⭐️: 4/5
🌶️: 🚪 Closed Door
Format: 📱

This was so enjoyable for me! This is a gender-swapped Beauty and the Beast retelling, with a twist. This review WILL HAVE SPOILERS which I've hidden below.

I thought the twist was so original. While I was able to guess at the twist a little bit once I got to the second or third character involved in it, that didn't take away from how much I liked it. <spoiler>I just thought the use of the FMC's own emotions as her curse and her jailers was both inventive and a really introspective choice. It makes you think about how your own emotions play a role in your actions and choices</spoiler>.

It's also been a long time since I just had a purely enjoyable reading experience like this. The book went by quickly, and the prose was uncomplicated, but there were funny moments, and the book dealt with the harder topics by bookending with lightheartedness, so it never felt too slow or heavy. But somehow that didn't take away from the impact of those topics. This was just a fun read from start to finish.

I loved this Beauty and the beast retelling. I loved seeing the typical roles swapped and having Belle be the Beast. I really liked so many aspects of this story that I don't want to go into detail about because it would be spoilers. I loved how this was fairytale with a mixture of dark aspects. I loved the characters and the setting. It was just a really cool book.

I enjoyed this a lot, which I expected since the author's previous retelling, Stepsister, was one of my favorite reads a few years ago. This gender-swapped retelling of Beauty and the Beast that challenges social gender norms was written engagingly and the characters felt very vivid. I will say that it got really long-winded in the middle, making it hard to push through, but the twist in the end made it worth it.

This gender-bent beauty and the beast retelling made for a fun and introspective read with an original twist on a well-loved classic.

BEASTLY BEAUTY by Jennifer Donnelly

I loved this witty and imaginative retelling of the old tale. A beauty, a beast, a thief, the reason for the curse . . . all surprising. The metaphors and lessons are wise and worldly, and Hope, Faith, and Love will accompany you. <3

Beastly Beauty has a unique take on the classic Beauty and the Beast story with a dark twist. The writing is vivid, and the atmosphere is well-crafted. However, the plot feels slow at times, and the characters, while intriguing, could have been more developed. The darker themes are compelling but sometimes overshadow the emotional depth. It’s a decent read, but it didn’t fully deliver on its potential.

This book was good, not quite as good as I'd expected but I still enjoyed it. I've enjoyed other books by this author as well.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

No amount of words will ever be able to describe the joy and excitement I felt when I received this ARC. Growing up, the only Disney Princess Movie that I wanted to watch on repeat was Beauty & The Beast. Even in my adult years, that movie still holds a special place in my heart. At least, three times a month, I have to make room in my schedule to watch both the animated version and live-action version. Sometimes, I find myself watching both versions right after the other. Some might read this and think that I have a problem but I honestly don’t care. We are all allowed to have a movie that we just cannot quit and Beauty & The Beast is that movie for me.

Trying to compose this review right now is extremely difficult for three reason: (a) I just finished reading this beautiful novel and the urge to spoil the entire thing is on high alert; (b) my heart is overflowing with so much emotion on how amazing this novel was written as well as how the important themes were covered with gentleness and grace; and (c) I am currently in a review slump so my thoughts are kind of limited and all over the place

But… I can say this:

Beastly Beauty is a very unique retelling of the original Beauty & The Beast. What makes this story so unique is the gender-swap element that Jennifer Donnelly decided to create. Instead of a story being told from a Female Main Character (FMC) perspective, this story is told majority through the eyes of a Male Main Character (MMC), Beauregard Armando Fernandez de Navarre. Additional chapters are included that focus on the FMC Arabella (no last name mentioned) as well as and the background stories of all the side characters (i.e., the chef, footmen, lady maids, the baker, etc). Because I typically avoid retellings at all cost and though I was excited to request and receive this one, I am unsure as to how many different retellings of Beauty & The Beast currently exist. What I can say for certain though is that: NO ONE HAS DONE ONE QUITE LIKE THIS!!!

The way I am making room on my personal bookshelf for this beautifully written novel is not even funny. I mean, SERIOUSLY!!! Jennifer Donnelly created her own version of a fairytale that shines light on how the world, no matter the year of time, will make a woman feel so small just for wanting things outside of the norm. She shines light on how, at just the right time and place, someone will come along and show you why the world is the problem and not you. Jennifer Donnelly has written a story that reminds me of not only why I love reading so much but also why it is very important to both fall in love with myself and stay true to myself. There are a number of people in this world who are going to say: “No”; “You do not deserve this or that”; or “You aren’t good enough.” Your goal: BE STRONGER THAN THEIR OPINIONS BUT ALSO BE STRONGER THAN YOUR OWN INNER VOICES!!! Create the life you want and do it without any regrets!!!

Thank you NetGalley and Scholastics Press for granting an Advance Reader’s Copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and personal opinion!!!

Unfortunately I found this to be quite boring and I had to force myself to finish it. I honestly should have just DNF and gone on to something I actually wanted to read. I had heard good things about Jennifer Donnelly's fairtale retellings so I thought I would give this a go, but it just completely missed the mark for me.

I would rate this book a 3 for YA. As I am trying to expand my usual reading tastes, I keep seeing that YA is not my cup of tea. I did like the plot of the book, however for me it’s not what I prefer. For those who like YA, this might be a fan favorite.

This book was a struggle for me at times. I think it just didnt resonate with me through no fault of the author. I think I just wasn’t the right audience for this book.

I did like the idea of the Beauty and the Beast retelling. I think the author did it well with the reversal of roles.

I did finish the book because I wanted to see how the story wrapped up. I think for the right audience this would be a great book.

I absolutely adore dark fantasy versions of fairy tale ! Previously overlooked characters from our favorite classic novels are thrown under a new vantage point and I am loving It.

Ok there was so many quotes and other things from other fairy tales
Tangled
Moulin rouge
Obviously beauty and the beast

A beautifully crafted, wholly unique gender bent Beauty and the Beast awaits you within these pages.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, i.e. loved, every Jennifer Donnelly fairytale retelling I’ve read and this was no exception. A hero and a heroine from thoroughly different backgrounds and with distinct personalities and motivations, a curse that presents itself in a devastating and original way, easter eggs galore for fans of the Disney movie and original story both – this book has it all.

I will say the synopsis led me slightly astray; it dwells first and foremost on Arabella’s situation as this story’s “beast” – but the story begins and is told mainly from Beau’s perspective. It took a bit of time to shake my expectations away and lose myself in the tale. But once I did? Dang.

A couple small logic/worldbuilding things snagged my attention as I was reading, but they were never major enough to distract from the story or detract from the emotional weight of it all. And boy, was it emotional. I FELT for Beau and Arabella, rooted for them to get what they wanted and realize their worth. The reason behind the curse is absolutely heartbreaking and the solution most definitely surprising.

I couldn’t recommend more, especially for those who have a million fairytale retellings like I have and are craving something new. Beastly Beauty does that and more.

Oh what fun! This gender-swapping retelling of Beauty and the Beast was filled with action, romantic tension, and lots of snarky humor. Beau's character is a nice combination of brash and sweet while Bella's situation is full of mystery and sadness. Although I'm quite familiar with the traditional story, Jennifer Donnelly kept me on my toes trying to speculate just where the ride was taking me.

This book was a really great retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It was similar enough that you were familiar with where the story would go, but unique enough to really stand alone as a great story.
The themes of this book were very well written, Found Family and Mental Health played large roles. While the romance was PG, the overall tone was much darker, bringing the maturity of the story up to the same level of its readers.
There was a large cast of characters but they were very diverse and easy to keep track of. It felt a little less fairytale because it referred to actual geographical locations and cities.

A gender swapped beauty and the beast retelling that adds several surprises to a familiar tale.

Beastly Beauty sends thief Beau into the castle of Arabella, a cursed woman who turns into a beast at midnight. What made her beastly, why it was her desire to be more then a quiet meet woman. The story starts off a little rough with its pacing. All the handmaids were too similar that it made some sequences chaotic. Also the two fall in love in an awkward "almost enemies to lovers" way.

It does however start to get more interesting as we get more backstory and as the plot starts to speed up. By the end I enjoyed the revelations about the handmaids, and the clock maker and I liked the role the main characters play in the epilogue.

Overall, this was a pretty solid story. It had some good character development as well as some great reimagining's to the story.

I like a good fairy tale retelling, and while Beauty and the Beast is one that has been done to death, this one was still enjoyable with some new interesting concepts to keep the story fresh.

In Beastly Beauty, the beauty is Beau (ha) who is a thief who gets stuck in the castle when his criminal crew abandons him to die after they are attacked by a beast in the night. He’s led an extremely hard life that has made him resourceful, self-serving, and cynical, but he cultivates a jokey, flirtatious persona that keeps his real emotions suppressed. The beast is Arabella, the daughter of a duke, who has been trapped by a mysterious curse is her castle for nearly a hundred years and has given up on trying to break it, becoming cold and aloof to suppress HER real emotions.

Their relationship is very sweet, definitely one of the highlights of the book for me, but the pacing of it starts off jerkily. They meet one time briefly, and then it’s not until around 20% through the book that they really talk again? And then it takes another long while for them to start actually spending time together. With how quickly their attraction kicks off from there and how much plot there is to get through, I would’ve liked them to be in each other’s company more early on.

This curse seemed to have a lot of moving parts, maybe too many. The twist about Arabella literally turning into the beast at night actually surprised me, even though it’s pretty obvious when you consider, you know, the whole premise of the book. But I was so distracted by the clock, the beast, the servants, the court ladies, Lady Espidra, the little kids, the unnecessary fairy tale interludes, etc, etc that it didn’t even cross my mind.

I also wasn’t sold on the basis for the curse in the first place, it was really giving “she’s not like other girls, she reads books!” energy. Arabella flips between being aware of her place in her world, to acting like she doesn’t understand social expectations within the space of a page. Her curse ultimately being self-created implies a strange reality in which she is the first girl ever in the world to be so oppressed by her life circumstances that it warps reality. I get that we’re operating under fairy tale logic but…Arabella is treated like the only woman who has ever been been unhappy about being forced into undesirable circumstances. You don’t get it, she wants to learn and travel and change the world! Not like other girls who love being married off to strangers or, for that matter, working as servants for the daughters of dukes.

There are plenty of positives though, the cast of servants are all wonderful, I think Beau is a fun sort of sneaky, resourceful, down-to-earth male lead that we are sadly seeing less and less of with the rise of romantasy hunks, and the emotional arcs of the characters are overall well-earned.

This is easily the most creative Beauty & the Beast adaptation I've ever read!

I was hooked from the very beginning. The elements you expect to see in a Beauty & the Beast story were all there but they were reimagined in inventive and impactful ways. Beau's first encounter with the castle and the Beast was more thrilling and harrowing than others. The sense of magic, of not-rightness, was woven through the story in ebbs and flows that pulled me further in.

That said, the magic system or curse or whatever you want to call it wasn't explained very well. We get a bit of an explanation at the end but it felt haphazard and forced. In addition to that, there were a lot of things that felt anachronistic. The setting isn't described in immense detail but I still felt that the castle was situated on the French side of the border with Spain. It felt like it fell post-Black Death but pre-Renaissance in time. But words like "cancer" and the variety of names used stuck out in an odd way.

Arabella and Beau have incredible character arcs. There were moments that felt too easy but others were hard-won. It was a pleasure to see.

I enjoyed the social commentary at play here! It was done in an entertaining, gradual way that was easily understood. It felt like a continuation of the conversation started by the original tale, added to and updated for a modern audience.

I'd happily recommend this book!

<i>Many thanks to NetGalley, Scholastic, and the author for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.</i>