Middling retelling of Beauty & the Beast for a large part of it, but kicked up a gear at the thrilling end

Thanks to Netgalley and Pikko’s House for giving me this book to review.

Ensnared is a sci-fi retelling of Beauty and the Beast which was interesting but it is predictable and an unlikely story, which I felt needed more world building. Both of the main characters had major mental health issues because of their past and I wish these were addressed in some way and I felt that their relationship was not healthy or good for each other as they enablers for the other and were dependant solely on each other.

Alainn is a likeable character who is loyal, protective and stubborn, and Lorccan is a very mysterious genius. The secondary characters were not as fleshed out as Lorccan and Alainn which meant I did not care much about them.

While I enjoyed Ensnared, it did not grab me as much as I had hoped, and I would recommend it to fans of The Mad Scientist’s Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clark.

For such a heavy romance, I really enjoyed this. One of my favorite things in this book are the monkey robots! They are so cute!! It was interesting watching Alainn try to act like an automatron/robot. And she isn't very good but apparently good enough to fool the naive germ-a-phobe Lorcccan. The house is way too smart (and nosy) for anyone's good! I would never want an AI to run my house after this. Especially one that has any free will! I have mixed thoughts to Alainn's whole life-risking bits they tossed in. And the couple random chapters with her brother or boss seemed unnecessary.

I devoured it in two sittings. And if a few things are cleaned up and made clearer, this book could potentially get 5 stars from me.

Ensnared by Rita Stradling was not what I was expecting. It’s the Beauty and the Beast story, retold with AI robots. It’s actually very touching and believable (scarily) with a twist I didn’t see coming. I really wanted to see how it ended and I read it very quickly.

This story for me was predictable and often slow to progress. I love that the author was taking an old story and making it current. I only wish that there had been more progression that occurring early in the story.

This was a DNF for me. I couldn't get into this book at all. The description seemed really interesting, but the style just didn't pull me in.

I've probably read more Beauty and the Beast retellings than I'd like to admit (this is at least the fourth or fifth in recent memory)--but I do like the idea of taking a familiar concept and reworking the details so that despite the basic premise, it feels new and enriching.

Ensnared was provided to me as an ARC via NetGalley, but I also purchased an ebook copy for 99 cents, so my opinions are not affected one way or the other.

Overall, this book strikes me as a rather unconventional, but enjoyable retelling. The magic of the fairytale is swapped out instead for robotics and AI and our characters are given more complex backstories and a lot of the basic details are switched around in a good way. The villain of the tale is also given a much different motivation than I've ever seen, which was refreshing, and we're given more to ponder than just "can you love someone despite their ugliness and flaws?" I give it high marks for its prose, creativity, and original outlook. I very much enjoyed Ensnared.

But, unfortunately, there are a few things I would quarrel with.

This mostly has to do with the author not elaborating/explaining/wrapping up parts of the plot. The blurb, for example, serves to tell us a decent bit of the backstory when in reality a book should be fully comprehensible without a person reading the blurb; this isn't really the case with Ensnared. If I hadn't read it prior to starting, I wouldn't have quite guessed that Alainn's father had accepted money to create an AI robot for Lorccan and that Alainn had a deep mistrust of Rose because these elements are vaguely and barely touched on.

Another issue is the big reveal of Alainn and Lorccan's past experiences--this is a bit poorly worked into the story because only a few small details feed into why they're important and the issues caused as a result are far too easily overcome or they're just kind of not addressed like they ought to be, which is sad because working these in better would have had a deeper emotional pull, make the characters more complex, and overall made the book feel more polished. As it stands, their backstories just kind of seem hazardously thrown in while the focus goes to seeing Alainn and Lorccan together and also focus on the robotics/AI part with Rose.

SPOILERS:
[ So the big reveal for Alainn is that her dad's gambling caused her and her friend to be kidnapped when she was 17 because he owed someone money. Alainn is alluded to have been raped and Cara ends up dead when the car the girls were in is sent over a cliff. The details that allude to Alainn having trauma because of this are essentially that she doesn't like elevators due to nearly dying in a car, she hasn't had relationships because she was assaulted, she dislikes robots because one helped kidnapped her and her friend, and she has felt depressed because she misses Cara and feels lik she played a role in her death. But really, outside of a few small mentions, these things don't really impact the story. She rides elevators begrudgingly, she has very little resistance to being okay with having sex with Lorccan, she doesn't really struggle with depression. We're mostly just told by Rose and Rosebud and Colby that Alainn was ever suicidal/sad.

As for Lorccan, we get told that he's in this tower because he had crazy and highly abusive parents who were convinced he'd die if he left or was exposed to any germs so he's disfigured by his mom to quell to leave, yet then we're told that Lorccan doesn't actually have any poor health problems like he's been led to believe... yet the story just kind of goes "eh, Lorccan will stay in his tower with Alainn and they make do." Like... if you're gonna say that the whole time he was trapped and unhappy in this tower... isn't the point for him to learn to not fear germs and to slowly start making his way to leaving the tower and interacting with people? Like, he has very little growth except that instead of being 1000% antisocial he's just very fixated on Alainn and having her in his tower with him all the time.]
END SPOILERS

So, I will say that I feel this could have been an even better book and that I do take away some stars due to these shocking details about abuse/trauma not having the kind of importance and attention that they ought to have had, since the author decided to include them as major pieces to the character's backstories.

Still, not a bad read! I liked it a lot.

A beauty and the beast retelling is my all time favourite and this book did not disappoint. I liked the futuristic element as well as the love theme throughout.

The concept of an AI has always fascinated me so seeing a book with this running throughout piqued me interest. The characters and story is well written and I am glad that I picked this book to read.

In this futuristic sci-fi retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Alainn Murphy is a young adult daughter tying to keep her genius/scientist father out of prison. He needs more time to finish his very human AI robot that Billionaire/recluse, Lorccan purchased from him. In doing so, Alainn secretly takes the place of the robot in order to give her father more time and keep him from going to jail. Strangely enough, Lorccan doesn't realize that Alainn is not human because the only humans he'd ever been around were his parents. They are both dead and he is alone in his super-techy building/tower because of his fear of germs. He is deathly afraid of 'contamination' and has never left his tower because of this. His face is also scarred and is uncomfortable in anyone seeing his face. You find out why later in the story.

Alainn plays the part of AI robot well enough, and as she spends more time with Lor, feelings start to develop. It was a little quick for me considering she only spent a few weeks with him. Plus, the screaming sounds she hears at night through the vents should have freaked her out more. Just saying. Plus, she sleeps with him knowing he thinks she's a robot. And he thinks she is a robot during this time too! Also, she's not held prisoner by Lor, but by the AI computer that controls his techy-tower. There were also robot monkeys that came out of nowhere. Robot. Monkeys. I'm just going to leave it at that.

There are a lot of details as to what is going on inside and outside the tower. Let's just say it's all very strange yet pertinent to the climax and ending of the story. Definitely a unique and creative twist to the classic tale.

I originally though this was YA, but Alainn is already a working adult and so it's classified as New Adult in Goodreads. Since there are mature scenes in this book, I would only recommend for 18 and up.

*Received a DRC for an honest review.

Enjoyed this retelling though it wasn’t my favorite in that genre

I tried several times to get into this book but it was ultimately a DNF for me. I am truly sorry because I had higher hopes for its potential.

Ensnared was an enjoyable read. I had fun making my way through this novel, and I felt compelled to always keep reading, but I found that after reading it, I was already beginning to forget the story and the characters. It just didn't stick with me enough to be a favorite.

The world building was very well done, and I think was the best part of the novel; however, the plot and characters felt weak, and superficial. They were not fleshed out and the plot seemed to contain so many holes where there could have been more development.

I think this book would be great for younger readers, but as an adult who reads YA, this was just okay. Enjoyable, but didn't stick with me.

An interesting sci-fi take on Beauty and the Beast. I liked this retelling, but I felt something was missing.

I really enjoyed this book! WHAT A TWIST. This is definitely going to my favourite list.

*I received a free copy of this ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

So when I got this book, I didn't see the Mature Content warning on it. Fortunately, it was in isolated passages that were easy to skip over. But still. Had I known, I would never have requested the book in the first place.

The story itself was okay. It's a Beauty & the Beast-type story, but set in what I assume is the future with AI robots doing most of the work that people do now. (So what do people do, then? Particularly those who aren't inventors or millionaires?) We've got out Beast character, Lorccan, who's never left his tower because he believes his immune system is too weak to survive in the outside world. And his face is disfigured. Then Alainn is the Belle character, taking a robot's place in Lorccan's tower in an attempt to prevent her father from going to prison. (We never find out what her father did to get in trouble with the law, by the way.) And somehow it's supposed to be believable that Lorccan could, in all seriousness, fall in love with a robot. No matter how realistic she is (I mean, she's actually Alainn), he believes she's a robot.

Yes, there are other elements of the story. Like the kidnapping during which Alainn lost her best friend when she was a teenager. And the real reason Rose convinced Alainn to take her place.

Overall, I feel like it was okay. If the sex had been left out, it would have been better. But omitting something distasteful doesn't automatically make a book great.


Note: Swearing, including f words. Graphic sex that can be skipped, but the book isn't worth the trouble.

Happy Friday! Today I’ve got a fairy tale retelling for you – Rita Stradling’s Ensnared. It’s a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, set in the “near-future,” where androids (humanoid robots, not the operating system!) are just starting to become a real thing. If you’ve seen the television show Humans, that’s kinda what I was picturing. Slightly less creepy than Westworld.

I’ve only read a handful of fairy tale retellings, and most of those have been from Marissa Meyer, so I’ll be the first to admit I’m not an expert here. To me, the good ones are the ones where you can recognize the similarities to the original story, but it doesn’t feel like a rehash. I thought Stradling did a fairly decent job with Ensnared. The parallels to Beauty and the Beast were pretty obvious, but also distinct enough to be interesting. I liked the sci-fi aspect with artificial intelligence, and appreciated that it was “dumbed down” enough for someone with very little scientific interest to grasp.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, but I definitely understand why people are criticizing it. With good science fiction (which is what this is, in my mind), you really have to be able to suspend disbelief – which places a LOT of pressure on the author to create a world that’s rich in detail and context. This is where Ensnared falls short. I read most of the book with a hefty dose of skepticism for where the story was going. Truthfully, I picked it apart, saying to myself, “well how is she going to shower/eat/use the bathroom?” or “that’s never going to work” or “yeah right, like that’s reasonable.” What kept me reading was less about knowing what happened than it was knowing whether Stradling was going to give me answers to these pressing questions of mine. (Some she did, some she didn’t.)

Despite that, though, Ensnared was a quick, light read, and if you’re a fan of retellings, definitely give this one a shot.

"Ensnared" is an entertaining and creative retelling of Beauty and the Beast, with robots. I enjoyed Rita Stradling's descriptive writing style and the imaginative ways her characters interacted and developed relationships. This was a truly entertaining read for young adults. Due to some graphic sexual encounters between the main characters, which also verged on creepy since a robot was supposedly involved, I would not recommend for younger readers like my middle school students. However, to more mature readers, "Ensnared" belongs among the other unique retellings of a classic story.

Alainn Murphy's father is hired on to create an AI for the reclusive billionaire Lorccan Garbhan, and he created the Rose model in Alainn's image. There are some flaws with the AI and the design, and her father isn't being given more time to perfect it. In order to ensure that he isn't sent to prison for fraud, Alainn takes the place of the robot. She is isolated in Lorccan's tower, away from living things and windows, as he is scarred and has a poor immune system. At first, she is scared of the situation, but gradually comes to love him.

This is a futuristic retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast story, and I'm always a sucker for rehashing fairy tales.

Alainn is a heroine that is very relatable. She makes mistakes, can be impulsive, and cares a lot about her family. It's why she agreed to the robot's plan to go to Lorccan's tower, but that same ability to care for others means that she starts to care for him as well.

The romance itself is a slow developing one, which is far more believable in this scenario. They're too unsure of each other at first, and it takes months before the relationship turns physical.

There are a lot of twists and turns in the story, keeping me in suspense until the end. There are some aspects of Alainn's history that don't directly add to the plot, and seems to be almost a red herring at times. While Rose treated it as a huge "Ah ha!" moment, it isn't as big a part of her characterization as it's made out to be.

Maybe that's the point of it, though; Rose uses calculations and formulae to predict human behavior and emotions, but falls short. We're not so easy to predict, and even "knowing" someone or their history doesn't guarantee outcomes. People need human contact and companionship, and there is no replacing the human spirit.