I think I'm probably just a sucker for happy endings (is that a spoiler? Spoiler alert then I guess. Or is this too late?) I was mildly satisfied because while it all tied together nicely in the end, both Alainn and Lorchann could have used some extra work. Sometimes I just wanted to punch the both of them, I'd rather not want to do that.

*3 1/2 stars*

Before I begin my review and thoughts, I have to mention this is my very first ARC after a friend on here told me about netgalley and was pretty fun. And it was a record read for me since I can be a slow reader but I definitely cruised through this one haha.

Okay onto my review: this is a retelling of my all time favorite story Beauty and the Beast but in a futuristic world. If I were to also describe this story, it would be basically "iRobot meets Beauty and the Beast" from what I was picking up later on.

"Automatons populated every street corner, darted around every open cafe, and disembarked from their long glass pod bussed while others took their place."

So in other words Alainn was basically a female version of Will Smith without the side of the law part and just an ordinary girl.

This is a story of a young girl I pictured m around her 20s, who basically switches places with a robot her father has created for this man who lives in a tower and who no one has seen his face and so she has to act like a robot. It did get a little weird that Lorccan Garbahn did end up falling in love with a "robot" or what he thought was a robot but after awhile can I just say, I want to marry Lorccan Garbahn! And I was even totally fangirling which I loved!

It started out too slow for me and I'm gonna be brutally honest here, but I was SO CLOSE like REALLY CLOSE to giving this 2 stars after 4-5 chapters. But once the two became friends around chapter 15-20, (Alainn and Lorccan) it kept moving up to 3 stars and to 3 1/2 the more I read but honestly not quite 4. But I did fangirl as it went on. After their love grew and she was forced to leave (like Belle in a way but Alainn was under different circumstances than belle) it got kinda slow again and dropped back to 3 stars. Then at some point as it went on even felt like it was dragging too much up until she and Lorccan were reunited THEN it got back up to 3 1/2 stars and the end was okay for me.

One thing I WISH it had was at least an epilogue. I thought the author should've gone a few extra pages in an epilogue to tie some things up but I guess it still ended pretty good. Just wish there was a "follow up" part of the story with some characters. So I'm gonna come up with my own ending and thoughts for some of the characters haha (which I won't say since it's coming out in December haha).

BUT here's some thoughts I had while reading this/the chapters as the story went on:

*NOTES FROM MY READING*

•okay so as I went on, it started to slowly move up to 2 1/2 stars and starting from chapter 10, it starts to pick up a little more and moved to 3 stars after chapter 15 as there's an early plot twist.

•I even listened to the Me Before You score soundtrack haha and kinda "helped" but I still kept pushing. (And in a good weird way it kinda fit the two couple haha)

•okay, after chapters 19-20 and by the end of 20, I'm now wanting to fangirl. This book may show future potential for me after all. It just started out too weird for me and slow and boring but the more I read the more it did pick up.


So I say it you're going to read this, give this at least 14-15 chapters. It gets better and starts to REALLY pick up but give it time I promise it'll really pick up once that friendship between Alainnand Loccran begins and you'll be fangirling like crazy!

But overall, it was good and I did enjoy it but not enough for 4 stars for me which is why I'm giving it 3 1/2 stars. But I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who likes any or all of these different themes to it (adult, retellings, sci-fi, Beauty and the Beast, and/or futuristic stories in general). So put this on your to read lists because it really is worth reading.


*I'm posting the review as well that I put up on my goodreads*

I loved this entertaining retelling of the Beauty and the Beast fairytale, it kept me captivated, had great characters and was an innovative take on a classic tale. I loved the authors use of AI's in this story, keeping up the intrigue and suspense as to their intentions well. I also liked her different uses of "rose" throughout the story, forming links back to the original tale. Your heart breaks for Lorccan and the life his past has forced onto him and you can not help but like Alainn; she is tough, compassionate but also somewhat damaged. Their slowly developing romance was warm and captivating, drawing you along with them and making you want them to find their HEA. I really enjoyed this story, it had mystery, intrigue, romance and some great twists. I received this ARC from NetGalley at no cost and under no obligation to review.

Ensnared by Rita Stradling - A Romance, Sci-Fi story.

Alainn Murphy is 24 and the daughter of an absent minded inventor. Lorccan Garbhan is hideously scared and trapped in his home. "Sound familiar?"

This seemed to be a futuristic, adult version of Beauty and the Beast. I hate to call Lorccan a beast! He is definitely NOT! A scarred man that has no immune system. To think that in the future scars wouldn't have been fixed with skin grafts, nanobites or microbites or whatever, but hey the debate can go on and what do I know, for the sake of the story this is needed., so will forgive Rita for writing it that way. For the purpose of the story poor Lorccan had to have a reason to remain in the dark side of the light. I just found the whole idea of this story so out of the ordinary and engaging. I was hooked!. I could see this so turning into a horror, but glad it didn't!

I loved the gentle slow romance building between Alainn and Lor. I like seeing the lengths Lor goes to, to get back what he had with his Jade. Watching Alainn trying so hard to get back and doing what she thought Lor wanted but then really fighting for him was so great to read. I was surprise and very happy with the ending. I absolutely loved this book and would like to read more or Rita Stradling which I will definitely be look for.

I'm very surprised by this book. Even though sci-fi is not a gnere I read much, I love retellings so I dived into this book.
It's quite true to the original story but adding twists and turns. It's very fast pace and addicting.
The romance is not insta-love, which I appreciated. You can see how the relationship between the two main characters develops, and how the become friends and then lovers.
For a debut novel I think it was really good and had lots of potencial.

A unique and innovative new take on the traditional Beauty and the Beast fairy tale that invites questioning and analysis of the future of automation and AI.

Rose 76GF, a robot with AI built in Alainn Murphy's image, was commissioned by Lorccan Garbhan from Connor Murphy, Alainn's father and an inventor riddled with money problems. When her father is threatened with jail time for failing to produce Rose as scheduled, Alainn concedes to Rose 76GF's plan to take her place in Mr. Garbhan's uncontaminated, sealed building home. But what really is Lorccan looking for? And what are Rose 76GF's intentions? And what has Alainn gotten herself into?

A quick and fantastical read, Ensnared does a good job of painting a strange futuristic world filled with all powerful AI-enhanced robots, adorable monkey automatons, and the flawed humans at the center of it all. The plot is fast-paced and interesting (it does contain mature elements). Perhaps my only problem with the plot was that one storyline (the Cara Miller and the abduction plot) felt a little forced at the end with not enough foundation, but the overall story was well-laid out.

I would recommend this for all lovers of fairy tales who enjoy a sci-fi twist and beautifully flawed hero-heroine pair.

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for a fair review!

I'm sorry but I personally didn’t like the book at all, the attitudes of the characters really put me off. I just couldn't get past that to get into the story because of that I couldn't finish it and I won't post anything about it to my blog or any of my social media accounts. I probably would have been able to get into the story more if the brother wouldn't have been so mean to his dad and sister.

This seemed to be a modern day, adult version of Beauty and the Beast. I found the premise interesting in that apparently robots are a fully integrated part of the human race even taking jobs such as gas attendants, police and others that were once the sole property of humans. A perfect set up when you have a man, who has been told by his parents he has a life threatening auto-immune disorder, cannot interact with the outside world for fear of catching even a benign virus that could kill him. Therefore he needs an AI robot to teach him how to interact with humanity as he’s been cut off from them his entire life.

The only thing I didn’t like was it would’ve been nice for there to be some kind of explanation as to how human society became so interdependent and integrated with robots. Maybe I’ve just seen the Terminator movies one too many times but we’re constantly being told the threat AI can impose upon the human race, a threat which is addressed in this book, so I’m curious what precipitating event occurred to make the population decide the threat of AI taking over human society was less than a repeat of the event that started the integration.

I found the ideas unique. The full character development took the entire length of the book so at times I felt frustrated not understanding why the characters were acting the way they did, what motivated them, but I kept with it because her writing style flows very well and makes it an easy to read book. I was glad I did because by the conclusion Rita Stradling had full developed her characters so I understood why they each acted the way they did, who they really were and what kind of people they are. Even her AI was given enough personality and identity so you could end up hating a ‘robot’.

Her dialogue was very conversationalist in that it flowed naturally and felt realistic.

Her sex scenes at first creeped me out because it’s described as a human having sex with a robot and now all kinds of weird boundaries and ethical/moral dilemmas are being crossed. However, the way she wrote them was so steamy my husband woke up a very happy person this morning …. :-)

I wish there had been more description about what their society looked like and how it functioned but she did a very good job giving you an idea of what the main setting, the tower, looked like and how it would be to live there. The only detail about the tower that I didn't understand was she stated at one point the food was 'printed' which with our current understanding and use of technology printing something does not make it edible so I'm vastly curious how their society managed to create 'printed' food, how is it different from normal food, how are humans capable of digesting it, etc.

Overall I felt it was well written and it definitely gives you a lot to think about when it comes to the direction society is moving towards. We may be far off from having AI and robots take over but everyday there are more companies using technology to replace humans in even the most basic of jobs. It just takes baby steps…..

So much fun to read! A quick, steamy (yep, mature content), perfect blend (for me anyway) of a retelling of a fairy tale (Beauty & the Beast), science fiction (near future filled with automatons), and romance.

Alainn’s father is a genius with a gambling problem. To save him from prison, Alainn switches places with her robot lookalike Rose to become a companion for a rich, scarred recluse. Their relationship blossoms (in a weird way since he think’s Alainn’s a robot, but I’m not complaining), but then enter a murderous robot, and action ensues.

While the storyline isn’t completely solid, Ensnared was a highly entertaining book, and I’d be more than happy to read more of the author’s works.

2.5/3 stars.
The premise of this sounded right up my alley: fairytale retelling set in a dystopian world. I loved The Lunar Chronicles and I suppose I was expecting something similar in standalone form.

Sadly, this didn't really live up to what I would have liked. There's a lack of world-building that had me questioning a lot of decisions the characters make - Lorccan believing that the outside world is too dangerous too go out into because of the possibility of becoming sick, for example. Has a terrible virus taken down a lot of the human race, or something? There's no real background for this explained at any point.

In addition, the use of robots and AIs ("automatons") is commonplace, yet there seems to be nothing they <i>can't</i> do, which I found a little odd. The robots had personalities and some had the ability to overwrite their ethics codes, giving some of them apparently limitless power with no morals. And no "OFF" button...

As for the romantic aspect: I would like to have seen more about the aftermath of the big 'reveal' between Alainn and Lorccan. There were a few too many loose ends by the close of the book for me to feel really satisfied afterwards.