning to end.
Generally I think the book started of weak and grew stronger and stronger as the storyline grew. I do thing the robot aspect of the plot over complicated things and I did find myself wondering what on earth was going on in places.
As far as love stories go I found it pleasant, Alainn wasn't the usual loved up wuss you find in most romance stories, she was independent and strong willed. However Alainn's useless father and Mr Garbhan were irritatingly pathetic and I wanted nothing more than them to 'man up' and fix the situation.
Overall I would give the book a strong 3 STARS, the more I read the better he book got. The ending was the perfect was to finish off the book, after all who doesn't like a happy ending. And I would definitely recommend to a friend.

Ensnared is a creative retelling of Beauty and the Beast set in the near future. In this world, lifelike robots with artificial intelligence are available to those rich enough to purchase them.

The "beast" in this tale is quite unusual in that he is portrayed as being incredibly vulnerable, suffering from agoraphobia and mysophobia. Raised by abusive parents, he is afraid of the world and completely isolated - taught from a young age to believe the scar on his face makes him repulsive.

Meanwhile, the "beauty" is a foul-mouthed, determined and resourceful young woman masquerading as a robot!

This was a strange and complicated romance, quite out of the ordinary. The hero and the heroine are in such a peculiar predicament - it's fascinating to watch love bloom between two people when one of them is pretending not to be human and the other believes they are developing feelings for someone who isn't "real".

As bizarre as the concept is, I found it a compelling love story. I looked forward to reading more from this author.