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>

Another wonderful YA book by Jennifer Donnelly! A new spin on the story of beauty and the beast that provides action and a mystery along with a good dose of hope. Highly recommend for the middle/high school aged group.

Sorry for the late review, I was dealing with some health issues and now am trying to catch up!
I really enjoyed this tale and thought the main character was likeable and well written! I thought this gender swapping take on Beauty and the Beast was a unique and interesting take on the original. It was well paced and kept my attention from the first page! I look forward to reading workbooks from this author!

okay honesty time i tried so so hard to get through but i just cant i love the gender switch tho i will definitely try to read it again when i am out of the hospital

I am a huge fan of Jennifer Donnellys twisted tales dark fairy tales retellings. This one is no different. If you are looking for a new twist on beauty and the beast that stays true to a lot of the original elements this one would be good for you. So many of the secondary characters are very well developed.

Somewhere in the mountains lies a secret, are you brave enough to unlock the secrets before the darkness consumes you?
A game of cards, a deal, and one choice that will change the story.

A thief enters a castle and discovers a world that is deceptive and full of trickery. Will they make it out before time runs out?

If you enjoy fairy tale re-tellings this might be a good read.

Once I saw that “Beastly Beauty” was a gender-swapped retelling of Beauty and the Beast, I couldn’t get my hands on this book fast enough! I absolutely loved Jennifer Donnelly’s Waterfire saga, so I had high hopes for this book, and it certainly didn’t disappoint!

The main character Beau is incredibly likable. The handsome thief’s upbeat nature, humor, suave, and street smarts made me like him even more as the story progressed. He reminded me of Flynn Rider from Tangled in all the best ways. Throw in the fact that he dearly loved his younger brother and I was hook, line, and sinker for this guy.

Arabella was really, really difficult to like until much later in the story. Also, her ladies-in-waiting were downright creepy with really wacko names (I understand that the author was trying to be clever, but it may have been better to just call them by their common names). They made my skin crawl every time they appeared in the story, and they were extremely controlling of Arabella. When Arabella was finally able to be herself, I found her charming and interestingly mysterious.

My one complaint about this story was how quickly the characters fell in love. Maybe too much of the build-up was glossed over so it made it feel rushed. They seemed to tolerate one another at best, then the love reveal happens and they’re suddenly head over heels for one another.

Overall, this book was a wonderful retelling of the Tale as Old as Time with a gender-swap. I highly recommend it to teens and young adults who like twisted fairy tales.

Jennifer Donnelly has become an aut0-buy author for me. I own and love Stepsister and now I see there's an additional one in this line of fairytale retellings. This was great and I recommend to anyone who is a disney fan and loves a good retelling.

Thank you to Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is an interesting reverse swap take on the Beauty and the Beast fairytale. It turns Arabella into a beast and Beau as the thief who must help save her from the curse. While the classic curse is slightly different, it creates a curse that leans more on values that should be upheld in today's society.

This book is a very unique retelling of a reversed Beauty and the Beast. The world building was a little confusing at first as was the curse but things did reveal themselves a little at a time and you eventually get a good grasp on what happened. Overall a good read.