I really enjoyed book 1 and 2. I was so excited to read this one.

After starting the book I found there were differences in the writing. Like how the plot was unfolding and I struggled so hard to keep reading it. There was also this weird bold font that would pop up out of no where and it truly didn’t make sense. Leaving me confused and constantly questioning what was going on. I do like this author but this book just didn’t do it for me.

A truly unique retelling of Beauty and the Beast, I enjoyed the gender-bent aspect and the magic system.

I loved the banter between the two leads, and how they both grew as characters together. Was a bit confused by some of the world building- like the exact origin of the curse and such. But overall I enjoyed the originality of this re-telling.

I received an advanced copy of Beastly Beauty from the publisher through Netgalley and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Beauty and the Beast was one of the stories that got me into fairy tales. I can't say that I enjoy every retelling of it, but Beastly Beauty was a fun ride.

I'll admit that this fell on the younger side of young adult stories, but I ended up enjoying that aspect. Whether intentional or not, the simplicity of this story was what kept me reading. I'm a huge fan of world-building, but there was little to none here, and it only worked because that wasn't the focus of the story. Beastly Beauty is, in its simplest form, a story about its characters. Though the plot is there, its characters pull the story along. Would I have liked more depth? Probably. But this story reads like a rollercoaster: there and done in a moment, but oh so fun. It was quick, snappy, and to the point, and after having read some particularly meandering stories, this was the recharge I needed. Not every story needs to be a harsh look at the reality of life, and that reminder is why I think I enjoyed this story so much.

Now, that's not to say that there wasn't some depth. It came out through the characters, particularly their backstories. Did I love Arabella and Beau? No. But they were good, flawed characters, and that's what shone through. The secondary characters were just as flawed, and I appreciated knowing their backstories as well. I feel like it gets forgotten in most Beauty and the Beast retellings, but the people living in the palace with the beast are just as cursed. That didn't happen here. The secondary characters had their motivations and weren't just background characters. They played wonderful roles with exciting personalities that were refreshing to see.

As fun as the story was, a couple of things kept me from loving it. I did not enjoy the romance. It was much too rushed. One second, they don't like each other, and the next, they profess their love that I had no idea had developed. On top of that, the conclusion didn't have nearly the emotional impact that it could have. Lastly, the curse and how it happened were extremely confusing, and there was an aspect of it that made no sense other than adding the "beastly" part everyone looks for in these stories. This story had a very interesting curse that I felt was more than enough, and the addition didn't further anything and felt thrown in because it was expected.

Overall, I really enjoyed Beastly Beauty. This is a great place to start if you're looking for a quick, fun retelling.

cute story, but the writing was too on the nose in terms of the message the author was trying to get across. the magic system was extremely underdeveloped with every aspect feeling very slapdash and poorly explained… very meh overall.

As you might have guessed, Beastly Beauty is a reimagining of Beauty and the Beast, and author Jennifer Donnelly definitely has made the story her own. In this version, the roles are reversed, and the reason for the curse has less to do with selfishness and arrogance and more to do with sexism and societal expectations.

Main characters Beau and Arabella are complex and well-realized. As are secondary characters, who all have motives of their own.

Beastly Beauty is not just a fairy tale retelling. It’s also a mystery and romance. At its heart, it’s a story of relationships and how those relationships can dictate actions that impact those around us.

Donnelly expertly sets the scene, bringing the castle and all its mysterious inhabitants to life. Though the story moves quickly, it feels a little too long in places. That said, it’s an intriguing take on a classic tale.

This book unfortunately failed on pretty much every cylinder. The “beastly” aspect in Arabella’s character was profoundly disjointed, feeling like it was split between a physical and an emotional embodiment. Beau’s character felt flat outside of his care for his brother, and he had an air of arrogance that was excused away by his being a thief but on page just made him unlikeable. The romance between the two characters fell incredibly flat for me, largely because they don’t actually spend that much time together, so the novel oscillates between no chemistry and insta-love, which is bad on both ends of the spectrum. Lastly, I am all for a bit of trickery and linguistic fun, but the anagrams of words for the “characters” that were embodiments of Arabella’s emotions made me actually black out, I was so profoundly irritated by it. It felt juvenile, which in itself isn’t the worst thing in the world, but for a YA novel, it pulled the energy of the book far towards middle grade, and I just kept wondering “could Donnelly really not do better than this???” This is to say nothing of the fact that the logistics of the ending made no sense to me at all, so I found myself largely disappointed by what was supposed to be a gender-bent Beauty and the Beast, but in actuality only seemed to retain like 15% of the bones of the story. There was a lot of potential here, but unfortunately, it just fell short for me. 2⭐

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

So listen, I loved the idea of this story. A gender swapped beauty and the beast with Alice in Wonderland Flare. ✨️ The plot was pretty steady, and the placing worked out okay. There were a few instances in which I found myself trying to figure out the POV, so I found the authors interior formatting to be not my favorite with the chapters in chapters. But my biggest problem here was that I liked the side characters more than I liked the main characters. I'm still pretty new to fantasy, so I won't comment on some of my confusion as that's probably my bad.

But I will add to the formatting, the "FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY" brokenly stamped on lines really bothered my adhd brain
It took me FOREVER to get through the epilogue for that reason. I used to work for several authors and understand the importance of it. But why not randomly place the line "for review purposes only" in one line on random pages....?

Thank you to Scholastic Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. Yes, this is a gender flipped Beauty and the Beast and yes, it does end up having the main character save themselves. Get past the use of tropes and enjoy this. Arabella was well-defined and it took me a bit to really understand the court surrounding her and their purpose but it was well done. I was very happy with the ending and I did enjoy reading this and how it redefined the story. This is another great example for showing women that they should not give in to expectations and be as bold as they can be. Do not hold yourself back as you are so much more than those who try to bring you down. I give this 4 stars.

Beastly Beauty is a twist on the classic where the beast is now a woman.
There are a lot of differences between this one and the classic tale. Ariabella is the beast, but her story is very sad and honestly, I don't feel like she should have been cursed in the first place. She wasn't a bad person, but she was just very outspoken in a time that was looked down on,
The story overall was slow moving until about sixty percent in, I didn't hate the story line, but I didn't love it either. Beau was pretty annoying to me. And I think he overreacted once he saw what happened to Aribella and how she was cursed. I did like some of the new twists that happen to curse. This wasn't really about a person being cruel which was a nice breath of fresh air. Overall, it was a pretty good book.

I was really excited to read this one after loving Donnelly's Stepsister, but I was disappointed.

The story was fine. It hits the points of Beauty and the Beast (but gender-swapped), and as Donnelly writes in her author's note, it explores the idea of what happens when young women especially ignore and suppress all their negative emotions in favor of doing what they're "supposed to" as well as showing two characters falling in love who are broken and need to help one another.

But overall, I was kind of bored, and I think it's because there's a lot more telling than showing. I didn't feel particularly connected to the characters (especially Isabella), their realization that they were in love felt unearned, and the epiphany about loving yourself and your emotions felt really moralistic (verging on didactic), in part by the author's choice to make Isabella's courtiers representations of her emotions.

I also didn't like the awkward use of profanity, which felt almost anachronistic in what was supposed to be fairy tale France.

Students who love fairy tale retellings might enjoy this, but I don't think it's going to grab the interest of most students.

I received an ARC copy of #BeastlyBeauty via #NetGalley

I really tired to get into this book, but the pacing, characters, and overall storyline was terrible. I was only able to make it though the first couple of chapters.

10 out of 10 highly recommend. This is a non-traditional retelling of Beauty and the Beast that I lived for. It was amazing. Bell or Beau is a thief instead of a righteous person and on top of that is male. I love the aspect that everything is so different and not at the same time. I would recommend this book to a friend.

Beastly Beauty by Jennifer Donnelly

Genre: Fantasy; Romantasy; Fractured Fairytale; Gender-swapped retelling of Beauty and the Beast
Romance level: Closed-door level 2
New Release: May 7

What I loved:
Symbolism
The Redemption
The magic
Suspense
The dance
Kisses
Romance between Arabella and Beau

Ok, this book was not at all what I was expecting. I wasn’t expecting the mystery, suspense, and symbolism aspects. But surprisingly enjoyed this book so much the more because of them. So many life lessons about overcoming greed, redemption from the past, and finding Faith, Hope, and Love again after left so long to dark, selfish emotions. Beau and Arabella’s story is beautiful and both of their character arcs were well written. At first, the beginning was highly confusing and there were parts that didn’t make too much sense. But in the end, everything came together for a beautiful story with so many great life lessons about embracing both beautiful and ugly emotions and learning to forgive and love oneself despite past mistakes and character flaws. I really liked it. I felt some of the messages were ones I needed to hear personally.
Be warned, it is a bit dark and see my content warnings below.

I just reviewed Beastly Beauty by Jennifer Donnelly.

I received a free copy of the ebook from Scholastic on Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.
All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Content Warning: Discussion of mistress with implied s*x (no detail), but kisses only, drinking, crude behavior: use of “the finger”
Swearing: multiple uses of h***, b*stard, d***, a**, sh*t, few uses of Lord’s name in vain, homos*xual side romance with non descriptive kiss, suggestive content, discussion of past self-harm, stabbing
Trigger Warning: difficult past, cruel parents, self-harm, physical abuse, beating, death

4/5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers, and Jennifer Donnelly for allowing me to read and review this book.

This is a young adult gender-swapped Beauty and the Beast retelling.

Arabella has a hard time containing her feelings and her passions, causing her to be cursed after a tragedy. She is now trapped in her castle with her servants.

Beau is a thief that makes his way into the castle with his crew, only for them to leave him behind as a sacrifice when a beast attacks them and chases them from the castle.

The servants are thrilled for this new visitor, hoping he will be the one to break the curse and set them all free. However, the ladies-in-waiting are not too pleased to see him and are adamant about making him leave.

As a Beauty and the Beast fan, I was hesitant about the gender-swapped retelling, however this book is so well written and intriguing. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and all of the characters. The mysteries and twists are interesting and fun to figure out along with our main character.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys retellings, gender-swapped retellings, curses, and Beauty and the Beast.

I thoroughly enjoyed this gender bent twist to the classic Beauty & the Beast. Certainly a unique retelling. Jennifer Donnelly has a special way to captivate her audience with the tales she spins.

The plot of this story was promising, I love the idea of a reverse beauty and the beast, but the story was moving too slow for me unfortunately

I was sent a digital copy by Netgalley to read and review. I do feel it's more of a 3.5 stars than 4 stars. It was hard to get into at first, but a little over halfway in I found myself more involved in the story and wanting to know what would happen next and how it would end. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a new take on fairy tales.

I wanted to love this book so much. When I saw the ARC I really wanted it and was so happy to receive one. Then I started this book, and it was ok for the first quarter or so because I thought it was setting things up. But then things didn't actually improve and I had a really hard time reading this book for more than a few chapters at a time because I was either bored or annoyed because things didn't make sense.

What I liked:
*It was a gender-swapped retelling of Beauty and the Beast
*It wasn't just about outer beauty but inner beauty and being yourself
*There were fun side characters with personalities that I enjoyed and rooted for
*Arabella had interests and dreams
*Beau wasn't perfect

Things I didn't like:
*The way the curse worked/how complicated it was and how out of place and extra the "beast" portion was.
*The way the magic didn't make sense
*How the relationship between Arabella and Beau went from nothing to love in the space of one evening. There was no build up. They had a conversation or two, laughed a little and then he was in love with her. I'm not sure what she loved about him because it never said. I don't dislike insta love when it's done right, but there was no emotion involved.
*How it was unevenly paced. Slow, then flashbacks, then the whole thing wrapped up in warp speed.
*textbook example of "tell don't show." Everything was spelled out; mostly by the narrator instead of the characters.

Overall, there were some good points and it had an amazing idea with the retelling part, but the execution just didn't work for me.

I was very excited to read this new book by Jennifer Donnelly and it sounded like it would be something I would love and devour. It was just not exactly what I was hoping for. Cool concept but just wasn't exactly what I hoped for. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

A gender swapped Beauty and the Beast? YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU. Not to mention that I loved Stepsister so I went in very excited. And even though I didn't end up absolutely loving this, I still thought it was a good read. The first half definitely grabbed me with it's gothic feel but by the second half I wasn't as intrigued. I preferred the side characters to the main characters to be quite frank. But because I do like the author's way of writing and I did like the plot this wasn't a complete wash.