Quick review for a quick read. This was another galley I picked up, and I fully knew what I was getting into when it was billed as a Beauty and the Beast retelling. "Beauty in the Beast" is that folded into a steampunk tale and blend of stories within a story. Tara alongside her puppeteer/storytelling companions are stranded one night on the way to London's Frost Fair. A stranger takes them in and provides them food and a place to stay with a request in return: stories. Thus begins each of the members of the group telling various stories to entertain the stranger: one story is of a mechanical knight fighting a dragon, another of a child who grows to age between the fae realm and the real world with tragedy striking in some fair measures, and another of a lord who doesn't know the meaning of the phrase "Be careful what you wish for" when he replaces his staff with automatons.

But perhaps the most curious is that of the stranger's tale - one of a man whose obsession with alchemy turned him from man to monster, with only brief snippets of relief. You realize quickly that this tale might have more truth behind it than meets the eye, and it leaves a question as to whom the stranger (Rolph) really is and Tara's growing affection for him possibly placing her in danger. I loved this paranormal tale for what it showed. It has a nice touch of wrapping things up in the end charmingly to bring the stories within together. Overall, this was a nice read for the evening and I'm sad that I was not able to pick it up sooner.

Overall score: 4/5 stars.

Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher Carina Press.